Aurora's occasion
The novel (shown on the title page of the book as a short story), Aurora's Occasion, by the Austrian writer Erich Hackl , was published in Zurich in 1987 and is the author's first literary publication. The fictional design of the real life story of Aurora Rodríguez and her daughter Hildegart is presented against the background of Spanish history from the 20th century up to 1955. Hackl received the ZDF “Aspects” literature prize for his novel.
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The novel begins with a murder:
"One day, Aurora Rodríguez felt compelled to kill her daughter."
With four shots in the heart and head, she kills her daughter Hildegart, then goes to the Palace of Justice with a prominent lawyer and makes a confession. After the perpetrator, deed and victim are known right at the beginning, the novel follows the motifs of Aurora, which the title suggests in an alliterative manner.
Aurora's childhood
The flashback that sets in after deed and confession begins with Aurora's childhood in Ferrol . The mother, Pilar Carballeira, a trained teacher but exclusively a housewife, is portrayed as cold, clerical and conservative. She faces the progressive father, Anselmo Rodríguez, lawyer and procurator in court, whose liberal views strongly influence Aurora.
Aurora grows up with three siblings who, with the exception of the youngest son, are homeschooled by an impoverished relative. In the process, a bigoted moral becomes clear that allows boys to do anything, but not to allow girls to do anything. The mother forbids the 10-year-old sister Josefa and Aurora to jump and run when they are toddlers, from the age of 12 the girls are no longer allowed to leave the house unaccompanied. On the other hand, the parents give a kitchen helper money to introduce the eldest son to the "practices of love".
When the 7-year-old Aurora overhears her father's client conversation, the Spanish woman's situation becomes clear to her for the first time. The client is only disgusted with her husband, feels used and therefore wants to get a divorce. When the father explains to her that she would lose her daughter in the process, she decides to stay:
- Endure hell. I won't give pink.
- When Anselmo Rodríguez later entered the library, his daughter was still holding the doll. A beautiful doll, he said. What's her name?
- Rosa, said Aurora. And she is all mine. (End of the first chapter)
In this negative environment of a cool mother and the evil sister Josefa, Aurora develops mainly through secret observations and reading in the father's library. When the sister leaves her first child of José Arriola, the little "Pepito" , at home out of disinterest, Aurora takes on the role of mother for the first time. At the same time, however, she also experiences her first loss: When the little boy turns out to be a piano prodigy, Josefa takes the boy away from her and goes on tour with him.
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Pilar Carballeira dies when Aurora is 15. She perceives the death of her mother as a liberation and develops closer contact with her father, who takes her with her to the debates of the freethinkers. She encounters Charles Fourier's ideas and tries to implement them through her own designs. But the father feels too old for the concrete implementation of his utopias. Three years after the mother, the father dies too.
Aurora is now 17 and has the good-natured Doctor Ochoa as her guardian, in whose house she has to live. She makes the first concrete attempts to become politically active. But when she wants to teach socialist workers to read and write, they reject a woman as a teacher. As the doctor's companion in the slums, she gains first impressions of the social hardship in Spain.
At the age of 23, she returned to her parents' house and began to sell her share of the family property. She produced a violent scandal when she placed an ad in which she was looking for a father for her child, but with whom she did not want to enter into any relationship. The producer only needs to be “healthy in body and mind” (beginning of Chapter 3). After some harassment, a clergyman from the merchant marine answers and takes on the role.
Hildegart's birth and upbringing (chap. 4 ff)
In 1914 Aurora moved to Madrid, breaking off all contact with family and hometown. Aurora's basic motive becomes clear even during pregnancy:
"[...] their intention to bring a child into the world who should liberate humanity or part of it [...]"
To this end, she already follows strict principles during pregnancy, avoiding excitement and negative impressions, eating healthy, and redesigning her environment. She gave birth to her daughter Hildegart on December 8, 1914.
