Glückliche Enden. Aus der Geschichte der affirmativen Kunst

Abstract

In this dissertation I investigate the history of the modern happy ending. Drawing on a diverse

set of historical sources from the early modern period until today, this study reconstructs and explores various conceptual origins and genealogical forerunners of the modern happy end- ing—notorious for its proliferation in Hollywood cinema—as a culturally as well as politically significant phenomenon.

The main and basic insight the study unveils is the deeply political nature of happy endings. According to a widespread misconception, happy endings are intrinsically reactionary and politically conservative. This study rectifies such notions by exploring the intricate role affirmative art has played in a diverse set of historical case studies. Through these case studies, my dissertation demonstrates that happy endings at times even display a subversive and progressive character. The history of happy endings, thus, sheds light on the cultural dimension of various political contexts and the telling interactions between political oppression and emancipation throughout the centuries. In happy endings, namely, affirmative art strives to articulate a societal vision of hope, harmony, or even bliss.

The most common misconception that this study refutes dismisses happy endings as trite and artless concessions to so-called popular taste. In this still prevalent view, the political implications happy endings entail are merely considered an epi-phenomenon of very recent ideas of entertainment. Throughout the early modern period, happy endings start out as occasional entertainment for the happy few but turn into many different religiously and politically altered reconfigurations addressed to ever larger audiences to live happily ever after. Finally, they lend themselves to the modern versions that still persist today and that operate on the mass-mediatic and concurrently democratic assumption of happy endings for all. Visions of societal harmony become stories of emancipation and inclusion.

The struggles for happy endings tell an important story about societal cohesion by allowing for a cultural assembly in which societies debate, impetuously and unremittingly, what they really want. By articulating a positive societal vision, texts regularly provoke protest and affirmation alike. This study provides a framework to analyze possible happy endings by contributing to the history and theory of democracy.