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“Goodbye toBerlin”

Christopher Isherwood’s

Julio PárragaJulián Sánchez

[Julián Merchán]

Christopher Isherwood

Berlin in the 1930’s

I Am a camera

Theoretical issues

Conclusions

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.

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.

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.

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 Incipit EN: 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

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