Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria

5 Literary Discourse and Cinematic Narrative: Scripting Affect in Das Leben der Anderen

5 Literary Discourse and Cinematic Narrative: Scripting Affect in Das Leben der Anderen Roger Cook Abstract This chapter examines how Das Leben der Anderen juxtaposes the statepropagated literature in the East to the free literary production of the West. I argue that in keeping with its bias in favour of a Bildungsliteratur cut from a Western mould, von Donnersmarck’s film subordinates cinema as a visual medium imbued with presence to the textual semiotic of literary narrative. I then analyze how this embrace of literary discourse situates the filmic text with respect to the circulation and modulation of affect in the free-market “society of control” in contemporary Germany. M eticulously composed and constructed by the first-time director/ screenwriter Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006) has won uniform praise and the 2007Oscarforbestforeignlanguagefilm.MostcriticshavefocusedonwhatA.O. Scott called in his New York Times review, “Mr. von Donnersmarck’s brilliant exposition of the Orwellian logic of East German Communism.” The film achieves this in part with a storyline that recalls Bertolt Brecht’s classic play Der gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Woman of Setzuan, 1943). Von Donnersmarck turns the tables on Brecht’s critique of capitalism, focusing the attention on a “good person” who is caught in the bind of trying to advance the worthy goals of socialism within a corrupt communist system. His protagonist is a Stasi agent devoted to the cause of rooting out the enemies of socialism. As he begins to question his commitment to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the film poses a question similar to that at the heart of Brecht’s play: How can a good person negotiate a social order that makes it impossible to consistently do 79 the right thing? The film makes this connection to Brecht and his play explicit in several ways. Not only do the theatre and its role in the cultural politics of the GDR play prominently in the story, but also the film’s other protagonist is a famous playwright who, like Brecht, supports the GDR despite an underlying ambivalence.1 And the key musical piece and literary work in the film have a title, Die Sonate vom guten Menschen (Sonata for a Good Man), that alludes unmistakably to Brecht’s play. Das Leben der Anderen not only reverses the thrust of Brecht’s play, it also eliminates almost all ambiguity in its black-and-white depiction of the moral juxtaposition between East and West. While its portrayal of the totalitarian machinations of the East German state is indeed precise and powerful, I want to examine the film with another question in mind. What does it say about the forms of social control that exert pressures on the individual in the free-market democracies of the West? Keeping the film’s direct allusions to Brecht in mind, my analysis focuses first on the stark distinction it makes between the state-propagated literature in the East and the free literary production of the West. Then I look at the use of voice-over to give filmic presence to these two opposing approaches to literary practice. Turning to the question of the film’s place in the cultural landscape of the Federal Republic, I examine how Das Leben der Anderen subordinates cinema as a visual medium imbued with presence to the textual semiotic of literary narrative. And finally, I ask how this embrace of literary discourse situates the filmic text as a cultural agent in the circulation and modulation of affect in the free-market “society of control” in contemporary Germany. Love, Literature, and Coming to Terms with the Present Das Leben der Anderen tells the story of the Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler, who has been assigned the task of spying on the successful playwright Georg Dreyman. The latter has always been loyal to the communist cause, but begins to question his stance after learning that his lover and the lead actress in his new play, Christa-Maria Sieland, has been coerced into having an affair with a member of the Communist Central Committee, Bruno Hempf. This, together with the suicide of his friend Albert Jerska, who had been banned from working as a theatre director for ten years, drives Dreyman to anonymously author a magazine article critical of the GDR. Wiesler, while monitoring Dreyman and his circle of friends, begins to gain new perspectives from the lives of others, and he begins to have moral reservations about his career as a Stasi...