What did German Literature ever do for Cinema? (Re)framing Goethe from Méliès to Sokurov (The 2024 Germanic Friends Lecture)
The 2024 Germanic Friends Lecture
Speaker: Christiane Schönfeld (University of Limerick)
This talk will focus on the significant role of German-language literature in the history of cinema, beginning with adaptations of Goethe’s Faust little over a year after the first public film screenings in Berlin and Paris in November and December of 1895, long before ‘narrative cinema’ supposedly entered the fray. In a whistle-stop tour through cultural history, Schönfeld unpacks the function of German literature on film with a focus on Goethe’s play, which many consider the foremost example of the German-language literary canon.
Christiane Schönfeld is Chair of German Studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, and author of The History of German Literature on Film (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Image: Gösta Ekman as old Faust in F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1926). Photographer unknown; from the movie stills collection of the author’s grandfather.
This lecture will be given live at the University of London Senate House and streamed via Zoom. The lecture will be followed by a reception.
All are welcome to attend, but advance online registration is essential.
Speaker: Christiane Schönfeld (University of Limerick)
This talk will focus on the significant role of German-language literature in the history of cinema, beginning with adaptations of Goethe’s Faust little over a year after the first public film screenings in Berlin and Paris in November and December of 1895, long before ‘narrative cinema’ supposedly entered the fray. In a whistle-stop tour through cultural history, Schönfeld unpacks the function of German literature on film with a focus on Goethe’s play, which many consider the foremost example of the German-language literary canon.
Christiane Schönfeld is Chair of German Studies at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, and author of The History of German Literature on Film (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Image: Gösta Ekman as old Faust in F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1926). Photographer unknown; from the movie stills collection of the author’s grandfather.
This lecture will be given live at the University of London Senate House and streamed via Zoom. The lecture will be followed by a reception.
All are welcome to attend, but advance online registration is essential.
This page was last updated on 3 July 2024
