<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Prerogative of what Jung calls visionary art, the aesthetics of German Expressionist cinema is “primarily expressive of the collective unconscious,” and – unlike the psychological art, whose goal is “to express the collective consciousness of a society” – they have succeeded not only to “<italic>compensate</italic> their culture for its biases” by bringing “to the consciousness what is <italic>ignored</italic> or repressed,” but also to “<italic>predic</italic>t something of the future direction of a culture” (Rowland 2008, italics in the original, 189–90). After a theoretical introduction, the article develops this idea through the example of three visionary works: Arthur Robison’s <italic>Warning Shadows (Schatten,</italic> 1923), Fritz Lang’s <italic>The Weary Death</italic> aka <italic>Destiny (Der müde Tod</italic>, 1921), and Paul Leni’s <italic>Waxworks (Wachsfigurenkabinett</italic>, 1924).</p></abstract>

Prerogative of what Jung calls visionary art, the aesthetics of German Expressionist cinema is “primarily expressive of the collective unconscious,” and – unlike the psychological art, whose goal is “to express the collective consciousness of a society” – they have succeeded not only to “compensate their culture for its biases” by bringing “to the consciousness what is ignored or repressed,” but also to “predict something of the future direction of a culture” (Rowland 2008, italics in the original, 189–90). After a theoretical introduction, the article develops this idea through the example of three visionary works: Arthur Robison’s Warning Shadows (Schatten, 1923), Fritz Lang’s The Weary Death aka Destiny (Der müde Tod, 1921), and Paul Leni’s Waxworks (Wachsfigurenkabinett, 1924).

German Cinematic Expressionism in Light of Jungian and Post-Jungian Approaches

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"German Cinematic Expressionism in Light of Jungian and Post-Jungian Approaches"}

Prerogative of what Jung calls visionary art, the aesthetics of German Expressionist cinema is “primarily expressive of the collective unconscious,” and –...

German Cinematic Expressionism in Light of Jungian and Post-Jungian Approaches

Online veröffentlicht: 17. Aug. 2019

Seitenbereich: 35 - 58

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2019-0003

Schlüsselwörter
Symbolism, Expressionism, semiotic vs. symbolic approach, psychological vs. visionary art, shadow, animus/anima, Faust-Mephistopheles dyad

© 2019 Christina Stojanova, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

German Cinematic Expressionism in Light of Jungian and Post-Jungian Approaches

Online veröffentlicht: 17. Aug. 2019

Seitenbereich: 35 - 58

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2019-0003

SchlüsselwörterSymbolism, Expressionism, semiotic vs. symbolic approach, psychological vs. visionary art, shadow, animus/anima, Faust-Mephistopheles dyad

© 2019 Christina Stojanova, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Schlüsselwörter
Symbolism, Expressionism, semiotic vs. symbolic approach, psychological vs. visionary art, shadow, animus/anima, Faust-Mephistopheles dyad