On the gallery

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Horse rider in the circus
painting by Georges Seurat (1891)

On the gallery is a parable by Franz Kafka , which appeared in 1919 as part of the volume Ein Landarzt . The text consists of two parts that describe what appears to be the same process, but reproduce it very differently. Similar to Kafka's stories A Hunger Artist , First Suffering or A Report for an Academy , the variety and circus world is chosen as the setting for the artist problem in this prose piece.

content

Instead of a story, the text Auf der Galerie offers only two long enumerated sentence periods that describe two contrasting variants of the same (artist) existence from the point of view of an authorial observer.

The first (conditional) sentence paints the unreal image of a sick, unfortunate, childlike female horse rider in the circus , who for months in front of "an indefatigable audience" is driven by her "whip-wielding merciless boss" to ever more, endless top performances - "maybe a young one hurried Gallery visitors down the long stairs through all the tiers, rushed into the ring , shouted stop! through the fanfare of the constantly adapting orchestra . "

The second (causal) sentence, on the other hand, shows the seemingly realistic image of a vital, beautiful lady as a rider full of dignity, happy with her job and being courted and lovingly cared for by her director - “as this is the case, the gallery visitor puts his face on the parapet and In the final march, sinking into a heavy dream, he cries without knowing it. "

shape

Grammatical consideration

The first paragraph with the negative representation is filled by a long if-then period, which consists of two conditional clauses followed by a main clause, the scope and complexity of which is mainly due to the fact that a number of local and modal adverbials are included in the two conditional clauses, while the main clause, separated by a dash, lists three asyndetically ranked predicates.

The second paragraph, which is even longer, contains only a single sentence structure, which consists of two causal clauses separated by a dash with a final main clause and whose scope and complexity is mainly due to the fact that the first causal clause not only lists different subjects and predicates, but also of further clauses is interrupted and the main clause also contains a double predicate and a modal adverbial with an infinite construction.

Linguistic representation

The first paragraph is written in the subjunctive , i.e. in the possible form. Thus, the firm reaction appears the gallery visitor in the first - part shown as a possibility - logically comprehensible: If it were so, then that would young gallery visitors intervene.

The second paragraph is written in the indicative , i.e. in the form of expression. Therefore, on first reading, one tends to see the first representation as a possibility and the second as a reality. But this is called into question by the cry of the gallery visitor at the end. The optimistic variant becomes even more questionable if one considers the reality of everyday circus life with the constant routine of repetitions and the normally prevailing gap between boss and subordinate circus people.

Overall, the language of the short prose piece appears restless and driven in both parts due to the order of the parts of the sentence. In the first part, the linguistic design seems to express the artist's angry whipping. In the second part she illustrates the euphoria.

Both paragraphs express completely different points of view in terms of content. On the linguistic level, however, both paragraphs are structured similarly and only differ in nuances.

Narrative perspective

The narrator position of this parable is difficult to grasp, because the parable represents less a narrative than a literary experimental arrangement. It is true that the gallery visitor is confronted with both variants, but he is not the narrator, since he is also viewed from the outside. of an authorial instance that does not express itself in a linear narrative, but rather in a cyclical mind game, that is, not so much an authorial "narrator" as an authorial medium of reflection.

Interpretative approaches

Ambivalent artist world and general problem of truth

The gallery shows the contrary sides of an artist's existence, which is in the public eye, from the perspective of a gallery visitor. If one asks the question which variant is more real, the recipient horizon must also be seen. Which own view of things are even possible for a viewer or artist? Which point of view he basically adopts should hardly be subject to his voluntary control. He can compulsively torment the world and "think hopelessly" and will then portray it that way. Or he can emphasize the positive opposite. Both variants pathetically overemphasize the strikingly described ambivalence of good and bad, happy and depressed.

Both sections show competing forms of circus reality by exaggerating their characteristics and thus provide a study of the problematic of perception, which presents different designs of reality that force the viewer to react diverging.

Here Kafka stages a confusion about appearance and reality. He develops both in his effect on a certain viewer in the gallery, who does not seem to have any connection to the other audience and, precisely because of his isolation and loneliness, sees through the artificial, fragile happiness. Given the rider's pitiful fate, he can take on a hero role and save her. A latent competition between him and the director is unspoken in the room.
In the other variant, this viewer is crying. Are they happy tears or does he mourn because he knows that everything is just a facade and that the rider really feels as described in the first case? The fact that he cries "sinking into a heavy dream without knowing it" underscores the questionability of the decision between true and false reality.

Thus the problem of truth itself becomes the subject of the mind game. The search for knowledge leads to a tragic dilemma, ends in weeping futility - and in the painful isolation from the average person who lives in good faith and is superficially pleasurable.

Biographical references

The arena is not only the stage, but also the young art rider's workplace. Kafka was repeatedly confronted and affected by inadequate job conditions during his work at what was then the Prague Workers' Accident Insurance Institution (which still exists in Austria today). It can therefore be assumed that Kafka et al. a. also under the impression of his professional experience as a visionary view of the manifestations of working life and the entertainment industry, which only emerge so blatantly in today's media world. (See also Sudau, see below "Reception".)

In the diary entry of November 9, 1911, Kafka described a dream: he was in the gallery and a frightened young girl down on the stage.

Another background or inspiration could have been two pictures from the 19th century, namely In the Circus by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and The Circus by Georges Seurat (see the painting above). They deal with the same subject, namely the portrayal of a young female horse rider in the arena with a director. Because of the similarity, it is quite likely that Kafka knew these images.

reception

  • Alt (p. 498) mentions the relation to the dream and to the power of the psychic forces that act on the individual. With his unconscious weeping, the gallery visitor returns to the world of the imaginary, the unconscious.
  • Sudau (p. 10): Kafka's parable of a global transmission that has succumbed to false appearances can easily be broken down into many concrete sectors in which glittering worlds or lazy magic unfold: from the catwalk to the political stage. The current age with its all day television circus has found a treacherous-paradoxical term that corresponds exactly and bitterly to Kafka's puzzle: the “reality show”. The media art or better kitsch and trash worlds modeled on “Big Brother” must appear more and more to a dumbfounded audience, banned from the screen, as the real world. The "halt" is far away, the suffering is unrecognized and mute.
  • v.Jagow / Liska (p. 67): By problematizing the narrative perspective and thus showing that it is always only a question of subjective modes of perception, he deprives the reader of the possibility of determining what the real circus scene is. In doing so, he sets himself apart from the male positions presented in the text and gives the art rider back her irreconcilable independence.

expenditure

  • Paul Raabe (ed.): Complete stories. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg 1970, ISBN 3-596-21078-X .
  • Roger Herms (ed.): The stories. Original version from Fischer Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-596-13270-3 .
  • Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch, Gerhard Neumann (Hrsg.): Prints during lifetime. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1996, pp. 262/263.

Secondary literature

Web links

Wikisource: On the gallery  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sudau, p. 7
  2. ↑ Sudau, pp. 12/13
  3. ↑ Alt, pp. 496-498
  4. ↑ Sudau p. 7ff.
  5. ↑ Alt, p. 174
  6. ^ Franz Kafka: Diaries. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt 2002, ISBN 3-596-15700-5 , p. 239
  7. ↑ Schlingmann, pp. 110-113