Every once in a while, literature plays into Germanisms in the English language, such as the term Vorlage (pronounce: ‘for-laa-gah, meaning original model/template). In fact, there is the claim (and I think, rightfully so) that no author ever writes anything without including a Vorlage in one way or another. There are archetypes we use that derive from the ancient legends and religions: the hero, the villain, the damsel in distress, etc. There are story lines that are used over and over again, sometimes not even trying to disguise it. You will know so many that you will have fun exploring and discovering even more.
The plainest kind of Vorlage you find in literature is a text that has simply been translated/transferred into another language. Think of the Bible. Hardly any of us would be able to read the original Hebrew versions of the Old Testament or the ancient Greek ones of the New. So, these texts were the Vorlage for the Bible translations we know to this day and that are still worked on to make them more palatable for generations of a different jargon.
Or think of the old fairy tales that we know. One of the most popular ones is certainly that of Cinderella. Actually, the most ancient version of a poor girl living in terrible circumstances and marrying a king is – according to Wikipedia – based in the folklore of Greece already. But we all know the Disney version that changed it up a little, just as each and every national version has done. And there are myriads of movies making money of the old story, some with the title making no pretense about their origin, as well as lots of romances on the Hallmark Channel. Even more serious literature takes up the bad circumstances turned to Paradise and “happily ever after”. Apparently, we are dealing with a dream of mankind; therefore, the plot never gets old. It shows in people’s fondness of yellow press stories about commoners marrying into aristocracy, too, although we all certainly don’t want to live under the yoke of aristocracy, anymore.
The German language knows the term Vorlage as well in any other creative field that uses one model as the field of exploration for another work. Art lives of the Vorlage of literature in huge ways. Think of the Greek myths and Biblical stories as source for all the sculptures and paintings our modern world has inherited over the centuries. Think of musical themes that have invaded our modern world without us realizing they have already been around and just modernized and placed into a different musical genre. Like this one.
Would you have guessed that Eric Carmen based his song on a piano concert theme by Sergei Rachmaninoff? Would you have thought that Rachmaninoff himself based one of his piano rhapsodies on a theme by Paganini, thus using a violin concert as a Vorlage, but turning the whole thing upside down, sort of? You HAVE to watch this intriguing short video:
Vorlage – I wonder whether the term blue print in architecture would serve the same goal. Or the paragon as to a pattern some try to design their lives after. In a way, it seems that imitation is always a way of complimenting something that has worked out wonderfully well – at the cost of being another original.
Leave a Reply