“Das Judenbild im Comic” Vortrag von Dietrich Grünewald (Reiskirchen)

Lecture by Prof. Dietrich Grünewald

15 .10 Time: 19.30 Location: raum404, Nicolaisstraße 34/35, 28195 Bremen

The labelling of a character as a "Jew" in comics is highly problematic, as the well-known and recognizable stereotype is based on deliberately constructed disparagement, is created from anti-Semitic attitudes and for anti-Semitic incitement and has transported this negative characterization for centuries. This has an effect even if the content of the narrative is not aimed at anti-Semitic incitement.

To mark the corresponding roles, the history of images has developed stereotypes, analogous to theater and the visual arts and especially caricature, which use specific visual features to present the intended type to the viewer in a signal-like "recognition costume". On the one hand, through the respective confirmation in the context of the narrative, but above all through the constant repetition and use of the stereotype as a pattern in numerous works, it becomes generally understandable what role is "played" here. However, prejudices (both positive and negative), simplified clichés, deliberate insults and disparagement are also mixed in with "neutral" portrayals.

It is significant, for example, that Hergé changed his story In the Realm of Black Gold, written in 1939 and published in 1950, for the new edition in 1971: The new version of the story refrains from showing Jews in the comic, just as the Jewish figures with hooked noses were omitted from The Mysterious Star (1941) in the 1972 version. The lecture will use historical and contemporary examples to trace the image of Jews in illustrated stories, from early illustrated stories, examples from the 19th century and the Third Reich to the present day. Whereby, as the comic series Jewy Louis by Ben Gershon shows, this image can also be ironized and understood positively.

Sponsors and cooperation partners:

Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft Bremen / Junges Forum der DIG, Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, Monom Stiftung, Sebastian Cobler Stiftung, Senator für Kultur Bremen, Städtische Galerie Bremen, Menora Gemeinde HB/BHV, Literaturkontor e.V. Associatione Delle Talpe