Not until 18 months later does she register the child with the authorities under the name “Carmen”, but she always calls “Hildegart”, which she (incorrectly) translates as “garden of wisdom”. The name is said to have a positive influence on the child's development. When bringing up the girl, she tries everything to keep her away from the traditional role of women in Spain. She avoids any contact between Hildegart and other children, and allows the child to grow up without religious or sexual prejudice. The early teaching of numbers and letters leads to amazing achievements. At the age of 3 Hildegart took a typing exam.
At the same time, Aurora worries about her daughter's genetic makeup (Chapter 6). She learns by chance from a former neighbor that the producer molested a 12-year-old daughter of his brother and allegedly embezzled money. Because of this information, the first thoughts of murder arise in Aurora.
"At home, where Aurora Rodríguez was pacing up and down with the greatest emotional movement, it occurred to her for the first time to put an end to her daughter's life, including her own."
Out of a bad conscience, she allows Hildegart, who wants nothing more than contact with other children, to attend school. To do this, she has to be baptized Catholic and later also takes part in first communion in order to integrate into the class. Because of her free views, she is exempt from religious instruction at the request of the religion teacher.
Hildegart's studies and political and journalistic activities
At 13, Hildegart began studying law at the Central University of Madrid and found a supporter in Professor Méndez Bejarano, also as a second socially critical father figure. At the age of 14 she decided to join the youth federation of socialists and the trade union and in September 1929 became vice-president of the socialist youth federation. Aurora accompanies Hildegart in all activities, even when pasting posters at night. On December 10, 1930, at the age of 16, she was charged with lese majesty. Because of the social upheavals, the trial never took place.
Hildegart began to publish parallel to her studies and school. At the age of 12 she had published her first study on love in literature. With the obituary for a French feminist, she began journalistic work, initially for the party newspaper “ El Socialista ”.
On April 12, 1931, the long-awaited elections lead to a social change, the socialists join the newly formed government (chapter 8). Aurora accompanies Hildegart's political decisions in solidarity, but there is a fundamental conflict between the two. While the daughter believes in a slow transformation of society, Aurora relies on a revolutionary overthrow, "the cleansing power of violence" (Chapter 8).
Hildegart increasingly encounters difficulties, she is attacked by the church because of her sexual-political writings, and has to flee from the angry residents during a lecture from the village of Matavenero . The attitude of the adapted socialist functionaries like Manuel Cordero, their disgust for the filth of the slums, begins to depress them.
“It is not the huts that are a disgrace, but the conditions that they create. Not these crooked shacks, but the wealth that leads to need. Would Mr Cordero also loudly announce his indignation at the palaces, villas and elegant shops? "
"Realpolitik makes you stupid, replied Hildegart, bends your spine, bites your tail."
In 1931 Hildegart published three more books on sexual politics, she called for absolute equality between men and women before the law, the abolition of marriage and propagated contraception.
“The sexual problem (...) is the key for everyone else. The large families, marital disputes, violence are nothing but a consequence of this problem. The sexual revolution must precede all others. "
After Hildegart is threatened anonymously, Aurora buys a pistol from a "gypsy" to protect her daughter (Chapter 9).
Distance from the mother
Hildegart met the British writer HG Wells at a lecture by the newly founded “League for Sexual Reform”. Wells represents the Malthusian position on population policy, which for Hildegart is only an expression of the fear of the rich in front of the mass of workers. He is impressed by Hildegart's emotional counter-speech, which he ironically calls "the red virgin", and invites her to work for a friend of his, the English sexologist Havelock Ellis .
After her expulsion from the socialist party in September 1932, Hildegart published a book on the critique of socialism. Contrary to expectations, after this change of heart, Hildegart did not radicalize in the direction of communism or anarcho-syndicalism , but became involved with the progressive but moderate federalists. She does not believe in a short-term socialist perspective for backward Spain. In the new party she meets the young Abel Velilla and, to Aurora's horror, suddenly begins to be interested in jewelry and clothing.
“After Hildegart's break with the socialists she had hoped to become the center of Hildegart's life again. The opposite was the case. She felt increasingly marginalized. "
The fear of the legacy of Hildegart's sire in Aurora rises again. She travels to Ferrol and learns that he killed himself by hanging himself 10 years ago.
Hildegart is becoming increasingly attractive. To deter Hildegart's admirers, Aurora invents a Norwegian fiancé of the daughter. There is a break between mother and daughter. Hildegart refuses any communication until she finally announces that she wants to accept the offer to work in England. The conflict is worsening. Hildegart decides to accept HG Wells' offer and go to England.
- “So you want to go alone,” asked Aurora, and leave me here?
- Naturally.
- Then you are lost. Too weak to be true to your goals.
- I am strong, said Hildegart. I dont Need you anymore. But is it also the other way around? "
Aurora sums up her anger in a parable in which she declares Cain to be the hero of Christian mythology, who got rid of his weak and adapted brother, “a doll in God's hands” , in a “cleansing act” (chap. 10). For a long time she thought about killing herself. After one last attempt at persuasion, a destructive conversation over two days and two nights without sleep, she decides to kill Hildegart. According to Roman, the daughter agrees.
The remaining chapters tell the trial against Aurora and her life in prison and psychiatry until her tracks are lost in the turmoil of Spanish history.
subjects
Mother daughter relationship
Relationships between mother and daughter appear several times in the novel, even if Aurora and Hildegart are the focus of interest. This relationship is shaped by Aurora's alternative to her view of the relationship with her own mother. Aurora sees the core problem of one's own upbringing in a lack of well-founded education and a lack of female self-confidence.
But she does not escape a problem that also haunted conservative mothers during their childhood: the desire for sole right of disposal over their daughters, and the endangerment of this desire by the world of men. Even as a child, in view of the powerlessness of women in relation to her doll, she said:
"And it belongs to me all alone."
She sees this wish endangered by Hildegart's awakening sexuality and attempts to cut the cord. In doing so, she interprets the fear of loss into the fear that Hildegart might miss her actual task. As emotionless as the Aurora construct sounds, it reacts emotionally. She would rather kill her daughter than release her.
education
Hildegart's upbringing through Aurora follows strict principles, although the rigidity of the implementation is frightening. The primary goals are maximum intelligence and the generation of an emancipatory mentality. To this end, Aurora isolates Hildegart from other children in order to avoid the transmission of prejudices.
Some of the concepts work in the sense of reform pedagogy , for example the selection of building toys, healthy eating and the appreciation of free play in the fresh air. Other ideas appear doubtful, such as the attempt - which succeeded in this special case - to significantly accelerate natural spiritual development. The social isolation of the child and the sole focus on the relationship with the mother are justified by the goal of prejudice avoidance from Aurora's point of view. Nevertheless, through its prehistory, the novel implicitly poses the question of the psychological background of this approach. Aurora's goal-oriented behavior on the conscious level also appears as an attempt to secure complete and unrestricted parenting power over the daughter.
In short episodes, the novel shows the difficulties little Hildegart gets into in prudish Spain due to her lack of prejudice and social contacts. When she and her maid Julia Sanz visit a photographer, she notices his interest in Julia:
“He has a penis, said Hildegart, and puts it in your vagina. And then semen comes out and fertilizes an egg, and then a child starts growing in your belly. And then it comes out and plays with me. Can it play with me? "
Role of women in Spain
The novel paints a mixed picture of women. The misery of women from the lower classes contrasts with the conservatism of bourgeois women. They actively advocate the ecclesiastical and social rules that maintain their inferiority and represent them massively in the upbringing of their daughters. Aurora and her daughter Hildegart want to break out of this world, and the focus of their commitment is on enlightening and emancipating women. They are well aware that their contemporaries tend to be on the conservative church side, that women's suffrage is initially more beneficial to the conservatives.
The novel shows the negative sides of women especially in Aurora's mother and Aurora's older sister Josefa. In addition to conservative thinking, Hackl particularly emphasizes the unemotional, cold relationship with one's own children who are raised by servants.
Sexual politics
A central political theme of the novel is population policy. Both Aurora's father and Hildegart, following the British economist Thomas Robert Malthus, see exponential population growth as the main cause of social misery. In principle, this could not be offset by exponential growth in food production. Sexual education is a necessity and is a central means of politics.
The historical Hildegart Rodríguez wrote numerous books and articles on this subject and in 1932 was secretary of the "Liga para la Reforma Sexual". The ideas of women's emancipation and sexual education were extremely controversial among socialists and communists around 1930. The problems of women appeared as a “ secondary contradiction ” in comparison to the actual economic problem. Nevertheless, the debates about sexuality had a great attraction, especially among young people, and were therefore temporarily tolerated. Wilhelm Reich has clearly illustrated these problems for the German-speaking area.
Historical background
see. also the Wikipedia article on the history of Spain
The novel largely follows the historical events of Aurora Rodríguez and her daughter Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira , which the contemporary of women, Eduardo de Guzmán , had portrayed in the 1970s. In 1977 the events were filmed (see below). The Spanish author Hildegart Rodríguez had campaigned massively for the sexual liberation and social emancipation of women.
Furthermore, the case is used to present the political and social development in Spain, especially in the first half of the 20th century. The focus is on the political positions of the Spanish socialists and federalists.
Hildegart Rodríguez was initially involved with the socialists ("Juventudes Socialistas"). An important part of the plot takes place during the founding period of the second Spanish republic after April 14, 1931, with the participation of the socialists in government. Hildegart Rodríguez is particularly involved in the area of women's emancipation and sexual policy. She leaves the party in the end, disgusted by a realpolitik that cemented social conditions instead of changing them and repulsed by the selfish functionaries.
Contrary to expectations, after this change of heart, Hildegart did not radicalize in the direction of communism or anarcho-syndicalism , but became involved with the progressive but moderate federalists (Partido Republicano Federal). Hackl presents Hildegart's distrust of strong central powers as the main reason, which she shared with many Spaniards. Above all, the communists who are not shown in detail are rejected here, but so are Franco's supporters .
Another aspect of the political controversy that the novel deals with is the role of the socialist functionaries, who are basically disgusted by the socially disadvantaged they are supposed to represent and who are instead only looking for career opportunities.
Another political idea that the novel addresses is the utopia of a farm farmed by farm workers in a social community following the early socialist Charles Fourier , who had already spoken out in favor of freedom in love. Aurora's father had already enthusiastically reported about an estate that the farm workers, appointed by the previous owner as heirs, worked together. Following the example of the Phalanstère von Fourier, Aurora had developed concrete plans to implement this idea with the help of the family's assets. As the planning becomes more concrete, to Aurora's disappointment, the father distances himself from the project on the grounds that he is too old for it.
Literary procedure
A typical process for Hackl is to roll up the events from the end, from the result. This affects not only the overall structure of the novel, but also smaller narrative units. For example, the depiction of Aurora's childhood begins with the death of the parents and only then does the life of the family develop up to this point. So the narrator does not stick to the chronology , there are time leaps and a large part of the text appears as a flashback.
Another basic feature of the novel is the montage of narrative passages and documents in italics. Texts by Aurora and her daughter Hildegart as well as statements and newspaper reports create an authentic atmosphere. Nevertheless, the fictional character of the text is retained, the narrative elements dominate. The inserted passages from Hildegart's publications take a retrospective position on events from her childhood and youth. Here, too, the chronology is broken. The statements also make offers of interpretation, a network of text elements is created that illuminate each other. At the end of the novel, Hackl presents a list of the most important sources and comments:
“In retrospect, it is difficult for the author to organize and unravel the web of facts and speculations. But decency requires at least the most important documents to be named, without whose knowledge the present narrative could not have been written [...] "
Hackl illuminates the life of the time and the character of the characters in small, relatively independent episodes . Hackl, for example, illuminates the sexual hostility of Aurora's mother by having little Aurora attend a village dance festival with a maid. There the child watches a kiss between the maid and a man. When the mother found out about this, the girl was released immediately.
expenditure
- Erich Hackl: Aurora's cause . Zurich 1987
Translations
- Aurora's falen. Een vertelling. (Theodor Duquesnoy.) Amsterdam: Amber 1988
- Auroras foranledning. Novel. (Niels Brunse.) Copenhagen: Hekla 1988
- Aurora's motive. (Lasse Tønte.) Oslo: JW Cappelens Forlag 1988
- Auroras skäl. (Margarethe Holmqvist.) Stockholm: Legenda 1988
- Le mobile d'Aurora. (Jean-Claude Capèle.) Paris: Fayard 1988 and Stock 1992
- O desejo de Aurora. (Maria Emília Ferros Moura.) Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores 1988
- Aurora's motives. (Edna McCown.) London: Jonathan Cape and New York: Knopf 1989
- Auror Poticaj. (Snješka Knežević.) Zagreb: Mladost 1990
- Il caso Aurora. (Fernanda Macini and Giusi Valent.) Milan: Marcos y Marcos 1990.
- Los motivos de Aurora. (Jorge A. Pomar.) Havana: Arte y Literatura 1991 and Montevideo: Trilce 1996
- Motivite na Aurora. Povest. (Bojtscho Damjanov.) Sofia: Izdatelstvo 7 M 1991
- Ha'ila Shel Aurora. (Shimshon Offer.) Or Yehuda: Zmora Bitan 1992
- Aurohora no douki. Tokyo: Quintessence 1992
- Rasti Aurora. Novelë. (Sadetin Hoxha.) Shkodër: Camaj - Pipa 2002
literature
- Portrait of Erich Hackl . In: Die Rampe , issue 3/05. Published by StifterHaus Linz, 168 pages, 10.90 euros. Distribution: Trauner Verlag Linz, www.trauner.de
- Frank Geisler: The portrayal of social conflicts in Spain before the civil war in the story “Auroras Anlaß” by Erich Hackl . Master thesis. Frankfurt / Main 1995
- Ulrich Koch: Erich Hackl: “Aurora's occasion” . Bergmoser + Höller Verlag, Aachen 1996
- Éva Miklos: Erich Hackl: “Aurora's occasion” . Master thesis. Budapest 1996
- Michael-Josef Richter: Erich Hackl's story Aurora's occasion in the tradition of Kleist - [Thematic, stylistic relationship between Aurora's occasion and The Marquise of O. and Michael Kohlhaas as well as parallels between J. Irvings Garp and EL Doctorow's ragtime]. Master thesis. Aachen 1991
- Ulrike Stenger: The fetters of love. Mother-daughter relationships in "The Piano Player", "The Chastisement" and "Aurora's Occasion" . Thesis. Vienna 1993.
Sources on Aurora Rodríguez
- Eduardo de Guzmán: Aurora de sangre. Vida y muerte de Hildegart , Madrid: G. del Toro 1973
- Wilhelm Reich : Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf (1936), new edition udT Die Sexuelle Revolution , Frankfurt / M. 1966
- Pilar Pérez Sanz y Carmen Bru Ripoll: Hildegart o la historia de Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira, su madre . In: Revista de Sexología (Madrid), núm. 32 (1987) (= La sexología en la España de los años 30, tomo 2)
- Guillermo Rendueles: El manuscrito found en Ciempozuelos. Análisis de la historia clínica de Aurora Rodríguez . Endymion, Madrid 1989
- Rosa Cal: A mí no me doblega nadie. Aurora Rodríguez: Su vida y su obra (Hildegart) . Ediciós do Castro, A Coruña 1991
- Klaus M. Beier: Femininity and Perversion. From reproduction to reproversion . Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart a. a. 1994
- Carmen Domingo: Wed querida hija Hildegart. Una historia que conmocionó a la España de la Segunda República . Destino, Barcelona 2008
filming
- Mi hija Hildegart , director: Fernando Fernán Gómez, actors: Amparo Soler Leal, Carmen Roldán, Maribel Ayuso, 1977, duration: 100 minutes, language (Spanish / Catalan)