Feuchtwanger and film

More about the book

This volume presents selected proceedings from the conference organized by the International Feuchtwanger Society titled ‘Feuchtwanger and Film’, held in September 2007 at the University of Southern California and Villa Aurora. The focus is on the relationship between literature and film, particularly concerning Lion Feuchtwanger's works. The book begins with three chapters analyzing Feuchtwanger’s novel Goya and the significant film adaptation by East German director Konrad Wolf for DEFA. The second section sheds new light on another of Feuchtwanger's novels, Jud Süß, and the infamous Nazi film of the same name. Attention then shifts to adaptations of Feuchtwanger's works by East German television, notably Die Brüder Lautensack, and explores his considerable reputation in Russia through Grigori Roshal’s film Sem’ia Oppengeim (1939), based on the novel Die Geschwister Oppenheim (1933). A later section examines the ‘filmic’ qualities present in much of Feuchtwanger’s oeuvre. The discussion expands to include three other émigré authors and their collaborations with DEFA (Arnold Zweig) and Hollywood (Franz Werfel and Anna Seghers). The volume concludes with a report on the ‘Feuchtwanger Relaunched’ project, an online initiative aimed at generating media interest in Feuchtwanger’s life and work.