Benutzer:Dietmar Lettau/Deux ex machina

V0.03 This is copy & paste from the English version. I will step by step translate it and add some Deux ex machina examples for German Film, Theatre and Literature as I find some before I publish the article. Any help appreciated.
--Dietmar Lettau 21:27, 28. Dez. 2007 (CET)

Der Ausdruck deus ex machina (Lateinische Aussprache [ˈdeːus eks ˈmaːkʰina] (wörtlich "Gott aus der Maschine") beschreibt einen künstlichen oder unwahrscheinlichen Charakter, ein Gerät oder Geschehnis, welches plötzlich in ein Werk der Fiktion oder Drama eingeführt wird, um eine Situation oder Handlung zu entwirren, so löst beispielsweise ein plötzlich auftretender Engel vorher unlösbare Probleme.

Linguistische Betrachtungen

Der lateinische Ausdruck "deus ex machina" hat seinen Ursprung in den Konventionen der griechischen Tragödie. Er bezieht sich auf Situationen, in denen ein mechanischer Kran benutzt wurde, um Schauspieler auf die Bühne herabzusenken, die einen Gott oder Götter spielen. Obwohl die Phrase wortgetreu übersetzt "Gott von einer Maschine" lautet, wird sie in der literarischen Kritik häufig als "Gott aus der Maschine" interpretiert. Die Maschine, auf die sich der Ausdruck bezieht, ist der ursprüngliche Kran der griechischen Tragödien. Es ist eine Lehnübersetzung vom Griechischen 'από μηχανής θεός', ápo mēchanēs theós, (Altgriechische Aussprache [aˈpomɛːkʰaˈnɛːstʰeˈos]).

The Greek tragedian Euripides is notorious for using this plot device as a means to resolve a hopeless situation. For example, in Euripides' play Alcestis, the eponymous heroine agrees to give up her own life to Death in exchange for sparing the life of her husband, Admetus. In doing so, however, she imposes upon him a series of extreme promises. Admetus is torn between choosing death or choosing to obey these unreasonable restrictions. In the end, though, Heracles shows up and seizes Alcestis from Death, restoring her to life and freeing Admetus from the promises. The first person known to have criticized the device was Aristotle in his Poetics, where he argued that the resolution of a plot must arise internally, following from previous action of the play.

Modern uses

The phrase has been extended to refer to any resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though more palatable, ending.

In modern terms the deus ex machina has also come to describe a being, object or event that suddenly appears and solves a seemingly insoluble difficulty, where the author has "painted the characters into a corner" that they can't easily be extricated from (e.g. the cavalry unexpectedly coming to the rescue, or James Bond using a gadget that just so happens to be perfectly suited to the needs of the situation).

Other examples are seen in H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds where the Martians suddenly succumb to common viruses; and in Robert Jordan's 'A Crown of Swords' (Book 7 of The Wheel Of Time), when the mysterious stranger arrives just in time to pull Rand Al'Thor from the brink of the precipice in Shadar Logoth. In the Christmas movie, "Olive, the Other Reindeer", a package appears in the mailtruck Olive is trapped in. The packing is addressed to her, and it is from "Deus Ex Machina". It was a nail-file that let her escape. The device is a type of twist ending.

Sometimes the unlikeliness of the deus ex machina plot device is employed deliberately. In Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera", a "riding messenger of the king" appears in the last moment, stops the execution of the story's criminal anti-hero Mack the Knife, and bestows an inheritable title of nobility on him. The very absurdity of this serves to underwrite the great lack of generosity and unselfishness in the capitalist reality that the story is mostly about.

The notion of deus ex machina can also be applied to a revelation within a story that causes seemingly unrelated sequences of events to be joined together. Thus the unexpected and timely intervention is aimed at the meaning of the story rather than a physical event in the plot. This may more accurately be described as a plot twist.

See also

• Reset button technique
• List of Latin phrases
• Character shield
• Suspension of disbelief
• Plot hole