Learning Outcome 4: “Evaluate and use sources to produce effective and ethical arguments.”
This essay was the first one students in MAJ Eichholz’s “ERH 331W – Aesthetics” class were tasked with writing. Given the freedom to write a response to any of the works we had covered in the class thus far, I chose to write on Susan Sontag’s Fascinating Fascism, an analysis conducted by Sontag on the works of the late Leni Reifenstahl, one of the most famous German artists in the World War II era. Though producing many works that had seemingly nothing to do with fascism, like taking photographs of the Nuba tribe in Africa, Reifenstahl’s work is accused by Sontag of being entirely fascist due to her collaboration with members of the Nazi party in making her most famous piece, Triumph of the Will, an award winning movie depicting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in a supportive light. My analysis of Sontag’s critique was that she was overreaching in more places than one, as having supported fascism at a certain point does not make the entirety of Reifenstahl’s work inherently fascist. In fact, Triumph of the Will is the only case we ever see Reifenstahl’s work being possibly fascist, with having produced plenty of other work that could be argued otherwise. Moreover, Sontag goes as far as to say the world famous Disney movie Fantasia is fascist as well, due to the “choreographed movements of characters”, further discrediting Sontag as a critic. This essay was not only interesting but enjoyable to write, fitting right into this learning objective.
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