Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the Impossible by Malik Gaines

Author:Malik Gaines
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT004040 Literary Criticism / American / African American, American, Literary Criticism, General
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2017-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 3.3. Günther Kaufmann and Margarethe von Trotta in a still from Gods of the Plague, R. W. Fassbinder, 1970.

While Kaufmann indicates a political imagination in Gods of the Plague, he is also mobilized in a psychosexual network of desire. Likely reflecting Fassbinder’s own amorous interest in Kaufmann, the most virulent exercise of directorial power in an otherwise modestly produced film appears in a lengthy helicopter shot surveying Günther’s movements in the Bavarian countryside. Even when clothed, Günther’s body is on display. In a conspiratorial visit made to a farmhouse, Günther dives into a pile of hay, rolls around affectionately with a sheep, and vigorously play-fights with Franz and another male friend, while his extremely tight pants are split in the crotch. The torn pants reveal white underwear when the camera catches Kaufmann from behind, which it capably does. Apart from his sexualized death scene, in which the shirtless Günther, wet with blood, uses his final energy to clutch a gun and fire, Günther’s semi–sex scene with Franz and Margarethe reveals his entire naked body from behind, placing his beautifully lit ass in the center of the frame.

This scene is treated specifically by Kaja Silverman in her chapter “Fassbinder and Lacan: A Reconsideration of Gaze, Look and Image.” Noting the huge image of a woman’s face that decorates the wall above Margarethe’s bed, Silverman describes the scene:

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