The lime works

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The lime works is a novel by Thomas Bernhard from 1970. The protagonist Konrad moves into a secluded old lime works with his wife in order to write down a study about hearing there undisturbed . The novel was published by Suhrkamp Verlag in 1970 . In 2002 Hörverlag published a staged reading directed by Ulrich Gerhardt , spoken by Ulrich Matthes .

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Konrad has allegedly had this study in his head for decades; but he is still waiting for the most suitable moment to put it on paper. His wife, called Konrad , is dependent on a wheelchair and on the help and care of her husband. However, he misused them for his experiments according to the Urbantschitschen method , which should serve his study.

These experiments are carried out in such a way that Konrad says the same words into his wife's ear for hours, in alternating volume and from different distances. The woman who cannot escape the ordeal due to her paralysis must then make statements about how she perceived which sound. In this agonizing process, which takes place every day in the lime works, the woman, according to Konrad's judgment, works to varying degrees. But in order to achieve the best possible result in his experiments, Konrad has devised a kind of conditioning system that he wants to force his wife to better cooperation: Does she work well with, so she gets then from her favorite novel, the " Ofterdingen " by Novalis read . If she doesn't behave as her husband wishes, he reads her for hours from his favorite book, the Kropotkin .

In this seemingly sadistic way Konrad works on the study every day, although he never really gets to start writing it. According to his statements, something always comes up. Most of the time there is a knock on the door of the lime works exactly at the moment that seems appropriate to him and an unwelcome visitor destroys Konrad's entire concept. The tense situation between Konrad and his wife comes to a head over the course of the novel. He begins to neglect her by seldom washing her and not putting her clothes on anymore. Since Konrad does not have any professional activity besides his work on the study, he is forced to gradually sell the entire inventory of the lime works secretly behind the back of his wife. One night he dreams of a reversal of the balance of power in the couple relationship: In his dream, his wife can suddenly move, comes towards him in his room and accuses him of having secretly written the study. After this dream, Konrad shoots his wife on the night of December 24th to 25th. This story of Konrad and his wife is conveyed by an unnamed narrator who talks to various people who live in Konrad's environment.

The character of the narrator

The narrator character is a life insurance agent who is not mentioned by name and whose personality the reader does not learn anything about. During the entire novel, he talks to Fro and Wieser in an inn about the history of Konrad and, following these conversations, gives a report on what has happened and what has been said. This gives him the role of a reporter. Further informants for his report are: the building officer, the baker and Höller, whose statements are conveyed to him by Fro and Wieser. The narrator's report extends over several days. The reader learns that the narrator met Konrad a few times; however, it is not said what his relationship to him was. The reader is also left in the dark about the motivations of the narrator to write the report.

Narrative style

Almost everything the narrator reflects on the discussions with Fro and Wieser is in the subjunctive held. The result is a complex chain of quotations, since the statements that Konrad is supposed to have made are first quoted by Fro or Wieser and these are then quoted in turn by the narrator. These quotations are linked by inquit formulas that stand between the individual clauses. The chain of quotations causes the narrative perspective to be broken several times. Furthermore , like the two previous novels “Frost” and “Disturbance” , “Das Kalkwerk” is very rich in repetitions of words and even entire sentences.

History of origin

The Kalkwerk is Thomas Bernhard's third extensive prose text. It appeared in the same year that Thomas Bernhard was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize . The award also increased interest in the book. Thomas Bernhard visited Germany and Switzerland, where numerous readings took place. In between it looked for a short time that some of these readings would be canceled, because the author wanted to change his contract with Suhrkamp and threatened to cancel all further appointments.

The Kalkwerk is the novel with which Thomas Bernhard was able to achieve an initial broad impact, while his earlier prose works were more familiar to a somewhat smaller readership of literary connoisseurs. The first 3000 copies were sold out in November 1970. That is why Das Kalkwerk was a commercial success for both Thomas Bernhard and Suhrkamp-Verlag. On August 1, 1973, a paperback edition of the novel was also published in a first edition of 12,000 copies.

In the Thomas Bernhard Archive in Gmunden there is an eighteen-sheet bundle with notes made by the author on the lime works under the signature W 3/1 . This shows that Bernhard had acquired medical expertise for his novel. Specialist terms from ear medicine such as otalgia, otitis or otosclerosis appear in it.

reception

In 1970 Peter Härtling wrote in Spiegel : "Thomas Bernhard's new novel 'Das Kalkwerk' is even more decisive than the previous one, the absurdity becomes 'natural', the extreme introversion of the method, the plot of the travesty [...]."

