German Studies Association

Eyes, Lies and Illusions: The Art of Deception by Laurent Mannoni; Werner Nekes; MarinaWernerReview by: Giovanna MontenegroGerman Studies Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Oct., 2006), pp. 622-623Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27668132 .

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622 German Studies Review 29/3 (2006)

One suggestion for future historical studies is to make further comparison with

other languages taught in American schools. This would help to clarify where the

popularity of German study is a reflection of outside events and philosophies and

where it has a special problematic among subjects in American schools. The work

includes an extensive bibliography of works cited and a good index and can be rec

ommended for graduate programs in German and for history of education programs

and libraries, as well as to scholars of literary criticism. The self-awareness this

book demonstrates is a sign that the profession retains vitality and hopefully

means

that German-language study can endure in American schools in the new century.

SUSAN LEE PENTLIN, Central Missouri State University

Laurent Mannoni, Werner Nekes, and Marina Werner. Eyes, Lies and Illusions: The

Art of Deception. London: Hayward Gallery, 2004. Pp. 240. Cloth $80.

Eyes, Lies and Illusions is the catalog published for the exhibit of the same name at

London's Hayward Gallery (2004-2005). Its main theme is the art of visual percep tion and it looks at various works (visual puzzles, optical devices: camare obscure,

peepshows) from the Renaissance to the present day. It is drawn from one of the

largest collections of precinematic optical inventions and illusions in the world, that

of German experimental filmmaker and professor Werner Nekes, who cocurated

the exhibit with the cultural historian and literary scholar, Marina Werner. The

catalogue includes two essays, one by Werner and another by the well-known film

scholar Laurent Mannoni, celebrated author of The Great Art of Light and Shadow;

Archaelogy of the Cinema (2000) and the equipment curator for the Cinematheque Fran?aise.The catalogue also includes an illustrated glossary by Werner Nekes, which

demonstrates various optical phenomena and methods such as the Clich? Verre.

One of the most interesting aspects of the catalogue, which makes it different

from other studies on the subject, is the combination of Neke's historical collection

with the works of contemporary artists who continue to use optical phenomena in

their works. Among the artists highlighted are Christian Boltanski, Cartsen H?ller, Ann Veronica Janssens, Anthony McCall, Tony Oursler, Markus Raetz, Alfons

Schilling, and Ludwig Wilding. Their works are shown side by side with text that includes excerpts from recent

scholarship, artist statements, and interviews.

Video artist Tony Oursler includes a statement on his Blue Dilemma, in which he describes his own investigations of the history of the moving image and his in

clusion of the figure of the devil into his piece: "I had to include this controversial

figure who crops up in relation to the advent of all new technological inventions"

(174). The devil is also explored in Werner's essay "Camera Lucida." It is ripe with

examples on the art of perception in literature, with excerpts from Christopher

Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Like Oursler, Werner sees the medieval devil as a

figure correlated to visual deception:

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Reviews 623

"He is the mere ape of God, the master of lies, of imitating and simulating and pretending?but he is impotent when it comes to

transforming substance and

matter. He can only conjure visions as illusions..." (13).

Eyes, Lies and Illusions includes visual aids, such as a cylinder with which to view

anamorphic pictures, which makes the book a very experiential work. The catalogue is not

only a wonderful visual reference to more than 500 years of the art of visual

perception, but also functions as a guide

to those artists who, like the medieval devil,

continue the tradition of visual trickery and illusion, albeit with new technology.

GIOVANNA MONTENEGRO, San Francisco State University

Kerstin St?ssel. In Vertretung. Literarische Mitschriften von B?rokratie zwischen fr?her

Neuzeit und Gegenwart (Studien zur Deutschen Literatur, 171). T?bingen: Max

Niemeyer, 2004. Pp. viii, 395. Paperback 62.

Die Verfasserin der hier anzuzeigenden Studie r?ckt B?rokratie nicht nur als sozial

geschichtliches, sondern besonders als literarisches Ph?nomen in den Vordergrund. Dabei greift Kerstin St?ssel auf Quellen vom Barock bis hin zu Literatur der BRD und der DDR zur?ck.

Es gelingt ihr, mittels des Motivs des alttestamentarischen Josephs (Gen. 37-50) und ?daraus erwachsend" (31), der Stellvertretung als zentraler Struktur,

verschiedene Perspektiven zu skizzieren: der bei Grimmeishausen, Zesen, Goethe

und Th. Mann betrachtete Josephsstoff nimmt die Spitze einer Hierarchie in den Blick. Bei Kafkas B?rokratiekonstellationen hingegen verm?gen laut St?ssel die

gesellschaftlich niedriger Stehenden diese nicht einmal auszumachen.

In der Romanliteratur der Weimarer Republik bildet die soziale Gruppierung der ?Angestellten" als zwischen den beiden Polen ?oben" und ?unten" befindlich

den Fokus der Betrachtung. Hier ?berrascht die Hinzuziehung von Herman Mel villes Bartleby the Scrivener (1856) als ?Vorl?ufertext", und die Frage sei erlaubt, ob Robert Walsers B?roprosa?Der Commis (1904) und Der Geh?lfe (1908)?nicht

ausgereicht h?tten, da so die bis dahin koh?rente Linie deutschsprachiger Quel lenliteratur durchbrochen wird. Der also in der N?he der sozial-spektralen Mitte

angesiedelte Angestellte wird zugleich als Opfer und Vollstrecker der voranschrei tenden Modernisierung gedeutet. Weiter wird auf Aspekte wie u.a.

Stenographie,

Stellvertretung und Ersetzbarkeit sowie Selbstmord eingegangen. F?r die ?gemeinhin [...] unlesbar[e]" (245) Literatur der DDR in den sechziger

Jahren gelten nat?rlich besondere Bedingungen und Vorgaben. Dieses instrumenta

lisierte Propagandagenre wird aus dem Blickwinkel einer Debatte ?ber die Literatur technisch wie politisch versierter ?Planer und Leiter" (245), die wiederum an der

Spitze der sozialistischen gesellschaftlichen Hierarchie stehen, aufgeschl?sselt. Hier sind der Parteiauftrag und die Eliten zentrale Aspekte. Als Karikaturen der

Gattung fungieren die betrachteten Es geht seinen

Gangvon Erich Loest und Heiner

M?llers Der Auftrag.

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