The Franza case

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The Franza case is an unfinished novel by Ingeborg Bachmann , which she broke off in 1966. In the same year the author read from the work on NDR Hannover. Ingeborg Bachman processed her trip through Egypt and Sudan in spring 1964 in the fragment . The text from the cycle of novels "types of death" was published in 1978 by Piper Verlag . The work was filmed for television in 1986 by Xaver Schwarzenberger . Elisabeth Trissenaar played Franza and Gabriel Barylli played her brother Martin (script: Rolf Basedow ).

Franza longs for death. After she was raped by a white man at the foot of the great pyramid of Giza , she hit her head in one of the blocks and died the next day in Cairo.

content

Return to Galicia

Before 28-year-old geologist Dr. Martin Ranner goes on a study trip to northeast Africa, he still has to respond to an "SOS call" from his 33-year-old only sister Franza. She telegraphed from Vienna.

Having grown up in Carinthia , Franza began studying medicine after the war , but dropped out and hurriedly passed on to the much older, renowned psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Prof. Dr. Leopold Jordan married. Later, her husband forced her to have an abortion and put her in a clinic. Franza managed to escape from this.

Martin gives up looking for the missing woman in Vienna and finds his sister in the grandparents' house (the parents have died) in Galicia, a village in the Gail Valley . Franza - actually Mrs. Franziska Jordan, née Ranner - wants to go to Egypt without a return ticket. She has already forged her passport accordingly. Martin has to reject the request given the very poor health of the sister. This woman, who draws her weak residual strength from the re-encounter with the landscape of her youth, prevails.

Jordanian time

Martin, who wants to help Franza, is facing difficulties. The siblings have drifted apart since Franza's years in Vienna. In addition, the seriously ill sister rarely speaks plain text. And anyway, if Martin is ever close to her, that is one of those rare moments.

Looking back, Franza feels like a disgrace every day with the professor. She is already Jordan's third wife. The predecessor had poisoned herself with town gas. Jordan analyzed Franza like a patient - until nothing was left but a result. Jordan made Franza tremble, took everything from her, even her "shine". Martin cannot follow Franza when she calls Jordan's behavior towards her fascist . Franza doesn't understand why Jordan wants to destroy her. Martin doesn't see what a marital argument should have to do with fascism. Franza stays with it. She read her husband's notes for a long time. The professor put the "Franza case" under the microscope in a "great experiment".

The Egyptian darkness

Martin wants to help the sister. In his view, it is imperative that the thought of Jordan in Franza be completely erased. But how? Martin thinks Franza has to sleep with someone. If necessary, he might do it himself. Franza's experience of doubling - she thinks she will consist of two bodies lying on their backs for not too long - could point to this.

The terminally ill makes SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr. Finding Kurt Körner. Franza is co-author of a book by her husband. It is about late damage after attempts on female prisoners in Dachau and Hartheim . She knows Körner from the chapter " Euthanasia Program " of this book. Franza wants to buy a syringe with a guaranteed lethal dose. Körner runs away from her. Franza has finally turned the tables; taught one of the representatives of the patriarchate fear. For Franza, men are violent, bad people. For example, Jordan is one. He suppressed her co-authorship of the above-mentioned textbook.

In the evening Martin wants to climb one of the pyramids. Franza accompanies the brother and waits at the foot of the building. The disaster takes its course (see article head).

Quotes

  • "Fear is ... the massive attack on life."
  • "How much can a person take without dying?"

shape

The fragment is difficult to digest. In addition, the literal speech of the protagonists Franza and Martin - without any quotation marks - is sometimes not separable at first glance; especially when a dialogue is going on in a paragraph. Herrmann suspects that Ingeborg Bachmann tried several narrative styles in the present fragment. Tabah has the impression that Ingeborg Bachmann's attempt to understand the Franza case from the perspective of brother Martin has failed. Franza only took small steps forward in researching her illness as soon as she separated herself from her brother. According to Albrecht, the deeper sense of the text affects the relation of Franza's vita to world history. With such a view, the narrator Franza comes off badly because she stylizes herself as a victim.

