Art as Terapeutic Dissection of the Untold

Abstract

This research paper of mine wishes to analyze and compare a Hungarian book and a German film that both explore an ever since rarely discussed, however, rather significant piece of the socialist past. Both investigate secret police activities, espionage and their present-day implications. A comparative study of Péter Esterházy's Revised Edition1 and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar-winning The Lives of the Others2 can have a bunch of interesting results. First, these works present the approach of two cultures. Second, film and literature are media with different properties, thus, such an analysis can also focus on how this feature impacts the way past is narrated. Third, the narrative situation and the structure of actions are dissimilar, which enables the observation of two possible strategies. Furthermore, both works require an active reader/ viewer presence: both provoke to taking sides, to pass a personal judgment and both seek a mediate confrontation with the same gruesome burden of the past.