#kantorka

[faggotfungus]

Cyanotype photography by Kantorka

[novanourart]

Krabat and the Kantorka // for @sisi-the-undead 's Krabat Fanart Exhibition

[sesiondemadrugada]

Kantorka.

[lastnightthemooncame]

© _kantorka

Source: @lastnightthemooncame

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[diespulcher]

In ordentlicher Krabat-Manier habe ich heute morgen schweigend mein Osterwasser geholt - Auf das mir ein Jahr Glück und Schönheit winkt!

Like a true Krabat fan, I went and silently fetched the Easter Water - May it bring me beauty and luck in this year!

[itsagrummel]

Antisemitism in Krabat

Obviously I like the tale about Krabat a lot, including all it's retellings. And since i love it so much, I need to point out flaws in it so that it can be enjoyed in a more honest and reflective way plus allow people to make their own choices about interacting with old tales like it.

Jewish life in central-European regions like Lusatia faced somewhat continuous oppression and persecution. This antisemitic hatred is coded in literature as well, which shows up in the Krabat tale as an old tale carrying those rather classical antisemitic markers:

The antagonist is an evil black magic sorcerer who mistreats, kills and oppresses the otherwise as christian presented characters.

Vulnerable kids and young adults get recruited into the study of black magic. There is also the ritualistic killing of these kids by black magic for the benefit of the antagonist to prolong his life which is a version of the blood libel trope.

The first thing the antagonist teaches the protagonist Krabat is how to dry up a well. That is the antisemitic well poisoning trope.

The antagonist has a secret book called the Koraktor which is the invert of a regular book: it is black with white writing. In it are records on how to do black magic. In the context of the otherwise christian society it is noticeably marked as a bad book, drawing parallels to the depiction of the Tora by medieval Christians.

The antagonist uses his magical powers to be a secret political influence to a king, which leads to the as pointless and just out of evil desires portrayed continuation of a war. This fits the (international) jewish conspiracy trope of as jewish coded people or in this case characters just wanting to harm the good (christian) people out of no reason.

The antisemitic coded antagonist is shown to be greedy, never sharing his wealth with those he is expected to help out, which is another antisemitic trope. Also he orders his students to trick and lie to get him money.

I am sure there are more codes I missed since Antisemitism and both fear of and fascination for the occult go hand in hand in many more facets. Looking at the massive amount of fantasy literature with the same antisemitic tropes as Krabat (eg Harry Potter) it's clear that we need to keep looking at these pieces of literature to learn how to tell great stories without including harmful tropes.

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

Kantorka, self portrait

[koraktor]

Kantorka (Paula Kalenberg) gifset || m: Krabat (2008)