reception

  • Kaiser calls Franza a "bundle of nerves" who flee from Europe with their brother out of fear of death from their husband.
  • Krolow is the name of the bitter report on Franza's death, an ironic and solemn requiem.
  • Ross tears the ideologically tinged poetry and finds a short formula for the allusive, encrypted text: The white conquerors are to blame for all misfortunes.
  • Count Schwerin looks deeper. In Ingeborg Bachmann he mourns a lonely, suffering person.
  • Grimkowski draws attention to a fact: Prof. Jordan does not have a say at all. It is not worth it either.

interpretation

illness

The "case" in the title of the novel is meant in the sense of illness. Illness is not a fate, but the result of social influences on the body of the sick.

incest

In his search for Franza's cause of illness, Stuber proves the impression that Franza could have been sexually abused by her own father as a teenager, with three references to the partially unedited estate from 1968 and 1969: Martin talks about his childhood. Franza once killed herself with sleeping pills and wanted to go into the water on top of that. Franza's suffering in the father's house is repeated - it seems - in her marriage to Jordan.

On her tightrope walk between reality and fiction, Morrien Haubls quotes “The language of the father in the mother's body” as a foundation for her textual interpretation of the “father search image”. In addition, the role of Franza's mother and Martin's brother in conjunction with Ingeborg Bachmann's discussion of the Freudian Oedipus conflict and castration anxiety in the Franza case are considered.

Sibling love

Assumptions about the brother-sister relationship are made in abundance. Several authors - for example Geesen, von Jagow, Grimkowski and also Stuber - take the Isis - Osiris myth as a starting point for the investigation of such questions as: Was that incest between Franza and Martin? According to von Jagow, this myth guarantees the legibility of the fragment. The reader searches the text for Isis and Osiris in vain. Geesen helps with two references to Franza's "cult phrase". In the sentence, says Martin, the phrase "under a hundred brothers" or "under a hundred brothers" is this one. And he ate her heart. ”Included. This comes from Musil's 1923 poem "Isis and Osiris". There it says

Of every hundred brothers this one
And he eats her heart and she eats his.

Beicken denies the above question about sibling incest. That seems plausible, because Franza can actually only turn to her brother and no one else.

Topoi

Martin returns by train to his sister Franza in his home village of Galicia. Although the neighboring towns of Dobrowa and Tschinowitz exist, although the Gail and the Zillerbach flow through this area, there is no place in Galicia in Carinthia. Reitani emphasizes the illusionary component of the text and works out several possible meanings of "Galicia" in this context. Galicia is not just a fictitious village in Carinthia, but stands for a stretch of land in the old Danube monarchy . Galicia could be seen as a memorial to Joseph Roth , Soma Morgenstern , Mascha Kaléko and Martin Buber who grew up in Galicia . But Reitani, when he speaks of illusion, is actually concerned with the biblical background of the fragment of the novel. The title “Das Buch Franza”, which Monika Albrecht and Dirk Göttsche had chosen for a newer edition of the novel, is therefore deeper than the superficial, psychologically substantiated title “Der Fall Franza”.

fascism

Ingeborg Bachmann's work on the manuscript coincides with the Auschwitz trial . Eberhardt also understands the text as an examination of National Socialism . Morrien thinks that the author has shown with the fragment that a root of fascism can be found in the intimate family area.

literature

Text output

First publication and edition used
  • The Franza case. Unfinished novel. In: Christine Koschel (Hrsg.), Inge von Weidenbaum (Hrsg.), Clemens Münster (Hrsg.): Ingeborg Bachmann. Works. Volume Three: Types of Death: Malina and Unfinished Novels . Piper, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-492-11703-1 , pp. 339-482. (Volume 1702 of the Piper series)

