Golem and Its Epoch

Zbigniew Mikołejko

Abstract

Mikołejko examines the history of the cinema in the perspective of its „Golemization”. He claims that the epoch of Golem has lasted from the times of Germany expressionism till today. The motif has been detected in Stellan Rye’s Student of Prague, Paul Wegener’s The Golem, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Paul Leni’s Waxworks. But Golem has always been present in the Kabbala, the Jewish mystical tradition, and the folklore of Eastern and Central European ghettos and shtetls. The interpretation of the sense of giving life to Golem via the Kabbalistic and mystic tradition is the core of the text. Golem, like the issue of devils and angels, evil and sin (especially original sin), black and white magic, transmigration and dybbuks, became the hero of ghetto stories in Central Europe especially in the times of persecution. As Chaim Bloch says: in the times of spiritual oppression, when we see the whole Golemized world go mad, in the East and West, in the North and South, a Golem-resembling atmosphere spreads and destroys everything, and no wise Rabbi Löw comes to tame the Golem.