Willkommen!Bienvenu(e)!Welcome!

“Goodbye toBerlin”

Christopher Isherwood’s

Julio PárragaJulián SánchezJulián Merchán

Christopher Isherwood

Berlin in the 1930’s

I Am a camera

Theoretical issues

Conclusions

Bibliography

Resources

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD1904 - 1986

•Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High

Lane, Cheshire in North West

England.

•Attended preparatory school St.

Edmund's, and met W. H. Auden.

•At Repton School he met Edward

Upward, with whom he wrote the

extravagant "Mortmere" stories.

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD1904 - 1986

• In 1925 he was reintroduced to

W. H. Auden and became

Auden's literary mentor.

•He worked as a private tutor in

Berlin

•Isherwood and Auden decided to

emigrate to the United States in

January 1939.

•Their emigration few months

before Britain entered the Second

World War, exposed them to

charges that they lacked

patriotism.

•He joined to the Vedanta Society.

•At the age of 48, he met teen-aged

Don Bachardy.

Berlin in the 1930’s

Tomorrow belongs to meThe sun on the meadow is summery warm

The stag in the forest runs free

But gathered together to greet the storm

Tomorrow belongs to me.

The branch on the linden is leafy and green

The Rhine gives its gold to the sea

But somewhere a glory awaits unseen

Tomorrow belongs to me

The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes

The blossom embraces the bee

But soon says the whisper, arise, arise

Tomorrow belongs to me

Now Fatherland, Fatherland, show us the sign

Your children have waited to see

The morning will come

When the world is mine

Tomorrow belongs to me

THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

Established in 1919 in Germany to replace

the imperial form of government.

YEARS OF CRISIS 1919 - 1923

• The German peace delegation in France signed

the Treaty of Versailles.

•First years of the Weimar Republic were

years of political crisis, economic

crisis, financial crisis; until 1923.

GOLDEN ERA 1923 - 1929

• The immediate effect was to stabilize the

unlimited demand for properties of the period of

inflation.

• Reborn international confidence and

international loans to Germany began to

flock, attracted by high interest rates.

THIRD REICH(NAZI GERMANY)

Germany’s President Paul von

Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as

Chancellor of Germany, honoring

Hitler's request.

An Enabling Act passed in parliament

gave Hitler unrestricted legislative

power.

•Hitler established a centralized

totalitarian state.

•In 1935, Germany reacquired control of

the Saar and in 1936 military control of

the Rhineland, both of which had been lost

by the Treaty of Versailles.

•After Hitler’s suicide, german troops gave up in all

Europe, finishing the nazi Germany .

Entartete KunstEntartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) is a term adopted by the Nazi

regime in Germany to describe modern art.

Such art was banned because it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist

in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to

sanctions. These included being dismissed from teaching positions,

being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being

forbidden to produce art entirely.

The Nazis promoted paintings and sculptures that were narrowly

traditional in manner and that exalted the "blood and soil" values of

racial purity, militarism, and obedience. Similarly, music was

expected to be tonal and free of any jazz influences. Films and plays

were also censored.

“Willkommen” from the Cabaretmotion picture

I am a cameraGoodbye to Berlin is, from the point

of view of sociological theories of

novel, a portrait of the Berlin of the

1930´s which is established through

its images and characters.

From my window, the deep solemn massive street. Cellar-shops where the lamps burn all day, under the shadow of top-heavy balconied façades, dirty plaster frontages embossed with scrollwork and heraldic devices. The whole district is like this: street leading into street of houses like shabby monumental safes crammed with the tarnished valuables and second-hand furniture of a bankrupt middle class. I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.

Hypothesis

Alan Cumming reading the first part of "Goodbye to Berlin" from Christopher Isherwood's actual bedroom at that time. Taken from the BBC documentary "The real Cabaret“.

Theoretical issuesLukács’ sense of aesthetics defines a text (either literary or not) as

realist when it represents society or a social event as a whole

coherent system from characters and typical action.

There was a little domestic argument, because Herr Bernstein didn't want his wife to go shopping in the car that afternoon. During the last few days, there has been a lot of Nazi rioting in the city."You can go in the tram," said Herr Bernstein. "I will not have them throwing

stones at my beautiful car.”"And suppose they throw stones at me?" asked Frau Bernstein good-

humouredly."Ach, what does that matter? If they throw stones at you, I will buy you a

sticking-plaster for your head. It will cost me only five groschen. But if they throw stones at my car, it will cost me perhaps five hundred marks.

Theoretical issues

The fundamental idea of novels derives from Hegel’s theory of

history according to which, in modern society, the union between

conscience and world (subject – object) has disappeared due to the

alienation of the individual;.

As soon as I'd got dressed, I went down into the street. Sure enough, there was a crowd outside the branch bank on the Nollendorfplatz corner, (…) Most of the people were staring intently and rather stupidly at the locked door. In the middle of the door was fixed a small notice, beautifully printed in Gothic type, like a page from a classic author. The notice said that the Reichspresident had guaranteed the deposits. Everything was quite all right. Only the bank wasn't going to open.

Theoretical issuesLucien Goldmann developed his ideas about novels using as a

basis Lukács’ theory and Marx’s critic of politic economy.

According to the last one, the essential feature of capitalist society

is the fact of being ruled by the exchange-value. The exchange-

value has the use-value (or authentic-value) as its semantic

opposite. There’s a three-party relationship established between

man, world and value.

Lukács’ heroes emerge from a degraded cultural reality whose

crisis of values is produced by the contradictions between

Liberalism and Clericalism, Capitalism and

Socialism, Christianity and Atheism, and so forth.

“Money” from the cabaret motion picture

Theoretical issues

According to Goldmann, in real life and in the novel as well, the

authentic values are implicit, since they’re not easily perceptible.

The last day or two, I've been sort of feeling what it would be like to be a mother. Do you know, last night, I sat here for a long time by myself and held this cushion in my arms and imagined it was my baby? And I felt a most marvelous sort of shut-off feeling from all the rest of the world. I imagined how it'd grow up and how I'd work for it, and how, after I'd put it to bed at nights, I'd go out and make love to filthy old men to get money to pay for its food and clothes...

Theoretical issues

Social criticism of novels, as conceived by Duchet, is sociology of

the literary text which highlights the importance of its origin and

social value. It unveils all sort of social discourses that conforms

the novel: sociograms, ideologems, images and ideologies in order

to recognize the society in which it was born.

Social aspects are not reflected in the piece but reproduced,

therefore, the gold rule of social criticism is that the researcher

mustn’t add or subtract anything to the text.

Conclusions

Christopher Isherwood’s writing style permits an inside look at the

social context through the situations and dialogues described in

Goodbye to Berlin.

Although there are many passages in the book that are related to

real events that are not very well stated by the author, the social

critical approaches to literature allow the reader to make an

inductive construction of the social context parting from

representative situations.

Objectivity of the writer is partially achieved within the “I am a

camera” logic though he is the narrator and a character as well.

Bibliography

DUCHET, Claude (1971). Pour une sociocritique ou variations sur un IncipitEN: Litterature.. París: Larousse.

FOSSE, Bob (1977). Cabaret. ABC PicturesGOLDMANN, Lucien (1964). Para una sociología de la novela. Madrid:

Ayuso.GUZMÁN, José Manuel (2008). Panorama de las teorías sociológicas de la

novela IN Cultura y representaciones sociales Year:3, Number:5.ISHERWOOD, Christopher (1977). Goodbye to Berlin. Washington: Hunter

PublishingLUKÁCS, Gyorgy (1920). La teoría de la novela. Buenos Aires: Siglo XX.