Филологический класс (Feb 2019)
WRITER BETWEEN POLITICS, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. L. FEUCHTWANGER’S NOVEL “SUCCESS” AND THE CONCEPTION OF ARTIST IN THE “NEUE SACHLICHKEIT”
Abstract
The article considers the novel by L. Feuchtwanger “Success” as a novel about the position and tasks of the artist within the context of social modernization in the period of Weimar Republic. This interpretation is designed to rethink the traditional interpretation of the novel, which is considered to be, first of all, a socially critical and anti-fascist work. The problem of art as a means of influencing the recipient, its role in the fight against injustice, as well as the position of the artist in the context of the development of media and entertainment industry in the novel are no less important than social and political issues. The discussion about the position of the artist was conducted in the 1920s intensively, while representatives of the “Neue Sachlichkeit” created the concept of socially active, rational artist, close to the reporter and engineer. In his essays of the 1920s – early 1930s Feuchtwanger expresses ideas similar to the aesthetic programme of the “Neue Sachlichkeit”. The novel „Success“, not fully conforming to the principles of documentalism of “Neue Sachlichkeit”, is close to socially-critical novels of this movement because of its problems and poetics. The novel presents numerous images of the artists most important of which are the artist Landholzer, the writer Jacques Tüverlin and the poet Kaspar Pröckl. Landholzer is a grotesque embodiment of traditional understanding of genius, isolated from the world and creating timeless art. Pröckl shares the most radical ideas of his real prototype, Bertolt Brecht in relation to social responsibility of the artist, that influenced the conception of the artist in the “Neue Sachlichkeit”. The central protagonist of the novel and the author’s alter ego – writer Jacques Tuverlin is between these extremes: he is looking for new ways to influence the audience, but continues to consider art a way of self-expression. The events of the novel are in different ways reflected in works of art created by its heroes – that demonstrates a certain proximity of the novel by Feuchtwanger to the metanovel.
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