Axolotl Roadkill

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Axolotl Roadkill is Helene Hegemann's first novel. It was published by Ullstein in 2010. The book was initially celebrated as a sensation of the literary season, but accusations quickly emerged that Hegemann had copied large parts of her book by the Berlin author Airen from his work Strobo without citing the source. The book was again controversially discussed after it was later nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize (category: fiction )despite further allegations of plagiarism. The publisher subsequently acquired the numerous printing rights for the sources not mentioned at first. In the fourth edition of the novel, a bibliography was added thatlists in detailthe quotations from texts by Airen , Kathy Acker , David Foster Wallace , Rainald Goetz , Valérie Valère and others.

content

The book is about the sixteen-year-old truant Mifti, daughter of a father who worked in culture, who lives in a shared apartment with her older siblings Annika and Edmond. a. talk about drugs. After an affair with a photographer, Mifti plunges into the world of Berlin's techno clubs and ends up with heroin. She carries the eponymous Lurch, who cannot grow up, an axolotl with her.

criticism

The book was received by literary critics as a “ hallucinatory discharge of a traumatized consciousness as well as the simultaneous parody of it” ( Ursula März in der Zeit ), which with “pointed dialogues and sharply cut scenes” (Nina Apin in the TAZ ) on “the center of our Consensus culture "goals (Mara Delius in the FAZ )

According to Spiegel , the book lives not from its story, but rather from its atmosphere and its protagonists, who fight the feeling of existential emptiness with excesses; But it is also described as "radical, bulky, unfinished and at times simply unreadable" ( Tobias Rapp on Spiegel Online ) or "annoying when it comes to the Fickundkotz jargon and the no less wanted theory jargon ".

The NDR-Kulturjournal noted that after her award-winning play Ariel and the film Torpedo , Hegemann was telling a variant of her own dark story for the third time with Axolotl Roadkill : “The story of a girl who lost her mother to drunkenness at the age of 13, that goes to Berlin, to her father, a theater manager who skips school. "

Hegemann herself sums up her literary debut with the following words: “This is not a diary or a confessional novel created from overprint. It's an experiment. "

Allegations of plagiarism

At the beginning of February 2010, blogger Deef Pirmasens wrote Hegemann's debut novel Axolotl Roadkill in some passages that were very similar to the novel Strobo by Berlin blogger Airen , published in 2009 in SuKuLTuR . After the revelation, Helene Hegemann admitted to having copied passages of text by Airen for her novel. Out of " egoism and thoughtlessness" she failed to get in touch with Airen. Hegemann initially stated that he did not know the novel itself, but had taken over the passages from Airen's largely text-identical blog. Shortly thereafter, however, it became known that Airen's book had been ordered through her father's Amazon account in August 2009 . In the acknowledgment of the second edition of Axolotl Roadkill , which was printed before the controversy , Airen's name is also listed, but the controversial passages are neither marked as quotations , nor was permission obtained from this author in advance for this edition either contacted the author.

In addition, Hegemann is said to have used an almost literal translation of the text of the song Fuck You by the band Archive for a letter text at the end of the novel , also without citing the source .

Finally, another case of plagiarism appeared: Director Benjamin Teske discovered “striking similarities” between his short film Try a Little Tenderness and a short story by Hegemann published in Vice . However, this story was intended as a homage to this short film and its director. Hegemann had asked the Vice editorial team to dedicate their text to Teske. The editors regretfully admitted that they had not printed this dedication.

The Ullstein Verlag expressed itself in a press release as follows: “Sources must be named and their use must be approved by the author. We have already turned to SuKuLTuR Verlag to obtain this approval retrospectively. ”Hegemann said that it must also be recognized“ that the creation process has to do with this decade and the procedures of this decade, i.e. with the replacement of this whole Copyright excess through the right to copy and transform. "SuKuLTuR Verlag defended itself against this justification in a press release:" Of course, Helene Hegemann doesn't have to use heroin to write about heroin use. If you are writing a novel about the Middle Ages, you don't have to travel to the Middle Ages either. But you can't just copy from other medieval novels. And it doesn't matter whether you copied from a blog or a book or from a CD case. We call this 'adorning yourself with strange feathers'. The feathers belong to the writer Airen. "

