The limping one
The Limp is a short narrative fragment from the estate of Ingeborg Bachmann , which was only given a title by the editors of the edition used.
content
action
A disabled person who works in a switchboard tells how he lost his girlfriend Anna. Since childhood, the narrator's left leg has been much longer than his right. He doesn't even remember how it actually happened back then.
This anonymous narrator likes to invent lies that "explain" his misfortune in various ways. For example, as a child of wealthy parents, he had an accident while driving a car.
Anna lives in a shabby hotel next to the limping man. He makes himself useful to the girl with occasional repairs and wins her affection. When Anna suggests an excursion, he refuses with uncontrolled, compassionate reference to his handicap. The limping man cannot leave the whispering. So he tells Anna about the orphanage from which he finally rose to become an actor. In a leading role he had to jump out of the window. That happened to the leg. When the limping man reveals an almost unbelievable cruelty to animals from his childhood years, he has Anna so far that she can be kissed without resistance.
interpretation
After the kiss, the fragment breaks off. The reader is left alone to answer the question: what's next?
In the present psychological constellation, Schneider discovers a parallel to Thomas Mann's “ Tobias Mindernickel ” and registers that Ingeborg Bachmann overcomes her “abstract parabolic ” spelling. Beicken sees the physical handicap as an image of the protagonist's mental defect.
literature
Text output
- First publication and edition used
- The limping one. Fragment. P. 76–81 in: Christine Koschel (Ed.), Inge von Weidenbaum (Ed.), Clemens Münster (Ed.): Ingeborg Bachmann. Works. Volume two: Stories . 609 pages. Piper, Munich 1978 (5th edition 1993), ISBN 3-492-11702-3
Secondary literature
- Peter Beicken : Ingeborg Bachmann. Beck, Munich 1988. ISBN 3-406-32277-8 (Beck'sche series: authors' books, vol. 605)
- Monika Albrecht (Hrsg.), Dirk Göttsche (Hrsg.): Bachmann-Handbuch. Life - work - effect . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-476-01810-5