Lit 2 revision (I know you don't all want to see this...)

[mk_tortie]

Apologies for the gratuitous revision spam, but if I pretend I'm doing something I want to do, then maybe I'll actually do it! Here goes:

Things could write about (in order of preference):
Short stories
Brecht
Immensee
Poetry

Oh bugger, now I want to go make a 'revision' icon. That shall be done in a minute... (or when I'm done with les examens....)

Things I need to know about each:
Key concepts
Bit of biography (only directly concerning work)
Generic characteristics of movement with relation to work
Areas of disagreement or interpretation (key sections)
Quick spider diagram encapsulating the above


Short Stories

Trümmerliteratur

• Epitomised by a simple, unadorned style of prose style of prose


• Movement lasted from end of war until c.1950


• 'lakonisch die zerstörte Welt beschreibt, aber nicht bewertet' - depicting the destroyed world in a terse, 'laconic' fashion without judgement or assesment.


• Also sometimes called Kahlschlagliteratur - 'clear-cut literature'

Heinrich Boell
Biography

• Born in Koeln 1917, died 1985 in Langenbroich


• Abschied published 1950 as part of poetry collection Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa...


• Part of the post war literary movement - Abschied is an example of Trümmerliteratur


• Was American POW in 1945 but was released and went to France and Belgium before returning to Köln, where he began to write.

Böll's Abschied
Questions:

1. Why could he not tell the girl he loves her?

Both their relationship and the current situation are in a limbo state - there has been the Russian revolution, problems in Europe, the war. Picasso and paint are both mentioned - constraints of the situation vs artistic freedom. He wants her to be able to escape Germany's problems (making this topical for post-WWII Germany) so cannot give into artistic desire. The Picasso reference may also represent how people's views/the characters/psychology are distorted, fragmented, falling apart. This mirrors problems of de-nazification - people don't know what viewpoint to have - merely concentrating on survival - viewpoints are forced into change. People's lives have been destroyed, now they must try to rebuild, but perhaps this involves some element of sacrifice. Madness.

2. When does it take place?

Rush hour, 1947, probably in Köln

3. What is the role that his leg plays?

Most obviously, his leg is telling him to tell her he loves her - ie, mental will over physical need, but it is still causing him discomfort. The leg is part of him, like she is - he is covering up the pain of her leaving like he is covering up the pain in his leg. Also suggests he is a war veteran. Mental loss mirrored by physical injury. She is his support (like his leg) which he is giving up so she can have a better life.

4. How would you characterise the style of the work?

Humour highlights the discomfort of the situation. The dialogue seems stilted, like a staged play, rather than integrated with the chunks of text.

Key Quotes

• 'und ich wollte ihr eigentlich sagen, dass ich sie liebte, aber ich kam nicht dazu, schon seit fünfzehn Jahren...'


• 'sie sah absolut nicht nach Rubens aus, sie sah eher nach Picasso aus'


• 'wir sagten es uns, ohne ein Wort zu sprechen'

Wolfgang Borchert
Biography

• Born 1921 in Hamburg, died in 1947 in Basel


• Die Küchenuhr published posthumously in 1949 in a collection called Das Gesamtwerk


• Like Böll's work, die Küchenuhr is part of the Trümmerliteratur movement - also comes under Literatur der Stunde Null as was written immediately post-war rather than later like Böll.


• Was imprisoned multiple times - in Germany during the war for expressing opinions which did not coincide with those of the Nazi government, before ending up on the front and then being a French POW. Spent time in a Swiss sanitorium due to sickness contracted during his time as a POW.

Borchert's Die Küchenuhr
Questions:

1. Why are there no speech marks?

Lack of speech marks creates impressionistic/dazed feeling. Simple language (characteristic of Trümmerliteratur) - economical - speech marks would complicate things.