Through her attempt at justification, Helene Hegemann also provoked comments on the question of intertextuality and copyright law in the plagiarism discussion . According to Arno Orzessek , the right to copy that Hegemann is claiming in times “when attention equals money, has to be fought for disgracefully before ordinary courts that otherwise deal with property issues. Publishing a novel and brisk sayings “can't do that; Hegemann would “not do well to ridicule a temporary loser in the literary business like Strobo author Airen for his help with avant-garde justification figures.” Bernd Graff also sees a difference between Hegemann's method and the usual intertextual way of working: “Plagiarism in the art business can only then claim to be art in their own right if they are expressly published as plagiarism and also presented as such ”, so that each recipient can check how creatively, confidently and reflected the material was used. The literary scholar Philipp Theisohn emphasizes that the conscious use of foreign texts decides whether a loan is a sovereign artistic achievement or just a plagiarism. In Hegemann's case, “a little foreign text was copied without any poetological ulterior motives. No Intertext, no material aesthetics - plagiarism. "

In contrast, the literary scholar Jürgen Graf considered in the time the novel Axolotl Roadkill as an elaborate "literary game" that undermines with "an ironically detached narrative voice" the authenticity of his own findings. “At no point in her novel does Helene Hegemann make a secret of the fact that her text is based on foreign texts. She openly shows that she is copying from foreign texts in the sense of an assembly aesthetic [...] The veiled quotation is considered art by the greats of literature, so why is it a plagiarism with Helene Hegemann of all people?

Despite the ongoing debate, according to Verena Auffermann , the jury held on to the nomination for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize , although after the allegations of plagiarism an actual award of the prize in internal literary circles was almost impossible and ultimately did not take place. After Ullstein Verlag had subsequently acquired the printing rights and announced a detailed list of sources for the next edition, Ullstein and blogger Airen, who was later financially compensated by the publisher, considered the matter to be settled.

Criticism from other authors

This procedure evoked a different response from other authors, for example Helmut Krausser said : “Theft is still theft, I am very conservative. By pointing out that stealing is everywhere today, just doing it shows little reflection and a certain lust for self-deception. ” Ulla Hahn, on the other hand, saw the responsibility generally in the commercial literature business,“ for which a sensationalist means more than a carefully crafted book. " Kai Meyer went even further in his judgment:" Many 16- or 17-year-olds send me their own texts, and no one is free from imitation - at this age, in this phase of developing a talent, that's part of it. The problem in this case is not Helene Hegemann, but the reception in the features section. Female, young, blonde, from the noble environment of the Berlin cultural scene - that was enough to stylize her as a little genius. Older critics and authors felt moved to verbally pat the little one's head and purr, "Well done." If they did that on the street, the police would come - and not for theft. ” Guy Helminger made it clear:“ Copyright is inviolable, at least it should be. Anyone who believes that the Internet age has changed something about this either does not think about it or is interested in justifying their own stealing. " Dieter Wellershoff preferred a clear differentiation:" It is questionable whether the creative power of another author is used for one's own purposes. Something different is the recognizable compilation of a new work from quotations: Here the montage becomes an artistic structural principle, which as such grows its own legitimation. ”In addition, Ulrike Draesner assumed Hegemann's goodwill, but if one did not approach it with a defense strategy do, “but with a symptom - then these symptoms are very alarming. Your argument isn't really a literary one, it's all about the habits of your generation on the Internet. Apparently there is no awareness that content could cost money. ”On February 23, 2010, Durs Grünbein published an alleged defense of Helene Hegemann in the feature section of the FAZ . A day later, he revealed that it was just a test. His contribution was a slightly modified text by Gottfried Benn from 1926, in which the latter defended against a plagiarism allegation against the author Rahel Sanzara . Grünbein described his action as a “turning into Dadaism” and identified a conflict between “vital puppies and culturally conservative cemetery vegetables” in the ongoing debate. Even Marcel Reich-Ranicki expressed the magazine Focus towards understanding of the situation Hegemann: "However, all great authors important have taken from others - Heine about, and especially Brecht." Although he admitted to have not read the book, adaptations and Quotations are just as common as a legitimate literary process.

