Expressionism (literature and film)

Expressionism (literature and film), an artistic movement of the early 20th century that centred on the expression of subjective feelings rather than an objective depiction of reality. The objectives of Expressionism in literature, notably in the novel and the drama, are similar to those in Expressionist art and Expressionist music. The characters and scenes are presented in a stylized, distorted manner with the intent of producing emotional shock. The German painter Alfred Kubin, a member of Der Blaue Reiter, wrote one of the earliest Expressionist novels, Die Andere Seite (The Other Side). He exerted a profound influence on the Czech novelist Franz Kafka and other writers. The early Expressionist playwrights, August Strindberg of Sweden and Frank Wedekind of Germany, exerted an international influence on the next generation of playwrights. These included the Germans Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller, the Czech Karel Čapek, and the Americans Eugene O'Neill and Elmer Rice.

Expressionist drama gave rise to a new approach to staging, scene design, and directing. The object was to create a totally unified stage picture that would increase the emotional impact of the production on the audience. Among prominent directors were the Germans Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator and the Russian Vsevolod Meyerhold. Set designers such as Edward Henry Gordon Craig of Great Britain and Robert Edmond Jones of the United States used techniques similar to those of Expressionist painters to provide visual stimulation consonant with the dramas. Expressionist painting and drama also influenced the cinema, as can be seen in the German film Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari (1919; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari), directed by Robert Wiene, with its nightmarish perspectives and mask-like makeup, or the French production La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928; The Passion of Joan of Arc), by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, noted for its distorted camera angles and sets.