2. What does the clock symbolise?

The clock is stopped - like his life as he knew it has stopped. ('Innerlich ist sie kaputt, das steht fest. Aber sie sieht noch aus wie immer.') - the death of his mother and the destruction of his home has caused the collapse of his world. Also, it is the end of an era for everyone in the tale. He may be compared to Holocaust survivors who felt bad for surviving when all those they loved had died. Clock was stopped at the time he normally came home - perhaps he was three minutes late and if he had been on time he would have been killed along with his mother. Instead is left with guilt and survival. Guilt tied up with idea of end of paradise (Adam and Eve's guilt after being thrown from the garden of Eden).

3. Why are the characters unnamed?

Emphasises his mental distance from them, makes them generic survivors (therefore could be anyone in post war Germany) - adds to impressionistic/dazed feeling.

4. What does the man mean by the concept of paradise? ('Er dachte immerzu an das Wort Paradies')

How paradise may be something different for everyone - the man at the end who contemplates the word may be thinking what it means to him - Borchert intends to leave his reader contemplating what they have/what they've lost.

5. How and why do the other people in the story react to the tale?

They ask questions of him but they do not empathise/sympathise outwardly. They react in silence. There is not much they can say - hopelessness of situation similar to lack of choices in Böll's Abschied

Key Quotes

• 'Er dachte immerzu an das Wort Paradies'


• 'Innerlich ist sie kaputt, das steht fest. Aber sie sieht noch aus wie immer.'

Between the two works there is a common theme of TRANSITION, LIMBO, LOSS



Immensee by Theodor Storm

Biography

• born 1817 in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, died 1888 in Hanerau-Hademarschen in the same Land


• Immensee written c.1849 and first published 1850 in Volksbuch auf das Jahr, a compilation of folk literature


• Published as single volume 1852

Literary movements/descriptions of Immensee

• Biedermeier movement: (1848 onwards) - less preoccupation with political events than Storm's predecessors such as Heine. Contrasts to Romanticism; images of nature not related to self and loneliness, but to creation and goodness.


• Realism: literary movement of 19th century mainly based in France - concerns attempts to depict contemporary life and society - this is poetic realism


• Review of 1853 called it a 'poetische Erzählung in Prosa'


• Novelle: longer than a short story allowing for more character development but without the extended plot of a novel - however, Storm said that Immensee should instead be called a Situation as it represents a series of poetic moments of interest rather than something which might really have happened. (but don't quote me on that!)

Key Moments/Quotes

• Reinhard's love is a fruitless love - they look for strawberries but they are all gone, and he makes up a reason why rather than coming up with a real answer


• He will never fulfil his promises - there are tensions from the beginning of their relationship ('sie war ihm oft zu still, er was ihr oft zu heftig') and he doesn't write to her whilst he is at uni. He can never quite bring himself to say he loves her although she gives him plenty of opportunities (parallel to Böll? although different perspective!)


• Suggestion that the idea of a full sexual relationship is what prevents him from going further (particularly scene with the lily where at the last minute he pulls away)


• Although most of the ideas in the novella are conveyed through metaphor/symbols/suggestions the end of the lily scene is particularly explicit (for Storm at any rate!) - 'Was tausend hattest du denn mit der Wasserlilie zu tun?' 'Ich habe sie früher einmal gekannt', sagte Reinhard; 'es ist aber schon lange her.'


• The ending characterises the anti-romanticism of the poetic realism movement - there is no over dramaticism (or Reinhard would have died!) - instead he finds solace in his studies.

Brecht's Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan

Quick notes cos I'm knackered:
-Brecht believed didn't have to be realist to be good Marxist - thought experimental/expressionist literature could still be beneficial for Communism.
-Is it possible to be good in a capitalist society?
-Epic theatre - actor addresses audience in commentary manner, audience reflects on events rather than provided with solution/working through of own problems/issues - Verfremdungseffekt - alienation from what is happening on stage (the strange/ the bizarre) - Sezuan is universalistisch but setting topical (ie capitalist china does not exist - makes audience think) - wants people to think critically about capitalism. problems of introducing communism into capitalist society - natural greed prevails.
-Gender swapping - Brecht's view of women.