The big issue

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The big booklet is a novel by Ágota Kristóf . It was published in French in 1986 under the title Le grand cahier and became the first volume in a trilogy . The novel was awarded the “Livre Européen” award in 1987 and has been translated into more than thirty languages. In 2006 the book was included in the series of the Swiss library . The novel was made into a film by Hungarian director János Szász in 2013, and the film won the Grand Prix at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival .

Table of contents

The book tells the story of twin brothers who have to grow up on their own in times of war by forming their own moral concepts and learning absolute self-control.

“I'll show you how to live!” This is the first thing the twins hear from their grandmother when they are driven out of the city by the war and taken to the country by their mother. What counts now are those skills that ensure survival; Muscles and stamina replace school education. The grandmother, known as the 'witch' in the village, lets the two boys work hard for a living. They do not experience love and tenderness from her, but are called 'dog sons'.

In order to be able to survive under these circumstances, the brothers devise exercises for physical and psychological hardening: they inflict pain on themselves in order to make themselves insensitive to the blows. They abuse themselves in order not to notice the insults anymore. They learn to beg, lie, steal and kill because “you have to be able to do it”. They adapt to this war-torn society in their own way by learning to defend themselves verbally and physically and by developing their own moral standards. They leave their well-protected childhood far behind and become merciless young adults. “We never play.” The fact that they record all their experiences and observations in a large notebook results in a realistic collection of essays.

In the follow-up novels "The Proof" and "The Third Lie" the twins reappear in different constellations, whereby the question that arises at the end of the big issue is whether the "twins" are possibly the literary reflection of a single person , receives new nourishment on various occasions.

Interpretative approach

  • War : Ágota Kristóf wrote an anti-war book. Her relationship to the war is evident in her biography, as she became a war refugee herself when she fled to Neuchâtel in western Switzerland during the 1956 Hungarian uprising . It shows the terrible effects that war can have not only on soldiers fighting on the front lines, but also on the civilian population. The example of twins shows how fate can affect development and moral concepts.
  • Identity finding : When the boys come to their grandmother, they are around nine years old. After that, they grow up without any role model and without protection and care. In this way they learn early on that feelings only hinder them in their lives. To become strong and invulnerable, they harden themselves by imposing exercises on themselves. On the one hand they can create ideal conditions to survive a loveless and cruel time, on the other hand they cannot feel joy without pain.

It is also worth mentioning that the two boys do not differ, but act, write and develop as one individual. Their relationships are primarily communities of convenience and it can be assumed that, if they can still feel at all, they only live out these feelings among themselves.

  • Sexuality : The topic of sexuality comes up again and again in the life of the twins. They are confronted with it at an early age and are forced to make their first experiences. However, you never know exactly how much the boys understand about it, or whether they will accept it as an everyday occurrence without emotion.
  • Structure and 'text temperature' : Each chapter is two to four pages long and represents an essay by the twins: In order to further educate themselves in times without school, the boys repeatedly write essays on topics such as' The Grandmother 'or' The Winter '. If the texts are perceived as good - that is, if they are written objectively and describe facts rather than feelings because they are true, factual and precise - then copy them down in the big notebook . Short sentences and numerous dialogues make the text appear lively and simple. However, due to the objective view, it looks very cold. The feelings it arouses on the other hand are violent: despair, anger, disgust, pity and incomprehension, to name just a few. Kristóf managed to create all of this with her writing style even though she wrote in French, not her mother tongue.
  • The conclusion : In the last chapter of the book, the two brothers separate. One of them crosses the border to the neighboring country by stepping over the father's corpse and leaving the other behind. The separation is the last test that the two boys face, the last exercise for absolute toughening. The leaving of the twin brother and the breaking up of the "we" individual should make them completely inviolable and seal their complete solitude.

In the following volumes, Ágota Kristóf unspokenly addresses the fact that the life that they had to lead as children in order to survive was deeply overwhelming.

Edits

In March 2013, the world premiere of an opera by the American composer Sidney Corbett took place at the Osnabrück Theater . The book was also adapted as a theater drama. So in February 2018 at the Dresden State Theater in a version by Ulrich Rasche and Alexander Weise , which was invited to the 56th Berlin Theatertreffen.

In 2013, the Hungarian director János Szász made a film based on the novel with the German title Das Großes Heft (original title: A nagy füzet ).

Information on the German-language edition

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Döring: First performance in Osnabrück: Sidney Corbett's opera “Das große Heft”. www.noz.de, March 11, 2013, accessed on February 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ The big booklet. www.staatsschauspiel-dresden.de, accessed on February 6, 2018 .