Secondary literature

  • Otto Bareiss, Frauke Ohloff: Ingeborg Bachmann. A bibliography. With a foreword by Heinrich Böll. Piper, Munich 1978. ISBN 3-492-02366-5
  • Peter Beicken : Ingeborg Bachmann. Beck, Munich 1988. ISBN 3-406-32277-8 (Beck'sche series: authors' books, vol. 605)
  • Dirk Göttsche (Hrsg.), Hubert Ohl (Hrsg.): Ingeborg Bachmann - New contributions to their work. International Symposium Münster 1991. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1993, ISBN 3-88479-518-X .
  • Sabine Grimkowski: That destroyed me. Narrative structure and identity in Ingeborg Bachmann's “The Franza Case” and “Malina”. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1992, ISBN 3-88479-657-7 . (Diss. Hamburg 1990)
  • Hans Höller : Ingeborg Bachmann. The work. From the earliest poems to the “types of death” cycle . Hain (Athenäums program), Frankfurt am Main 1993. ISBN 3-445-08578-1
  • Michael Matthias Schardt (Ed.): About Ingeborg Bachmann. Reviews - Portraits - Appreciations (1952-1992). Reception documents from four decades. Igel Verlag, Paderborn 1994, ISBN 3-927104-53-1 .
  • Bettina Stuber: To Ingeborg Bachmann. “The Franza Case” and “Malina”. Schäuble, Rheinfelden (Baden) 1994, ISBN 3-87718-826-5 . (Dissertation Freiburg im Breisgau 1994)
  • Rita Morrien: Female request for text from Ingeborg Bachmann, Marlen Haushofer and Unica Zürn . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1996, ISBN 3-8260-1267-4 , pp. 86–99, pp. 109 and pp. 119–125.
  • Kurt Bartsch: Ingeborg Bachmann. Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-12242-5 . (2nd edition, Metzler Collection. Volume 242)
  • Monika Albrecht: "It has to be written first". Colonization and magical worldview in Ingeborg Bachmann's fragment of the novel “Das Buch Franza” . P. 59–91 in: Monika Albrecht (Ed.), Dirk Göttsche (Ed.): “Writing about time”. Literary and cultural studies essays on Ingeborg Bachmann's kind of death project. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998, ISBN 3-8260-1418-9 .
  • Mechthild Geesen: The destruction of the individual in the context of the loss of experience and language in the modern age. Figure conception and narrative perspective Ingeborg Bachmanns. Schäuble, Rheinfelden 1998, ISBN 3-87718-836-2 . (Diss. Munich 1998)
  • Mireille Tabah: On the genesis of a character: Franza. P. 91–106 in: Irene Heidelberger-Leonard (Ed.): “Text madhouse for Bachmann addicts?” Readings on the critical edition of Ingeborg Bachmann's kind of death project. With documentation on reception in magazines and newspapers. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1998, ISBN 3-531-13110-9
  • Hans Höller: Ingeborg Bachmann . Reinbek, Rowohlt 1999, ISBN 3-499-50545-2 .
  • Monika Albrecht (Hrsg.), Dirk Göttsche (Hrsg.): Bachmann-Handbuch. Life - work - effect . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01810-5 .
  • Bettina von Jagow : Aesthetics of the Mythical. Poetologies of Remembrance in Ingeborg Bachmann's Work . Böhlau, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-412-06903-5 . (Diss. Munich 2001)
  • Joachim Eberhardt: “There are no quotations for me”: Intertextuality in Ingeborg Bachmann's poetic work. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2002. ISBN 3-484-18165-6 (Diss. Göttingen 2001)
  • Sigrid Weigel : Ingeborg Bachmann. Legacies in compliance with the confidentiality of letters . dtv , Munich 2003 (Zsolnay, Vienna 1999). ISBN 3-423-34035-5 , pp. 500-506 and pp. 516-526
