Inaccurate (narration)

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Inaccurate is a story by the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard from 1968, in which a recurring motif is created in Bernhard: The protagonist's attempt to break away from a stressful family past.

action

The central characters in the story are Robert Zoiss, sole heir of the Ungenach family estate, the lawyer Moro, who is entrusted with the removal of Ungenach, and the already dead half-brother Roberts named Karl, whose fragmentary notes form an essential part of the story.

After the death of his parents and half-brother as well as his guardian, Robert Zoiss sees himself as the sole heir of the Ungenach family estate. Since it is clear from the beginning that the inheritance will not be accepted, the entire inheritance should be forfeited. In order to deal with this legally, Zoiss, who now lives in the USA and works as a scientist at Stanford University, returns to Austria.

The text begins after the inheritance has been demolished. At this point in time, Zoiss is in Chur, from where he flies back to the USA. Nevertheless he is "in all [his] thoughts again and again occupied with trouble, his dissolution, diversion, etc.". He uses the waiting time for the return flight to study the papers of his deceased half-brother and to record the speech of the lawyer Moro, who was entrusted with the removal. This forms the first part of the story, so to speak: The thoughts of the family lawyer Moro on the undertaking planned by Robert Zoiss are described in monologizing form. In doing so, he primarily quotes the sayings of the deceased guardian of his client and proclaims the destruction of Ungenach through the planned diversion to criminals, madmen and the isolated. The second part of the story consists of the fragmentary documents from the estate of Charles who was murdered in Africa. In the end, it is these notes that reveal the fatal bond with Ungenach and ultimately make Zoiss' plans understandable.

interpretation

The journey of the protagonist Robert Zoiss to the homeland of his youth does not represent a return in the strict sense of the word, but a complete renunciation of his past and family roots. He avoids being confronted with his origins by commissioning the immediate depreciation of the inheritance and by not attending the funeral of his guardian. The delusionality of Moro's monologue and Karl's notes, with which Zoiss was entrusted by his lawyer, depict the inability to get free and the fatal dependence on inaccuracy and make the narrator's decision to detach himself from the inheritance comprehensible and understandable. In a world that is constantly dissolving, in the face of the death of his closest relatives as well as the inevitable dissolution of himself in Austria, Zoiss takes the dissolution seriously by giving up his youth, that is, his past, and thus trying to destroy it for all time.

reception

Several reviewers highlight the formal resemblance of Ungenachs to Amras and particularly emphasize the fragmentary character typical of Bernhard's early stories. According to Marcel Reich-Ranicki , this external form, in the lack of unity, reflects the central motif of dissolution, which is the main focus of the text. The reviews also pay special attention to the monologue, another characteristic of Bernhard's work. The lawyer Moro, who monologizes over 38 pages, does not so much express his state of mind as his closeness to the sick and delusional, which manifests itself in the monologue.

Furthermore, the ambivalent relationship between Bernhard and Austria and the break in tradition with the central theme of the narrative were taken up.

literature

  • Thomas Bernhard: Not exactly. In: Martin Huber, Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler (eds.): Thomas Bernhard. Works. Volume 12, Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-518-41512-3 , pp. 7-71.

Secondary literature

  • Manfred Mittermayer: Thomas Bernhard. Life, work, effect. Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-18211-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Bernhard: Ungenach. In: Martin Huber, Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler (eds.): Thomas Bernhard. Works 12. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2006, p. 9.
  2. ^ Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Sinister Lust from Austria. In: The time. October 25, 1968.
  3. ↑ Herbert Gamper: Deadly connections. In: Die Weltwoche. 4th October 1968.
  4. ↑ Thomas Bernhard: Ungenach. In: Martin Huber, Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler (eds.): Thomas Bernhard. Works 12. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2006, p. 240.