SAECULUM. Jahrbuch für Universalgeschichte

Volume 73 (2023), number 1 / Villains! Constructing Narratives of Evil

73. Jahrgang (2023), 1. Halbband / Villains! Constructing Narratives of Evil

Isadora Campregher Paiva
Male and Female Villains in Weimar Cinema: Variations on Male Anxieties about Loss of Power

Weimar cinema is particularly known for its iconic villains: while the evil robot of Metropolis or the title character of Nosferatu are instantly recognizable to many who have never seen the films in question, its heroes are virtually forgotten. Combining a formal analysis of the films with reconstructions of the political, social and cultural universe in which such works were produced and perceived, I will analyse the patterns that emerge when we consider some of the most iconic villains of Weimar cinema. What do they tell us about the fears and anxieties that permeated Weimar society? What role does gender play in those figurations? The results indicate that both male and female villains represent both a fear and an attraction, particularly on the side of the male subjects/victims, towards a loss of power and control. This appears sometimes in fantastic and sometimes in more realistic forms, ranging from mind control (Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse), body parts with a will of their own (Orlacs Hände) and programming by a mad scientist (Metropolis, Alraune) to seduction (Alraune, Büchse der Pandora, Der Blaue Engel). Though these films were undoubtedly a product of their time – with its particular mixture of war trauma and anxieties about modernity, technology, gender relations and economic and political instability –, these villains’ lasting international resonance suggests that the particular fears and longings that they represent are a lot more transnational and perennial than the focus on a German audience’s supposedly unique dispositions would have us believe.

Stefan Schubert

The Downfall of a Hero: The Vilification of Philippe Pétain

The contribution follows Philippe Pétain on his path from hero to villain during his reign over Vichy France (1940–1944). Over the course of the Second World War, the public image of Pétain oscillated between hero and traitor. For the Vichy regime, the heroic version of the head of state had to prevail, because he was the most important linchpin of the new political system. This was all too obvious for the enemies of Vichy, and as a result, the vilification of the war hero Pétain was an essential part of the propaganda campaign aimed at delegitimizing the new state. The aim of the article is, first, to illustrate processes of heroization and vilification and, second, to analyze the correlation between military heroism and political leadership in the age of ideological extremes. The status of war hero was a powerful instrument to legitimize political leadership, and, conversely, the denial and deconstruction of this status via narratives of evil was used to delegitimize a political figure or even a whole political system. To analyze such processes the author proposes a heuristic of treason, for treason as a vilifying mechanism was a pivotal argument to deny Pétain and his authoritarian regime its legitimacy.

Kristine Andra Avram

Of Evil Men and Zealous State Agents:
The Villain in Criminal Trials for Past Human Rights Violations in Post-Communist Romania

Criminal trials for past human rights violations can be seen as a monumental spectacle, a theater play in which the defendant takes center stage in the role of a villain. The villainization of defendants, i.e. attributing to the defendant(s) the role of the villain, along with its narrative effects and societal functions, is an overlooked topic in law and literature as well as in memory studies so far. Therefore, this article interrogates the figure of the villain in criminal trials for past human rights violations in post-communist Romania. In the analysis of the three judgments related to crimes committed during the communist regime, I excavate different levels and modes of villainization in the cases. Casting defendants as villains, however, has similar narrative effects and serves various functions. My main argument is that ascribing responsibility to villains has a de-politicizing effect, thereby hampering the epistemic potential of trials. In as much as defendants – in the role of villains – are punished or even executed towards the end, these stories provide a moral sedative to the audience, cleanse the collective consciousness and promote passiveness. In other words, if we have found the villain, we do not have to look any further – all is well that ends well.

Zoran Vuckovac

Heroes or Villains?
The Hague Convicts and Their Heroic Afterlife in Ex-Yugoslav National Contexts

This paper provides an analysis of how former leaders of emerging nation states after the Yugoslav breakup avoided vilification in their national contexts, despite being judged for some of the worst crimes after Second World War. These real life villains have been celebrated within a sustained “mythical perception of time” that is re-produced within a national institutional framework where the gravity of criminal charges is reduced by virtue of their inscription in history. The first part relies on the critique of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia’s (ICTY) legal heritage and the way political and military leaders on trials exploited the loopholes of this ad hoc international legal body through their discourse and practice. Secondly, I show how efforts to criminalize individuals on the international level were made through substantial arm-twisting of ex-Yugoslav states, which left ample space on the mezzo-level to decide how much support, both financial and symbolic, they wished to provide for those individuals standing trial. Therefore, the attempt to vilify them was stifled in national contexts, as these convicts and their projects enjoyed continued acclaim, and denialism of ICTY judgments was normalized in state-led commemorative practices. Finally, I touch upon some aspects of a fringe culture working slightly outside of state control, actively promoting a memory culture in which the convicts continue to be cast as heroes – never as villains.