Ernst-Wilhelm Händler called him his favorite book in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2004 : “Is clarity possible without cold? Thomas Bernhard's 'Das Kalkwerk' does not answer the question. But the question cannot be answered without the lime works. "

In 2006, on the occasion of Bernhard's 75th birthday and the new publication in volume 3 of the 22-volume edition of the work by Suhrkamp, literaturkritik.de stated: “Here Bernhard is developing the type of 'highly intelligent mental patient' who fails because of his own claims and strives for it Perfection ultimately ends in disaster. Its linguistically almost unbelievable construction only appears superficially monotonous, the text repeatedly winds in Konrad's thoughts, which are only communicated through third parties. "

Most reviewers emphasize the thematic continuity in Thomas Bernhard's longer prose works. Heinrich Vormweg said in Merkur : "The theme that he revolves around in all of his works is the terrible, senseless, oppressive human life, the zone of its darkening, crippling, of uncorrectable disturbance."

expenditure

  • The lime works . Library Suhrkamp Volume 1320. Frankfurt am Main 1999 ISBN 3-518-22320-8
  • Renate Langer (Ed.): Thomas Bernhard: Works, Volume 3 Das Kalkwerk . Suhrkamp Berlin 2004 ISBN 3-518-41503-4

Sound carrier

  • Ulrich Gerhardt (arrangement): The lime works . The Hörverlag. Munich 2002 ISBN 3-89584-967-7

Secondary literature

  • Josef König: Creation and Destruction. About the head metaphor in Thomas Bernhard's novel Das Kalkwerk. In: Language in the technical age 17 (1977), H. 63, 231–241.
  • Heinrich Lindenmayr: Totality and Limitation. An investigation into Thomas Bernhard's novel Das Kalkwerk. Koenigstein i. Ts. 1982.
  • Christoph Meister: A novel and its setting. The logic of the narrated space with Thomas Bernhard. Bern 1989.
  • Birgit Nienhaus: Architectures and other spaces. Representation of space in the prose of Thomas Bernhard. Marburg 2010.
  • August Obermayer: The Locus terribilis in Thomas Bernhard's prose. In: Manfred Jurgensen (ed.): Thomas Bernhard. Approximations. Bern / Munich 1981, 215-229.
  • Kenan Öncü: Thomas Bernhard's Konrad in Das Kalkwerk and Orhan Pamuk's Prince in The Black Book. In: Armin Eidherr / Manfred Mittermayer (eds.): Thomas Bernhard in Turkey. Istanbul 2002, 9-27.
  • Clemens Ruthner: (Text) spaces of horror. Thomas Bernhard and EA Poe. In: Joachim Hoell / Kai Luehrs-Kaiser (ed.): Thomas Bernhard. Traditions and satellites. Würzburg 1999, 135-141.
  • Mechthild Speicher: Investigation of the mythical space and mythical thinking with EA Poe The downfall of the house Usher, F. Kafka the building and T. Bernhard Das Kalkwerk. Munich 2013.
  • Jens Tismar: Solitude cells. In: Ders .: Troubled Idylls. A study on the problem of idyllic desires using the example of Jean Paul, Adalbert Stifter, Robert Walser and Thomas Bernhard. Munich 1973, 106-138.
  • Gernot Weiß: Extinction of Philosophy. Philosophy criticism with Thomas Bernhard. Wuerzburg 1993.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The lime works . Library Suhrkamp Volume 1320. Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 246
  2. ↑ Peter Härtling: Rituals of Dissolution In: Der Spiegel from October 19, 1970
  3. ^ Ernst Wilhelm Händler: My Favorite Book: "Das Kalkwerk" In: faz.net of July 21, 2004
  4. ^ André Schwarz: To sifting and ordering In: literaturkritik.de No. 2., February 2006
  5. ^ Heinrich Vormweg: A final state . In: Merkur H. 271, vol. 24, Nov. 1970, p. 1088 ff.
  6. ↑ from Langer R. (2018): 7 Das Kalkwerk In: Huber M., Mittermayer M. (eds) Bernhard-Handbuch. JB Metzler, Stuttgart