Chaos and Darkness. A Few Comments on The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
by Werner Herzog Cover Image

Chaos i ciemność. Kilka uwag o Zagadce Kaspara Hausera Wernera Herzoga
Chaos and Darkness. A Few Comments on The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser by Werner Herzog

Author(s): Michał Filipczuk
Subject(s): Philosophy, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Studies of Literature, Philosophical Traditions, Polish Literature, Existentialism, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Philology
Published by: Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej
Keywords: “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” by Werner Herzog;Bolesław Leśmian;“the empty Transcendence”

Summary/Abstract: “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” by Werner Herzog could be treated as an allegory of the human condition, akin to the vision of writers belonging to the broadly defined existentialist tradition – as far as the world vision and the conception of man, presented in the movie, are concerned. As the aforementioned allegory we can treat life history of the movie’s protagonist, Kaspar Hauser, the child of nature, thrown by an unknown dark force into completely incomprehensible for him human civilization, into the world of an absent – or negated – Absolute. It’s best formulaic description – “the empty Transcendence” – we can find in the poetry of Bolesław Leśmian. To some extent Herzog’s work could be treated as an evocation of so understood transcendence and as an expression of the existentialists’ diagnosis of our human fate: the man comes out of darkness and in the darkness he finds his ultimate destination.

  • Issue Year: 2/2017
  • Issue No: 29
  • Page Range: 191-206
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish