Alberta welcomes a lover
Alberta receives a lover (1997) is the sixth story by the author Birgit Vanderbeke .
The story is about Alberta, which retrospectively works up its “history that went wrong” (p. 11), which presents itself as a complicated love affair. It gives an outline of that love relationship, that "great love" (p. 7) between Alberta and Nadan over a good thirty years: starting with the seventies, in which "everyone kissed each other back and forth" (p. 13), because "Everyone was against the Vietnam War" (ibid.), Until the decision was made to run off to Paris, the eighties, when one was separated and focused on family and work, until the nineties (when the novel was published), when one saw each other again and realized that they could not live together and thus separated forever, parting way: "Close the door very quietly." (p. 116) The story consists of four parts, has the following headings: "A Mizzebill", “Jean-Philippe”, “Alberta Receives a Lover” and “Epilogue”. To the parts in detail:
action
A Mizzebill Alberta and Nadan get to know each other in a training camp. It is the time of the protests against the Vietnam War, they both admit, “that neither Nadan nor I are imperialists, but clearly for the Viet Cong. For peace. ”(P. 21) Nadan falls in love with Bettina, then goes to the Navy, while Alberta falls in love with Rudi, they go to the cinema, study, work and run a household together. At a meeting in Nadan's flat share when he returned from the navy, it was decided to “run away” to Paris, the term “mizzebill” was used, which is a term for women: “A mizzebill is pretty much the worst thing can happen to a man. A plague. About a plague of locusts. There is nothing you can do about it. ”(P. 26) Then the relationships that existed so far dissolve and Nadan loves the Mizzebill Alberta from now on, because“ Nadan said to Rudi: Sometimes it seems to me that you are would most of the time be in the wrong bed with the wrong woman, [...] ”(p. 27) But things turn out differently than planned, they don't reach Paris, incompatibilities already appear during a forced hotel stay in Mannheim, they turn around and decide To go separate ways, to lead a “double life” (p. 115).
Jean-Philippe Alberta has now moved to Lyon (like the first-person narrator), works there as a teacher and translator, she lives with Jean-Philippe in "T., a small town on the banks of the Rhône, between Vienne and Valence, in the house […] (of, the V.) in-laws. ”(p. 51) She has been married for eight years and has lived there since their daughter Cécile was born. Jean Philippe works as a university professor of philosophy in Lyon and also helps his father with the grape harvest. In addition to a Vallot translation, the first-person narrator is working on the story of Nadan and Alberta, who finds distraction through the acquaintance of Eugène Puech, who for his part has a workshop in the same house and welds and flexes there. (P. 61) Jean-Philippe asks several times about the progress of the history of Nadan and Alberta.
Alberta Receives a Lover Through an answering machine message that says, "It's me. I'll call again later. ”(P. 87) announces Nadan's visit to Alberta. She, visibly disturbed, slightly afraid, prepares for the visit: “The fear was okay. But don't panic now, I thought, unpacked the bags and put the milk and the lamb kidneys in the refrigerator. ”(Ibid.) In the midst of the preparations and the restlessness, Alberta remembers her abortion , almost as a side note, in theirs Result it came to the actual alienation. Nadan wasn't ready to be there for Alberta after the procedure, to visit her. “The prompt 'no' wasn't the worst part of his answer. Worst of all was the pervasive icy cold indifference, which for a few years after that had time to let the thought become physical that it was real wars that were being waged. Real ones. ”(P. 109) Regardless of this, Alberta welcomes her lover, she serves the food, both have a more or less relaxed conversation about their respective“ double lives ”(p. 115), and they part again. Alberta's voice: "My excitement had subsided and disappointment had set in." (P. 115) Taking up the thoughts of the author and first-person narrator, the chapter ends with Alberta's self-assessment of happiness and how and what it is Life appears to then im
Epilogue to give a short, reconciling description of the living conditions of the first-person narrator.
Voice of the narrator
What does not seem to be the case at the beginning of the narrative, but develops in the second part, from Jean-Philippe , is the narrator's voice. If the first-person perspective still prevails at the beginning, the author, it appears, is playing a game with the homodiegetic as opposed to the heterodiegetic narrator, including the extra degeneracy. What is meant by this: the question of the extent to which the first-person narrator has a part in the event, and is therefore part of what is being told. One will have to speak of a mixed form. If A Mizzebill is told from an extradiegetic-homodiegetic perspective - this is the case with the so-called first-level narrator who tells his own story - from Jean-Philippe onwards the distance between the narrator and the character is removed. The narrator is not completely different from her character or the characters Alberta and Nadan, rather more attention is directed to the meta-construction of the events. One has the impression that the first-person narrator and the character are merging with one another, with parts of Alberta taking on traits of the first-person author, for example because both have chosen Lyon as their place of residence. Furthermore, within the entire text it is about frame and inner narration. The internal narrative in Part 2 (Jean-Philippe) is embedded in the framework narration of Alberta and Nadan.
Book cover design
The front cover shows the painting Betty by Gerhard Richter .
literature
- First edition: Birgit Vanderbeke: Alberta receives a lover. Berlin, 1997. Alexander Fest Verlag.
- Paperback edition: Birgit Vanderbeke: Alberta receives a lover. Frankfurt am Main, 1999. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.
- New edition: Birgit Vanderbeke: Alberta welcomes a lover. Munich, 2013. 128 pages. Piper Publishing House. ISBN 978-3-492-30388-0 .
Reviews
- Heinz Ludwig Arnold in the FAZ
- Susanne Beyer in Der Spiegel
- Cornelia Geissler in the Berliner Zeitung
criticism
"Birgit Vanderbeke has reinvented love."
"Greatly written and highly erotic."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Matias Martinez, Michael Scheffel: Introduction to the narrative theory. Munich, 1999. 6th edition, 2005. Chapter: Voice. Pp. 67-84.
- ^ This: Introduction to narrative theory. Here: p. 80 f.
- ↑ Katrin Blumenkamp: The "literary Fräuleinwunder". Berlin, 2011. Zugl. Göttingen Univ. Diss. 2010. P. 97 f.
- ↑ Illustration of the painting, accessed on June 22, 2014
