Antechrista

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Antichrista (German title: Nasty Girl ) is the eleventh of Amélie Nothomb published novel and 2003 in the Belgian appeared publisher "Éditions Albin Michel". The language of the original text is French , the German translation was published by Diogenes Verlag in 2006.

Summary

Blanche (French for white , here: like a blank slate ), a shy, inconspicuous and withdrawn girl, meets Christa at the university in Brussels and becomes friends with her. It is the first girlfriend in Blanche's life and at first she is very tense and excited. It turns out that Christa is the exact opposite of Blanche: she is gifted, brilliant, and most importantly, very well known. Blanche quickly finds out that Christa's friendship is a wrong game and that Christa gradually becomes her executioner, the Antichrist . Blanche must now overcome her trepidation and her fears in order to escape the "Antéchrista" and to save her family from the "Apocalypse".

Temporal overview and structure

The red thread in the book can be clearly identified in the temporal structure and perception of Blanche (given by the first-person perspective of the personal narrator). The following table shows the development of the plot in the book and tries to locate it in time:

week Temporal structure action
1 First day Blanche sees Christa's smile
2 One week later Christa looks at Blanche
2 The following day (Monday) Christa speaks to Blanche
2 Tuesday Christa is tired
2 The following day (Wednesday) Blanche invites Christa to join her
3 Monday Christa comes to Blanche, who tortures and gets to know her parents
3 The following morning (Tuesday) Return to university; Evening: Blanche does Christa's gymnastics
3 The following day (Wednesday) Blanche feels lonely
4th Next Monday Christa is welcomed with great enthusiasm by her parents (champagne)
4th A few days later Christa introduces Blanche to her friends
5 Monday night Blanche asks questions about Detlev, she thinks about friendship
6th Next Monday Christa appears neither in the university nor in the apartment of Hasts; Blanche's parents are concerned
6th The following day Christa reappears at the university
7th The following Monday Blanche loses her parents; they propose that Christa live with them for the whole week
7th Wednesday afternoon Christa is moving
7th Later, at university Christa's self-expression ; Blanche's internal force ("nuclear reactor")
7th In November Christa goes out with Blanche: "Antéchrista"
7th In this night Blanche's inner dialogue
8th For a few days Blanche ignores the intruder; "Christa was as beautiful as Antichrista was hideous."
Nov / Dec The weekends were my release Blanche benefits from her loneliness to read all the time
Nov / Dec When she is there (i.e. from Sunday evening to Friday noon) Christa freezes Blanche like concrete; The antichrist is gaining ground
Nov / Dec During the week Christa takes Blanche out to many parties
Nov / Dec During the week The "adventure" with Sabine
Dec In December The exams: Blanche got the better grade in philosophy
Dec In the Christmas holidays Christa goes home; Blanche enjoys two weeks of freedom
Dec In the Christmas holidays The visit to aunt Ursula
Dec On New Year's Eve Blanche's parents think of Christa
Jan The evening of January 5th You eat the three kings cake: the apocalypse is near
Jan Three days a week Blanche's parents invite guests to dinner to introduce them to Christa; they make fun of Blanche regardless of their presence
Feb vacation Christa goes home
Feb The day after Christa's departure Blanche goes to Malmedy for a day (a phonetic play on words in French: "mal-me-dit": "I am told bad things")
Feb On the second day of vacation Blanche shows her parents the "evidence"
Feb On Sunday evening Conversation of the Hast family with Christa; Christa is packing her things
In the spring Someday... Short conversation between Christa and Blanche at the university
In the spring A few days later The letter from Mr. Bildung
In the spring One morning A friend of Christa's spits in Blanche's face
In the spring Later Insulting letters from Detlev and Christa's mother
In the spring Later University life becomes difficult for Blanche
In the spring On the eve of the Easter holidays Blanche arrives late for lecture: The film kiss for Christa
In the spring Two weeks later The lectures continue - without Christa
Jun Time flies Blanche misses her exams, her parents go on vacation, she is left alone
Aug On the 13th of August Blanche's 17th birthday, no party, not a single phone call; Blanche does the gymnastics prescribed by Christa without wanting to

The temporal dynamics makes bigger and bigger leaps; If the event is initially told in steps of times of day and night, it is then weeks (from Monday to Monday) and finally months towards the end of the book.

