Where is the Class Enemy?

A Film-Analytical Approach to a Pedagogical Ethics of the Real

Abstract

By analysing the film Klassenfeind (Class Enemy), it is shown that a fetishistic understanding of what escapes language leads to a disavowal of contradictions in film analysis, politics and pedagogy. Through film analysis, considerations of film and authority theory and a comparison of Class Enemy and Dead Poets Society, it is shown that certain processes of alienation are sometimes useful. Finally, there is an outlook on a pedagogical »ethics of the real«.