Classical Philology Gone Wild! The use of Classical Texts in the Film All Quiet on the Western Front

Location

CSU 202

Start Date

23-4-2007 10:00 AM

End Date

23-4-2007 12:00 PM

Student's Major

World Languages and Cultures

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

Nadja Kramer

Mentor's Department

World Languages and Cultures

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

Studying the texts of the Greco-Roman era has long been a tradition in the West. Works such as The Odyssey, The Iliad, and The Republic were understood to be liberating texts which enabled students to think more critically and as a result live more wisely. Many of the leading scholars in this field of "Classical Texts" (also known as Classical Philology) hailed from 19th century Germany. The 1930 German film All Quiet on the Western Front presented viewers with a classroom scene set at the start of the First World War where selected classical texts were written on the chalkboard, apparently by the teacher. The camera brings the viewer in from a street scene and focuses on a teacher who is lecturing. The teacher, in an increasingly frenzied state, is persuading his students to join the German war effort. He uses the classical tradition represented by the quotations on the chalkboard as ammunition for irrational and self-destructive thinking. He has taken a tradition valued for critical thought and just actions and turned it into an overemotional, antirational Nationalist machine. This project sought to understand the means by which the classical tradition was turned on its head and the implications and warnings which it held for viewers then and now.

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Apr 23rd, 10:00 AM Apr 23rd, 12:00 PM

Classical Philology Gone Wild! The use of Classical Texts in the Film All Quiet on the Western Front

CSU 202

Studying the texts of the Greco-Roman era has long been a tradition in the West. Works such as The Odyssey, The Iliad, and The Republic were understood to be liberating texts which enabled students to think more critically and as a result live more wisely. Many of the leading scholars in this field of "Classical Texts" (also known as Classical Philology) hailed from 19th century Germany. The 1930 German film All Quiet on the Western Front presented viewers with a classroom scene set at the start of the First World War where selected classical texts were written on the chalkboard, apparently by the teacher. The camera brings the viewer in from a street scene and focuses on a teacher who is lecturing. The teacher, in an increasingly frenzied state, is persuading his students to join the German war effort. He uses the classical tradition represented by the quotations on the chalkboard as ammunition for irrational and self-destructive thinking. He has taken a tradition valued for critical thought and just actions and turned it into an overemotional, antirational Nationalist machine. This project sought to understand the means by which the classical tradition was turned on its head and the implications and warnings which it held for viewers then and now.

Recommended Citation

Dauer, Tysen D.. "Classical Philology Gone Wild! The use of Classical Texts in the Film All Quiet on the Western Front." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 23, 2007.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2007/oral-session-03/7