Blanche and Christa

The two main characters of the novel are called Blanche and Christa. Blanche is a shy, withdrawn girl aged 16. She is ashamed that it is difficult for her to approach people (especially her peers). Christa is the exact opposite of Blanche. She is also 16 years old and comes from Malmedy in East Belgium . She speaks the German language, laughs a lot and likes to approach people.

Christian symbolism in the book

None of the characters in the novel have a bond or any affinity with the Christian religion. Neither Blanche, nor her parents, nor Christa are practicing Christians. Even so, Christian metaphors, parables and symbols are used by them: parable of the prodigal son, epiphany , antichrist , apocalypse , Judas kiss , crucifixion. These traces of the Christian confessional world have largely become meaningless in the secularized society of the 21st century and have lost their original meaning. Opinion research institutes have found that Christmas is associated with the exchange of gifts and winter holidays by a large part of the ( French ) population and that Easter is associated with the Easter bunny and the spring awakening - Whitsun is the most need of explanation - while Christian salvation has largely been forgotten. This fact is reflected in the novel. All references and parallels to the Christian confessional world have lost their religious connotation and are given negative signs: Christa ruthlessly uses the parable of the prodigal son for her own profile. The epiphany is degraded to a pathetic farce and quibbling. Because of her satanic machinations, Christa is declared an "Antéchrista" by Blanche. Their diabolical manipulations take on apocalyptic proportions in the microcosm of the Hast family. The Judas kiss helps expose the devious Christa. The crucifixion is desecrated to portray Blanche's inner conflict.

Quotes

The following key quotes are from the French version of the book published by Reclam Verlag. The given translations are free translations by the author of this article and do not come from the official translation "Bad Girl".

  • "Le premier jour, je la vis sourire. Aussitôt, je voulus la connaître." - I saw her laugh the first day. From then on I wanted to get to know her.
  • "L'équation s'énonçait ainsi: Christa était also belle qu'Antéchrista était hideuse." - The equation was as follows: Christa was as beautiful as Antichrista was hideous.
  • "De toute façon, c'est Christa, notre pure! Déclara ma mère." - In any case: Our queen is Christa! Declared my mother.
  • "Je vis mes doigts s'etreindre au pancacre, je vis mes épaules se tendre comme un arc, je vis ma cage thoracique déformée par l'effort et je vis ce corps ne plus m'appartenir et exécuter, toute honte bue, la gymnastique Prescrite par Antéchrista. Ainsi, sa volonté fut faite, et non la mienne. " - I saw my fingers entwine in a wrestling match, I saw my shoulders tighten like an arch, I saw my chest bent from the exertion and I saw this body that no longer belonged to me and that performed the gymnastics described by Christa without any shame. In this way their will became a reality and not mine.

Publications

literature

  • Lieselotte Steinbrügge: From the end of the bad girl. To Amélie Nothomb's novel "Antéchrista". In: rebellious - desperate - infamous. The bad girl as an aesthetic figure , edited by Renate Möhrmann , Aisthesis Verlag, Bielfeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-89528-875-3 , pp. 217–226.

swell

  1. ↑ Afterword by Helmut Keil in Antéchrista, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG , Ditzingen, October 2008, ISBN 978-3150197394
  2. ↑ Antichrista, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG , Ditzingen, October 2008, ISBN 978-3150197394 , page 3, lines 1-2
  3. ↑ Antichrista, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG , Ditzingen, October 2008, ISBN 978-3150197394 , page 78, lines 16-17
  4. ↑ Antichrista, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG , Ditzingen, October 2008, ISBN 978-3150197394 , page 107, lines 1-2
  5. ↑ Antichrista, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG , Ditzingen, October 2008, ISBN 978-3150197394 , page 153, lines 4-9