{"id":349,"date":"2014-04-15T18:22:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T18:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsudlr.wordpress.com\/?p=349"},"modified":"2014-04-15T18:22:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T18:22:35","slug":"guest-post-i-walked-with-a-somnambulist-and-marched-with-a-madman-heyms-and-wienes-uncanny-submersions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2014\/04\/15\/guest-post-i-walked-with-a-somnambulist-and-marched-with-a-madman-heyms-and-wienes-uncanny-submersions\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: \u201cI Walked with a Somnambulist and Marched with a Madman\u201d: Heym\u2019s and Wiene\u2019s Uncanny Submersions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following post is by Morgan Blair, an undergraduate from the University of Louisville, and it deals with the concept of the uncanny as it is utilized by writer Georg Heym and director Robert Wiene. The uncanny itself is an important facet to consider when studying the paranormal, particularly ghosts and hauntings. Morgan\u2019s post provides an intriguing look at Freud\u2019s theory and presents an understanding that merits further consideration.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to Freud, effective translation of the Uncanny into literature avoids solely exaggerated circumstances in which \u201cwe adapt our judgment to the imaginative reality imposed on us by the writer, [regarding supernatural elements] as though their existence had the same validity as our own has in material reality\u201d (18). \u00a0Expressionist writer Georg Heym and film director Robert Wiene acknowledge this necessity for a contrast between realism and fantasy in order for effective reader implication into supernatural subject matter. \u00a0Each artist frames a distorted narrative within the context of an objective reality whereby readers might reflect on their submersions into irrationality. \u00a0While one artist appeals to metaphor in order to implicate readers, the other juxtaposes distorted and realistic imagery via a framed narrative. \u00a0The ease with which Heym and Wiene guide readers into and out of the imaginary world evokes an uncanny feeling in readers, who recognize their own susceptibility (alongside the protagonist) to the aesthetic territory of the subconscious.<\/p>\n

The most prominent means by which Heym dictates this subtle transition in \u201cThe Madman\u201d is his manipulation of metaphor. \u00a0Readers immediately are submersed into the realm of the id during the protagonist\u2019s own release from societal constraint, i.e. the mental asylum. \u00a0Reveling in this existential freedom, both protagonist and reader tread joyfully through a field of corn, cracking skulls \u201clike bursting rubber balls\u201d (Heym 48). \u00a0\u201cWhat satisfaction to tread into the thick stems, making them snap and split under his feet [. . .] Oh, it was wonderfully beautiful,\u201d an omniscient narrator describes (Heym 49). \u00a0Aligning themselves with the socially transgressive protagonist, readers simultaneously delve into onomatopoeic language as well as metaphor that reflects the primitive emotionality of the id; however, as the madman \u201csteps out of the corn stalks with straw all over his suit and hair,\u201d readers emerge from the metaphor self-aware of their preceding voyeuristic satisfaction (Heym 49). \u00a0As they reflect on their susceptibility to metaphor, readers transition into a subjective role, now aligning themselves with the observant narrator. Readers now introspect regarding their empathy with a protagonist portrayed as mentally ill, yet this introspection lasts only until another subversive instance of metaphor transposes them into an emotional versus intellectual experience of narrative.<\/p>\n

This alternation between metaphor and reality guides readers throughout \u201cThe Madman,\u201d as do swift transitions in narrator perspective. \u00a0The effect of these transitions is the sustenance of Heym\u2019s primary tension\u2014a tension between intellectual engagement and spontaneous emotional experience. \u00a0\u201cHe felt the rage coming on again. He feared that dark furious state,\u201d describes an omniscient narrator (Heym 53). \u00a0\u201cNow he was himself the animal, crawling on all fours down the street. \u00a0Quick, quick, or she\u2019ll run away\u201d (53). \u00a0In this description of subject, Heym\u2019s narrator (and, hence, readers) shifts immediately from observer to subjective participant in the instinctual actions of the protagonist.<\/p>\n

Just as Heym invokes in readers a necessary awareness of their susceptibility to an aesthetic experience of irrationality, Robert Wiene imposes this experience on audience members by juxtaposing distorted and realistic imagery. Typified by dark, non-geometrical, distorted buildings, the surreal world in which viewers of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/i> find themselves during what they perceive to be the main plot contrasts starkly with the well-lit, orderly asylum that frames this plot. \u00a0Within the framed plot, a somnambulist wanders through a fictional world dazed by rationality and motivated by primitive desire. \u00a0Likewise, viewers navigate plot in accordance with scenery\u2014scenery that alternates between high distortion and conventionality. \u00a0One instance of this distortion occurs at the beginning of the film during a carnival scene. The obvious camera tilt during this scene creates a disorienting, perhaps uncanny, effect that is sustained throughout the framed plot of the film. \u00a0This quality of the film gains significance in the closing scene as viewers are exposed to clear, orderly imagery that indicates an overarching plot rooted in rationality. \u00a0As film viewers realize the contrast between these juxtaposed plots (and imageries), so do they experience an uncanniness derived from their na\u00efve implication into the somnambulism of the protagonist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Freud, Sigmund, (1919). \u201cThe Uncanny.\u201d Blackboard<\/i>. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.<\/p>\n

Wiene, Robert, dir. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/i>. Goldwyn Distributing Company, 1921. Film.<\/p>\n

Heym, Georg. \u201cThe Madman,\u201d from The Thief and Other Stories<\/i>. Ed. Susan Bennett. London: Libris, 1994. 46-64. Print.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Digital Literature Review accepts blog posts from outside contributors. If you are interested in having your work posted on our blog, please email us at dlr@bsu.edu<\/a> with your submission. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following post is by Morgan Blair, an undergraduate from the University of Louisville, and it deals with the concept of the uncanny as it is utilized by writer Georg Heym and director Robert Wiene. The uncanny itself is an important facet to consider when studying the paranormal, particularly ghosts and hauntings. Morgan\u2019s post provides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7,17,86,23,9,87,88,49],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-1","tag-bsudlr","tag-freud","tag-georg-heym","tag-ghostly-film-and-television","tag-ghosts","tag-the-cabinet","tag-the-madman","tag-the-uncanny"],"yoast_head":"\nGuest Post: \u201cI Walked with a Somnambulist and Marched with a Madman\u201d: Heym\u2019s and Wiene\u2019s Uncanny Submersions - The Digital Literature Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/dlr\/2014\/04\/15\/guest-post-i-walked-with-a-somnambulist-and-marched-with-a-madman-heyms-and-wienes-uncanny-submersions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Post: \u201cI Walked with a Somnambulist and Marched with a Madman\u201d: Heym\u2019s and Wiene\u2019s Uncanny Submersions - The Digital Literature Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following post is by Morgan Blair, an undergraduate from the University of Louisville, and it deals with the concept of the uncanny as it is utilized by writer Georg Heym and director Robert Wiene. 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