The Making of an Author in Arnon Goldfingers

The Making of an Author in Arnon Goldfinger’s The Flat (2011) Mélanie Yœurp University of Wisconsin-Madison Hermes Conference 2015

INTRODUCTION Michel Foucault’s definition of the author-function: • characterizes “the mode of existence, circulation, and functioning of certain discourses within society” (p. 211) • is a historical and social construct (in retrospective, i. e. , after the writing) Foucault’s author-function redefined: • still characterizes other discourses • but is not a retrospective construct

Characters in The Flat (2011) Susanne Lehmann Leopold von Mildenstein & his wife Gerda & Kurt Tuchler Edda von Mildenstein Hannah Goldfinger Arnon Goldfinger

OUTLINE How does Goldfinger fashion himself as the author of an alternative family memory? 1. Goldfinger justifies his authority with his generational distance and his ability to advocate for another family memory. 2. Goldfinger frames Hannah’s and Edda’s competing family memory (in both an ethical and unethical way), in the hope to have them acknowledge their parents’ disturbing past. 3. Goldfinger tries to be transparent: the effect that The Flat has on its audience reminds the viewers the authorship of family memory is not governed by logical arguments.

Excerpt 1 Goldfinger remembering Gerda • [Link to Video]

Excerpt 2 Women emptying Gerda’s apt. • [Link to Video]

Excerpt 3 Family Album • [Link to Video]

Excerpt 4 The Mildensteins’ envelope • [Link to Video]

1 st interview with Edda

2 nd interview with Edda

Goldfinger’s Gaze (1 st interview with Hannah)

Goldfinger’s Gaze (2 nd interview with Hannah)

Excerpt 5 3 rd interview with Edda • [Link to Video]

Excerpt 6 2 nd interview with Hannah • [Link to Video]

Works Cited • Foucault, Michel. “What Is an Author? ” Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology: Essential Works of Foucault, 19541984. New York: The New Press, 1999. 205 -222. • Goldfinger, Arnon. The Flat. 2011. • Welzer, Harald, Sabine Moller, and Karoline Tschuggnall. Opa war kein Nazi: Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust im Familiengedächtnis. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch, 2002.

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