En visionær fortolker af andres tanker: Om Carl Th. Dreyers brug af litterære forlæg

The thesis analyses Carl Th. Dreyer's use of literary sources in his realized feature films, an

aspect of his work that has largely been ignored by previous Dreyer scholars. Using a

historical and aesthetic-analytical approach, the thesis explains the motivation behind

Dreyer's choice of writers and literary sources, and examines the extent to which Dreyer

sought to maintain thematic and narrative loyalty to each source. The views Dreyer expressed

on adaptation indicate that uniting stylistic innovation with respect towards literary sources

remained a central ambition for most of the director's career. The thesis takes as its

methodical-theoretical starting point the analysis of two approaches: 1) a historical-thematic

and 2) a narrative-factual. The first approach will dictate the basic structure of the in-depth

analysis to follow. Twelve of the thirteen literary sources Dreyer used will thus be classified

in four categories, each representing a historical or aesthetic current: 1) Brandesianism and

political commitment (four sources); 2) Anti-elitist realism (two sources) and 3) Fin de siècle   

and Weltschmerz (two sources); 4) Fantastic tales (four sources).

Following a discussion of the conceptual framework will be a detailed analysis

of eleven films and their respective sources - two adaptations will not be discussed in depth,

but will be mentioned in the concluding sections. The analysis and concluding sections will

show that in nine of his thirteen adaptations Dreyer wished to convey a high degree of loyalty

to the literary source. In two other cases, a number of shared points maintain reasonable

loyalty, while in two cases Dreyer allows the source only minimal, background significance.

In this respect, Dreyer's use of literary sources can be divided into three phases: 1) 1913-

1926: a period marked by loyalty to the source with the aim of raising film's artistic status

(seven films); 2) 1927-1947: Freer use of the source in order to highlight film as an

independent art form (four films); 3) 1948-1964: High degree of loyalty to the source

combined with a strong awareness of the different aesthetic potentials of literature and film

(two films). The analysis shows, however, that Dreyer assigned particular weight to certain

favourite, personal themes that recur in each period and literary current. The extensive

consideration of literary sources in this thesis both confirms and illuminates earlier, more

vague assumptions that Dreyer wanted particularly to emphasize the portrayal of female

oppression and deemphasize concrete historical-political conflict.