We started out in this course discussing stereotypes in films—using the short films Schwarzfahrer (Black Rider) and Ausstieg Rechts (Exit right)—and we continued this discussion on Wednesday (Jan. 15) while discussing Murnau’s Nosferatu, particularly through the lens of Jeffrey Cohen’s “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).”
Count Orlac arriving by ship
The first thesis, “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body,” claims that monsters are specific to particular cultures—in other words, a particular socio-cultural moment in history. We discussed the cultural moment of Weimar Germany with help from the third thesis, “The Monster is the Harbinger of Category Crisis.” This thesis explains how the monster defies categorization and, therefore, creates a crisis of meaning. The monster also appears at times of crisis to help explain, make sense of, or deal with the crisis. Weimar Cinema is sometimes termed “cinema of crisis” because it reflected the various crises of the time. We focused on two narratives: antisemitism and trauma. Following Siegfried Kracauer’s thesis in From Caligari to Hitler, Nosferatu can be read as a stepping stone along the path that led to Hitler. However, I warned against taking a teleological approach to history and introduced Anton Kaes’s thesis from Shell Shock Cinema as a counter-narrative. In this reading, Nosferatu is actually about the First World War, as Orlok means “war” in Dutch and the plague is a metaphor for the mass death and destruction of the war. These are, of course, only two cultural readings of the film.
Knock reading cryptic symbols while the intertitle associated him with money and greed.
We focused most of our time on thesis four, “The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference,” which emphasizes the alterity of the Monster—his condition as an outsider, as Other. We looked at this specifically with regards to the
Count Orlac reading the same cryptic symbols as he prepares to sign the contract
Jewish stereotypes portrayed in the characters Knock and Count Orlok. Not only the physical characteristics, but also the costumes, character traits (in particular greed), and the foreign symbols that both Knock and Orlok are seen reading designate them as Jewish. Additionally, the historical belief that Jews brought the plague to Europe is given form in the film when Orlok arrives on his ship filled with rats that brings the plague to Germany. Orlok is not only Jewish but specifically an Eastern-European Jew, reflective of the anxiety and racism of Western-European nations at the time. We can also read Count Orlok more generally as a foreigner and Nosferatu as a story about xenophobia and what happens when a foreigner takes up residence in a new land.
Finally, the seventh thesis, “The Monster Stands at the Threshold… of Becoming,” reminds us that we create the monsters who then force us to examine why. We connected this final point to the proliferation of Vampire and Zombie movies since Nosferatu. We zeroed in, however, on serial killer films and television shows as a genre, in which the serial killer, though based on real events and people, has been fictionalized and turned into a monster that is no longer human.
Ellen before her seduction
We also discussed the relationship between monsters and desire—in particular sexual desire—by examining the character of Ellen and her actions at the end of the film. Ellen embodies both a woman “pure of heart” and not. Does she have agency—did she have a choice in her own sacrifice? Is she a martyr?
For this post, please address one of these aspects of the monster as it relates to Nosferatu. In other words, analyze Nosferatu through the lens of one of the seven theses.