Thomas Bragdon

On the Vilification of Asylum Seekers in Struggles for Legal Residence in EU Countries

This article investigates the problematic usage of the term “radical” in the context of self-organized protest groups of (rejected) asylum seekers, the “Oranienplatz-Flüchtlinge”, in Berlin. Focusing on the case of the “GUstreik”, a series of protests organized by asylum seekers in Würzburg, a city in the federated state Bavaria, Germany, in 2012, this article raises the question why – and how – vilification starts with persons being called “radical”, before the term is qualified with regard to its ambiguous connotations. Yet when demarcation criteria are given to qualify the term “radical” by distinguishing it from “moderate” forms of politics, this raises the further question to what extent such criteria are a neutral tool for the impartial evaluation of convictions and behaviour or rather a rhetorical tool in political struggle. Considering two possible demarcation criteria for the term “radical” – the “democratic dialogue” versus the “choice for life over death” –, this article aims at articulating issues of security and democracy with which the problematic usage of “radical” is intrinsically interlinked.

Maarten Gooskens
A Villain in the Family: Representations of Perpetrator-Parents

In recent years, the figure of the perpetrator has become an increasingly central subject for interdisciplinary scholarly engagement. As perpetrator research grows, an academic platform is provided for perpetrator voices and memories to be analysed. Many of these voices and memories come to us in the form of interviews, photographs, memoirs, or various other ego documents, allowing for a degree of self-representation. However, as we move further away in time from the violent conflicts of the past, a new generation finds itself burdened with the responsibility of representing perpetratorship. The aim of this study is to look at transgenerational representations of perpetratorship that emerge from memories produced in the intimate space of the family. In this case, the novels The Last Typhoon (1992) by Graa Boomsma and The Translator from Java (2016) by Alfred Birney. Two texts that share a theme: a son investigating the role of his father in the Dutch military during the Indonesian War of Independence (August 1945 to December 1949) and how these experiences are related to the many different shapes in which this conflict is found in Dutch cultural memory. The Netherlands are plagued by the long-perpetuated myth that their colonial history, particularly its excessive violence, has been forgotten. The men who experienced the conflict first-hand remained silent for decades, only to later depict themselves as victims of a faulty colonial and military system. However, the following generations – growing up amidst a shifting paradigm in public discourse that increasingly suggested their (grand)parents were on the wrong side of history – felt a responsibility to engage with what Gabriele Schwab calls their “haunting legacies”. This study of these transgenerational perpetrator narratives expounds the relationship between (post)memory and perpetrator representation. Ultimately, the goal is to analyse how narratives of perpetratorship, which concern a subject who is unaware of their perpetrator subject-position, are constructed by a later generation.

Timothy D. Peters
“You are bad guy, but this does not mean you’re bad guy”:
The Office of the Villain in Despicable Me, Megamind and Wreck-It Ralph

Drawing upon the work of Giorgio Agamben, this article seeks to critically think the “office” of the fictional villain. It argues that a focus on the image and office of the fictional villain is important, not only because of the role that our fantasies play in reflecting and reinforcing particular ideologies - as the superhero genre is criticized for doing -, but because all heroes and villains only function through their representations. Challenging the gritty realism of the dominance of the superhero genre on screen, it considers three satirical animated presentations of the supervillain: Despicable Me, Megamind and Wreck-it Ralph. The significance of these comedic films is that, in all their ridiculousness and over-the-top performance, they provide not only a necessary critical response to the dominance of the superhero genre, but also a more nuanced and sophisticated presentation of evil, the role of the fictional villain and its reflection upon reality. This is because they present the way in which the structural role of the fictional supervillain can be understood as the fulfilment of a particular “duty” or “office”. In doing so, they engage in a critique of the ethics of duty and its own potential for villainy. The article concludes by turning to address the banality of villainy and emphasising the importance of being together in community.