The Schlemiel in Woody Allen's Later Films

Abstract

Allen's films show that the comic character, schlemiel, was of great interest to Woody Allen. He made the schlemiel the main character of nearly all of his films. We witness the schlemiel's gradual transformation in many of Allen's films over the last 15 years. The schlemiels go from being children or psychological misfits to self-conscious adults/artists. In Woody Allen's later films, the psychological transformation of the schlemiel not only reifies the status quo by resolving external contradictions internally. It also makes the schlemiel into the model for the self-actualized modern artist. These transformations are seen in Hollywood Ending , Whatever Works , and Midnight in Paris. Allen's “psychological” approach to the schlemiel marks a major turn in Woody Allen's work and bears many questions about the legacy and future of this important comic character. Allen's schlemiels present a temptation to believe that utopia is within the power of psychological transformation.

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