Language:
English
Year of publication:
2017
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Contemporary History
Angaben zur Quelle:
52,2 (2017) 211-228
Keywords:
Pabst, Georg Wilhelm
;
Reed, Carol,
;
Prozess (Motion picture : 1948)
;
Third man (Motion picture)
;
Jews Public opinion
;
Antisemitism History 1945-
;
Motion pictures
;
Jews in motion pictures
;
Blood accusation Fiction
Abstract:
Examines the "invisible" antisemitism in postwar Vienna by juxtaposing two films made in the city at roughly the same time. "Der Prozess" (1948), directed by G.W. Pabst, is the the only Austrian postwar film to explicitly address the dangers of antisemtism. It is a fictionalized account of a real blood libel accusation in a 19th-century village. Argues that although the film features innocent rural Jews and diabolical antisemites, it castigates antisemitism for humanistic ends and implicitly perpetuates Jewish distinctiveness, thereby offering evidence that Jewish difference continued to mark Viennese culture. "The Third Man" (1949), a British film directed by Alexander Korda and set in post-1945 Vienna, features an urban tale about the black market and poisoned children. Although the film does not play into stereotypical depictions of black marketeers as Jews, closer examination shows that both the film and the novella it is based on deploy codes that evoke negative Jewish stereotypes. Argues that examining a film like "Der Prozess", which explicitly thematizes antisemitism, helps clarify why a film that lacks such conspicuous engagement still relies on the terms of Jewish difference in order to narrate its story. A comparison of their contents suggests that the simultaneous repression and evocation of Jewish difference that characterized the creation of culture in Vienna before the Holocaust continued to flourish in the immediate postwar years.
DOI:
10.1177/0022009417696452
URL:
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