John J. White

Other Ivory Towers and Literary Counterfactuals

Abstract This paper focuses on the ivory tower topos in Hermann Hesses Das Glasperlenspiel, Hermann Brochs Der Tod des Vergil, and Elias Canettis Die Blendung. It examines ways in which surrogate ivory towers and counterfactuals occur in fiction set in the past, the present, and the future. The secularization and trivialization of the ivory tower posited in recent research are shown to be less significant than its accommodation to the political and cultural concerns of the twentieth century. By moving beyond earlier religious and didactic models, we show that the ivory tower concept has been constructively re-formulated to relate to modern dilemmas.

The Songs and Poems of Brecht’s Furcht und Elend Complex

This analysis focuses on four key “epic” features of Brecht’s most important anti-fascist play: the poems written in connection with certain scenes of Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches; the framing devices used in, or considered for, early productions; the replacement frame devised for The Private Life of the Master Race; and the song in the “Moorsoldaten” scene in The Private Life of the Master Race. Differences between preparatory poems and companion scenes are shown to involve changes in emphasis or Gestus of a genetic or potential rehearsal value. A comparison of “Die deutsche Heerschau” with the commenting devices used in The Private Life of the Master Race demonstrates that the former has advantages over the framing poetry used in the American adaptation. In conclusion, a consideration of the “Moorsoldaten” scene concentrates on the political significance of the embedded song “Die Moorsoldaten”, arguing that it makes a greater contribution to the play’s theme of resistance than has hitherto been recognized.

Marlene’s Pistol and Brady’s Rule: Elements of Mystification and Indeterminacy in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Film Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant

This article attempts to explore unrealistic features of Rainer Werners Fassbinder’s most mannered and formalist film from a fresh perspective. Whereas Fassbinder scholarship has hitherto tended to see the work as an early example of the author’s imposition of Brechtian ’anti-illusionistic’ distancing devices upon melodramatic material, it is argued here that many of the elements of stylisation and formalism in this particular film are not being deployed for Brechtian reasons. A number of key elements of mystification and indeterminacy are explored to suggest that the film is more enigmatic than many interpreters have suggested; and these elements, which were rarely present in the original stage version of Die bitteren Tranen der Petra von Kantare shown to create a series of unresolved enigmas and general mood of eeriness. Particular attention is paid to the visual importance of dolls, tailor’s dummies and Marlene’s pistol, as well as the body-language in certain sequences. The central relationship between Petra von Kant and Marlene is re-examined within this framework.