Freaks and Masculinity: Sideshow Performers in German and American Cinema
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
FREAKS AND MASCULINITY: SIDESHOW PERFORMERS IN GERMAN AND AMERICAN CINEMA Alexandra McCollum A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS DECEMBER 2013 Committee: Dr. Geoffrey Howes, Co-advisor Dr. Edgar Landgraf, Co-advisor ii ABSTRACT Dr. Geoffrey Howes, Co-advisor Dr. Edgar Landgraf, Co-advisor This project examines the portrayals of male sideshow performers in German and American cinema and literature. Specifically it investigates the manner in which the social expectations of the masculine social role are altered by the perceived physical and mental otherness in the figure of the freak. The main freak performers discussed here are the somnambulist Cesare from Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Hans the dwarf from Freaks, Stan Carlisle from Nightmare Alley, who eventually becomes a geek with a travelling carnival, and Oskar Matzerath, the hunchbacked dwarf who is the protagonist of Die Blechtrommel. The examination of the male freak characters focuses upon three major areas which these works have in common: the portrayal of the freak as an unreliable narrator or signifying the presence of unreliable narration; the problematic interactions between the male freak and female characters, including romantic interests, and various manifestations of the male freak’s denial of responsibility. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisors, Dr. Geoffrey Howes and Dr. Edgar Landgraf, as well as the members of Dr. Landgraf’s Fall 2012 thesis workshop course, for their contributions to and assistance with this work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 The History of the Freak ............................................................................................ 4 The Male Freak as a Locus of Instability................................................................... 8 CHAPTER I. DAS CABINET DES DR. CALIGARI ............................................................. 16 CHAPTER II. FREAKS ........................................................................................................ 33 CHAPTER III. NIGHTMARE ALLEY .................................................................................. 53 CHAPTER IV. DIE BLECHTROMMEL .............................................................................. 85 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 108 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 115 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis will analyze and compare four films (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Freaks, Nightmare Alley, and Die Blechtrommel), along with the literary texts upon which three of the four films are based. Each of these takes place either entirely or partially in a circus or carnival environment, and features central characters who, due to their purported physical, mental, or behavioral anomalies, appear as performers in a sideshow—characters who are, in the language of the amusement industry, “freaks.” In accordance with the precedent set by Adams, Bogdan, and Fiedler, this paper will use the term freak both because it denotes a broader category of persons with anomalies than would be conveyed by more modern, clinical terminology, and because freak refers specifically to persons with such anomalies in the context of performance in some form of sideshow, and the sociocultural position which they occupy. This position is one that defies both the concept of the “normal” body and the assumptions that are made about one’s identity. Conformity with or deviation from both physiological and social norms is a significant factor in a performer’s classification as a freak, and also raises the question of how freakishness affects compliance with gender norms, specifically with the social expectations of masculinity. Certain traits commonly associated with masculinity (discussed in more detail later), such as physical fitness and strength, independence, authoritativeness in social interactions and relationships, and rationality as opposed to emotionality are called into question for male freaks. Whether justifiably so or not, freak characters are often portrayed as having not only physical anomalies or exceptional talents, but also as mentally unstable, untrustworthy or unreliable, infantilized or feminized, or otherwise aberrant from the picture of standard masculinity. The seeming instability of the male freak’s identity, especially in an entertainment setting that thrives on the dissolution of identifying 2 categories, generates further instability within his fictional universe—in particular, the unreliability of the narrative, the breakdown of male/female relationships, and the difficulty of establishing clear accountability. Two of the four works that will be examined here are of German origin, and two are of American origin. Similarly, two were produced in the period between the two World Wars, and two were written and filmed after World War II, thus offering a variety of perspectives on the perception of freaks and the performance of freakishness in conjunction with masculinity in each work’s respective cultural and temporal setting. Each work features a male freak as a protagonist or as a major character, presented in a manner that highlights his failure or refusal to fit into a traditional masculine role. The characters’ alternative performance of masculinity can be seen in three major elements which these four works have in common: the use of unreliable narrators, the portrayal of problematic male/female relationships, and the question of accountability, in terms of both accountability for one’s own actions and responsibility for the wellbeing of others. The first question, though, is just how to define a “freak,” and how does this description fit the seemingly diverse characters of the works under consideration? Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari features a protagonist, Francis, who is revealed to be a patient in a mental institution, as well as Cesare, another prominent character who is exhibited as a clairvoyant somnambulist by his manager-keeper, Dr. Caligari. Freaks has an entire ensemble of characters who are performers in a circus sideshow, including Hans, a dwarf who leaves his equally short-statured fiancée for a conniving trapeze artist. Nightmare Alley chronicles the downfall of Stan Carlisle, who is first introduced while observing a circus geek with contempt and revulsion, only to be reduced to one himself by the end. Finally, Die Blechtrommel is narrated by Oskar, a dwarf who 3 feigns mental retardation, later appears in a wartime theater troupe of performers billing themselves as “Lilliputians,” and eventually is confined to a psychiatric hospital. To determine how the characters described above all fall into the category of “freak,” one must realize that freakishness comprises several categories, and the line between “freaks” and “normals” can be blurry at times. There exists a stark lifestyle difference between, for example, a lawyer, teacher, or construction worker who happens to be a person with restricted growth, and a person with the same condition who performs in a sideshow. In the first case, the anomaly is incidental to his occupation; in the second, it is essential. Sarah Dellmann describes freaks as “Menschen mit außergewöhnlichen psychischen oder physischen Eigenschaften”1 (“persons with extraordinary mental or physical qualities”2). While Dellmann’s definition is a good starting point, it does not go far enough. Robert Bogdan elaborates further, describing freaks as “defined not by the possession of any particular quality but by a set of practices, a way of thinking about and presenting people with major, minor, and fabricated physical, mental, and behavioral differences.”3 The characters who appear in these four films and three literary works fall under the heading of “freak” not because of their inherent anomalies, but because of the way they present themselves (or are presented by others) in a circus, carnival, or theater setting—a distinction that is made evident when they appear outside of such a setting at other points in the narrative. The fact that collections of “freaks” once included not only those with deformities, but also persons with unusually long hair or numerous tattoos “attest[s] to the fact that freakishness is a historically variable quality, derived less from particular physical attributes than the 1 Sarah Dellmann, Widerspenstige Körper: Körper, Kino, Sprache und Subversion in Tod Brownings Freaks und Filmen mit Lon Chaney (Marburg, Germany: Schüren Verlag, 2009), 23. 2 Translations from Dellmann are my own. 3 Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988), 267. 4 spectacle of the extraordinary body swathed in theatrical props, promoted by advertising and performative fanfare.”4 Even outside of the performative milieu, however, the freak cannot always entirely avoid being defined by his exceptional qualities: Oskar in Die Blechtrommel, for example, abandons performance art and attempts for a time to lead an uneventful life as a stonemason after moving from Danzig to Düsseldorf, but is soon convinced to accept employment as an artist’s model due to his short stature and spinal deformity, and later rises