Children of the vampire: Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht , the fatherless generation, and the holocaust

2025/03/01 by S. A. Wilder · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Cinema and Media Studies #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Narrative Theory and Analysis

paper · doi:10.1080/17504902.2025.2473133

openalex publication_date 2025/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15

Abstract

Combining associative, new historicism to identify the allegorical with work on the Holocaust as a traumatic reference to postwar German national identity, this paper encourages a Benjaminian allegorical reading of Werner Herzog's 1979 remake, Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht. It argues for treating it as a product of a ‘fatherless generation' wrestling with German identity in the aftermath of the Holocaust and amid West Germany's ‘economic miracle’ and the corresponding collective trauma experienced by these children of the militarily defeated, perpetrator culture.

Discussions

• "Death is not the worst...Can you imagine enduring centuries?" S.A. Wilder considers NOSFERATU THE VAMPYR as an allegory of post-WWII Germany, the "collective trauma experienced by these children of t [bsky, 7 points, 0 comments]

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