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Weimar Film and Modern Jewish IdentityAssimilating the Shrew: Alraune and the Discussion of Biological Difference in Weimar Horror Film

Weimar Film and Modern Jewish Identity: Assimilating the Shrew: Alraune and the Discussion of... [Hanns Heinz Ewers’s 1911 novel Alraune. Eine Geschichte lebenden Wesens (Alraune: A Story of a Living Creature) is considered one of the fundamental inspirations of modern horror literature and of the horror-film genre.1 The creation of an impulsive femme fatale by an ambitious scientist seems to integrate two defining tropes of modern imagination: Mary Shelley’s monstrous Frankenstein and Frank Wedekind’s promiscuous Lulu. Written in Italy prior to World War I and located in a tranquil turn-of-the-century German town, Alraune appears to have been particularly attractive to Weimar Jewish filmmakers, who produced three different cinematic adaptations of the novel (Eugen Illés, 1918; Henrik Galeen, 1927; and Richard Oswald, 1930).2 Jewish interest in filming Alraune is especially intriguing in view of the story’s alleged emphasis on conservative fear of social change and its racist (and even anti-Semitic) overtones.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Weimar Film and Modern Jewish IdentityAssimilating the Shrew: Alraune and the Discussion of Biological Difference in Weimar Horror Film

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References (13)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2012
ISBN
978-1-349-34419-2
Pages
77 –110
DOI
10.1057/9781137010841_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Hanns Heinz Ewers’s 1911 novel Alraune. Eine Geschichte lebenden Wesens (Alraune: A Story of a Living Creature) is considered one of the fundamental inspirations of modern horror literature and of the horror-film genre.1 The creation of an impulsive femme fatale by an ambitious scientist seems to integrate two defining tropes of modern imagination: Mary Shelley’s monstrous Frankenstein and Frank Wedekind’s promiscuous Lulu. Written in Italy prior to World War I and located in a tranquil turn-of-the-century German town, Alraune appears to have been particularly attractive to Weimar Jewish filmmakers, who produced three different cinematic adaptations of the novel (Eugen Illés, 1918; Henrik Galeen, 1927; and Richard Oswald, 1930).2 Jewish interest in filming Alraune is especially intriguing in view of the story’s alleged emphasis on conservative fear of social change and its racist (and even anti-Semitic) overtones.]

Published: Nov 6, 2015

Keywords: Jewish Identity; Private Sphere; Monogamous Relationship; Female Protagonist; True Love

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