The following discussion

After the debate subsided, Peter Michalzik tried to defend Hegemann in the Frankfurter Rundschau . He comes to the conclusion that the debate was based on inaccurate allegations, since Hegemann had already mentioned the author Airen among others in her acknowledgment "of his own accord" before the plagiarism allegations and more detailed references in literary texts are generally unusual. In addition, Helene Hegemann pointed out when it was published that her novel was "fiction". He quotes the author from an interview that the publisher had enclosed with the press copies: "I just had fun thinking up certain things and combining them with existing fragments from films or magazines or books or stories from my environment." against Hegemann "completely together". Michalzik's conclusion: “The Hegemann debate was an aerial number . One discussed under conditions that did not even exist. On the other hand, it can be considered certain: Hegemann did not want to steal anyone, she did not want to deceive anyone and she did not want to abuse any words. [...] You knew everything, she didn't hide anything. But where was the problem then? To be honest: we don't know [...] Obviously, the features section was mainly concerned with itself. […] What remains? First: an unjustifiably damaged young author. Second: A confirmation of old literary front lines. […] Third: The realization that literary critics prefer meeting young girls rather than reading books. Fourth: A confusion of what copy & paste means and what plagiarism is. "

In an interview with Spex magazine , Hegemann spoke personally about the plagiarism allegations. She is amazed at the great turmoil caused by Axolotl Roadkill . So she sees her writing method as fairly common, as many authors borrow sentences from other works and use them for their books. Furthermore, according to his own statements, Hegemann was also not interested in writing an explicitly intertextual or remixing culture. She takes the view that every person is made up of a wide variety of external influences. Clearly, the author is also influenced by other works that he reads and Hegemann therefore sees it as a matter of course to refer to these works as well. Regarding the criticism expressed of her regarding the lack of authenticity of the book and her person, she states that she owes her "abysmal skepticism towards the generally accepted concept of 'authenticity'" to René Pollesch , by whom she generally sees herself very much influenced.

Ingo Herzke evaluates both novels linguistically from the perspective of a German literary translator. Since the members of this professional group should be constantly familiar with current language developments, the question for him is whether the two books contribute to this, he means: little.

“(To Airen) You can take a lot with you linguistically, but that's not a lot of reading fun or even literature ... (to Hegemann): ... linguistically, in lexicons and syntax, idiosyncratic and interesting, literarily certainly overrated, in terms of content. .. pretty boring ... if you want to read what exciting modern literary German sounds like at a higher level, I recommend authors like Wolfgang Haas, Katrin Seddig , Wolfgang Herrndorf or ... Jakob Arjouni . "

- Ingo Herzke, in Translate , 1, 2013, p. 14f.

Reaction from Airen

In an interview with Stern magazine , Airen said in a first reaction that it was not enough for him to give thanks if entire passages were taken over. Airen was very surprised by the extent of the directly copied passages. However, he recognized Hegemann's book as an independent work, regardless of how many sources it was drawn from. If the relevant passages were marked, the matter was out of the world for him. In October 2010, the blogger novel Strobo von Airen, quoted by Hegemann, was also published by Ullstein Verlag .

Play

On November 21, 2010, the Thalia Theater in Hamburg , which had already decided in favor of the text before the plagiarism discussion, saw the premiere of the novel in a stage version by director Bastian Kraft and dramaturge Tarun Kade, which according to dpa was "enthusiastically celebrated". As early as May 2010, the Berlin puppet theater Das Helmi, in collaboration with Helene Hegemann , showed a free adaptation of the novel under the parodic title Axel hol den Rotkohl .