  • Luigi Reitani: “Return to Galicia”. Home in Ingeborg Bachmann's work. With a previously unpublished letter from Jean Améry to Ingeborg Bachmann . P. 31–46 in: Barbara Agnese (Ed.), Robert Pichl (Ed.): “Topographies of an artist personality. New approaches to the work of Ingeborg Bachmann. International Symposium Vienna 2006. “Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8260-3711-5 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ The name was invented (see also Geesen, p. 196, footnote 37 and Britta Herrmann in Albrecht / Göttsche 2002, p. 146, right column, 15. Zvo and Stuber, p. 47, 18. Zvu).
  2. ↑ The villages Dobrowa , Tschinowitz (used edition, p. 363, 9. Zvo) and Maria Gail (used edition, p. 363, 9. Zvo) are also mentioned.
  3. ↑ Reitanis Tschinowitz in Carinthia appear as a concern. Weigel's assumption is more acceptable, according to which Ingeborg Bachmann unceremoniously placed Czernowitz in the Gail Valley (Weigel, p. 522, 10th Zvu).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Britta Herrmann in Albrecht / Göttsche 2002, p. 144, left column, 19th Zvu
  2. ↑ Bareiss, Ohloff, p. 16, entry 31
  3. ^ Hermann Weber in: Göttsche / Ohl, p. 95, 4. Zvo
  4. ↑ Britta Herrmann in Albrecht / Göttsche 2002, p. 144, left column, 10th Zvu
  5. ↑ The TV movie
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 465, 7th Zvu
  7. ↑ Britta Herrmann in Albrecht / Göttsche 2002, p. 150, left column, 17th Zvu
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 420, below
  9. ↑ Höller 2002, p. 24, 5. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 447, 1. Zvu
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 434, 16. Zvo
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 434, 9. Zvu and p. 442, 10. Zvo
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 443
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 455, 4th Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 456, 18. Zvo
  16. ↑ Bartsch, p. 151, 12. Zvo
  17. ↑ Britta Herrmann in Albrecht / Göttsche 2002, p. 150, right column, 3rd Zvu
  18. ↑ Edition used, p. 406, 11. Zvu
  19. ↑ Edition used, p. 409, 1. Zvo
  20. ↑ Britta Herrmann in Albrecht / Göttsche 2002, p. 146, left column, 15th Zvu
  21. ↑ Tabah, p. 91 below and p. 92 above
  22. ↑ Albrecht 1998, p. 91, 9. Zvo
  23. ↑ Joachim Kaiser ( Süddeutsche Zeitung of April 16, 1979) in: Schardt, p. 255, 10th Zvu
  24. ^ Karl Krolow ( Stuttgarter Zeitung of April 21, 1979) in: Schardt, pp. 257-258
  25. ↑ Werner Ross ( Deutsche Zeitung - Christ und Welt, May 25, 1979) in: Schardt, pp. 259-262
  26. ↑ Christoph Graf Schwerin ( Die Welt, July 13, 1987) in: Schardt, p. 263
  27. ↑ Grimkowski, p. 63
  28. ↑ Morrien, p. 119 middle
  29. ↑ Stuber, p. 144, 18. Zvo
  30. ↑ Stuber, p. 48, 13. Zvo, p. 48, 5. Zvu and p. 49, 1. Zvo
  31. ↑ Stuber, p. 49, 3. Zvo
  32. ^ Morrien, p. 86
  33. ↑ Geesen, pp. 190-218
  34. ↑ von Jagow, pp. 49-62
  35. ↑ Grimkowski, pp. 50-68
  36. ↑ Stuber, pp. 20-146
  37. ↑ von Jagow, p. 50 above
  38. ↑ Geesen, p. 197, 4. Zvo
  39. ↑ Edition used, p. 357, 9. Zvo and p. 469, 12. Zvo
  40. ↑ Edition used, p. 397, 9. Zvo
  41. ↑ von Jagow, p. 51, 5th Zvu
  42. ^ Robert Musil ( Adolf Frisé (ed.), Rowohlt 1978, p. 465), cited in von Jagow, p. 52, 9th Zvu
  43. ↑ Beicken, p. 132, 11. Zvu
  44. ↑ Höller 1993, p. 270, 1. Zvu
  45. ↑ Reitani, p. 37 middle
  46. ↑ Reitani, p. 37 below
  47. ↑ see also Höller 1993, p. 287 below - 288
  48. ↑ Reitani, p. 39 middle
  49. ↑ Weigel, p. 501 below
  50. ↑ Eberhardt, p. 260
  51. ↑ Morrien, pp. 98-99