Von der Besonderheit biographischer Figuren

Young Mr. Lincoln als Genrefall

Abstract

Defining the biographical character as the protagonist in biographical films, a subgenre of the historical fiction film, this paper seeks to elaborate generically specific problems of characterization and narration in the biopic. While being presented fictionally, the genre nonetheless has some, sometimes considerable, pretensions to historical truth (the life of a historical person, using authentic names) and is thus hybrid, forced to accommodate the fictional with the nonfictional, and thereby often producing stylistic tensions. One can observe, for instance, an aesthetic tendency somewhat reminiscent of, or related to, documentaries whose mode of reference differs fundamentally from that of fiction. Biographical characterization and figural presentation may also be flatter, emotionally removed and hence more ,objective' than in the standard feature film. While referring to and drawing on the complex debate surrounding Young Mr Lincoln (1939), notably the collective 1970 text by Cahiers du Cinema, Ford's film is used here to exemplify typical generic traits and procedures which may be found in numerous biopics. To this end, a number of other films are also included in the discussion, presented within a framework comprising formal analysis and concepts deriving from film and literary theory, genre studies, narratology and speech act theory.