Movie

In January 2017 the book adaptation celebrated its world premiere under the title Axolotl Overkill in the "World Cinema Dramatic Competition" of the Sundance Film Festival . Helene Hegemann wrote the script and made her directorial debut for a feature film. Jasna Fritzi Bauer plays the role of Mifti in it.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mara Delius: Helene Hegemann: Axolotl Roadkill - Words fall apart in my mouth like bad pills. FAZ Online , January 22, 2010, accessed on August 20, 2013 .
  2. ^ Despite plagiarism: Hegemann nominated for book prize , Deutschlandradio Kultur, February 11, 2010, accessed November 19, 2012
  3. ↑ Hegemann book: Ullstein Verlag subsequently acquires printing rights. In: Zeit Online . Die Zeit , February 11, 2010, accessed on August 20, 2013 .
  4. ↑ References in the Hegemann case: friendly takeover. In: FAZ Online. February 17, 2010, accessed August 20, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Tobias Rapp: Authors: Das Wunderkind der Boheme. In: Spiegel Online . January 18, 2010, accessed August 20, 2013 .
  6. ↑ a b c http://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/33565.html
  7. ↑ a b Tobias Rapp : Authors: Das Wunderkind der Boheme. In: Spiegel Online . January 18, 2010, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Ursula March: Debut novel by Helene Hegemann: Literarischer Kugelblitz. In: zeit.de . February 6, 2012, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  9. ↑ NDR Kulturjournal dated February 1, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www3.ndr.de  
  10. ↑ a b - ( Memento from April 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ "Axolotl Roadkill": Helene Hegemann and Ullstein Publishers Dr. Siv Bublitz respond to allegations of plagiarism. In: BuchMarkt. February 8, 2010, accessed February 8, 2010 .
  12. ↑ Best-selling author Hegemann - Fräulein Wunder has copied. In: sueddeutsche.de. February 8, 2010, accessed February 8, 2010 .
  13. ↑ Child prodigy stole Roman on the Internet. In: Tages-Anzeiger. February 8, 2010, accessed February 8, 2010 .
  14. ↑ Literature prodigy copied from Blogger. In: spiegel.de. February 8, 2010, accessed July 8, 2017 .
  15. ^ Case Hegemann - Blogger exposes Miss miracles. In: sueddeutsche.de. February 8, 2010, accessed February 9, 2010 .
  16. ↑ Helene Hegemann: The reflection of my face in the creation of the world ( memento from September 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), on viceland.com
  17. ^ "Complete copy": Hegemann also accuses film student of plagiarism. In: welt.de . February 11, 2010, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  18. ^ "Axolotl Roadkill": Helene Hegemann and Ullstein Publishers Dr. Siv Bublitz respond to allegations of plagiarism. In: BuchMarkt. February 8, 2010, accessed February 9, 2010 .
  19. ↑ Fame is due to the hair. In: sueddeutsche.de. February 8, 2010, accessed February 9, 2010 .
  20. ↑ Press release on allegations of plagiarism Axolotl Roadkill / Strobo. In: satt.org. February 8, 2010, accessed March 11, 2010 .
  21. ↑ Anatol Stefanowitsch, on wissenslogs.de
  22. ↑ Arno Orzessek in: Deutschlandradio , www.dradio.de and the same comment as an mp3 file  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / ondemand-mp3.dradio.de  
  23. ↑ The Helene Hegemann case or what is literature allowed to do today? , German-Chinese cultural network, March 2010. Accessed May 30, 2014.
  24. ↑ A Brief History of Plagiarism - on the Hegemann Debate , Goethe Institute website , April 2010
  25. ↑ Jürgen Graf: "Literature at the borders of copyright" in the ZEIT from February 17, 2010, http://www.zeit.de/2010/08/Copyrights/komplettansicht
  26. ↑ Hegemann book: Ullstein Verlag subsequently acquires printing rights. In: zeit.de . February 11, 2010, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Dirk von Gehlen: Defense of the Remix against Fraud , in Jetzt , February 11, 2010
  28. ^ Plagiarism: Büchner Prize winner Grünbein on the Hegemann case , February 23, 2010, print edition p. 33
  29. ↑ The "plagiarism" plagiarism Why did you steal, Mr. Grünbein? , February 24, 2010
  30. ↑ jok: literary critic: Reich-Ranicki is afraid of death. In: Focus Online . May 21, 2010, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Peter Michalzik “What really happened” in: Frankfurter Rundschau from April 1, 2010.
  32. ↑ Spex, Ed. 328, Sept./Oct. 2010, p. 48ff.
  33. ↑ online
  34. ^ After Klau allegation: Hegemann's novel now with a list of sources. In: welt.de . February 17, 2010, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  35. ↑ November 23, 2010 Stage version: Axolotl Roadkill Original! Retrieved February 2, 2014 .
  36. ^ Wolfgang Behrens: Pulp Theater. In: nachtkritik.de , May 5, 2010.
  37. ↑ ZDF Neo Magazin Royale: Minute 18:35 In: Neo Magazin Royale , April 16, 2015.