The shadow of the coachman's body

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The shadow of the body of the coachman is a story by Peter Weiss published in 1960, which made its author known in the Federal Republic of Germany. The text stood out from other works of West German post-war literature primarily through the narrative method of a meticulous description and shows strong similarities to the French nouveau roman .

content

“In eleven sections of different lengths, the location and events on a rural estate are described, where a housekeeper and a house servant accommodate nine guests: the captain, the doctor, the tailor, Mr. Snow, a family of four (father, mother, son and baby ) as well as the first-person narrator. The first-person narrator describes what he sees or hears while sitting on the step or a pile of wood, looking out the window or through a keyhole, having dinner with the others or socializing in the housekeeper's room. ”When the writer goes with exposing his meticulous descriptions, he lies on his bed in the attic, indulging in escapist dreams. A plate of salt is always ready so that he can sprinkle a few grains of it in his eyes. Pictures of geometrical figures appear through a veil of tears, which turn into sexual phantasmagoria.

When the housekeeper invited the residents of the house to her room one day, the tense situation escalated. The trigger of the revolt is the son. Out of clumsiness, he destroys a music box, which the housekeeper proudly shows around. In an effort to save her property, she throws the assembled company into utter confusion. Even after the son was sent to the city to have the music box repaired, the situation did not calm down: the mother and housekeeper had to be freed from the closet with an ax because the door suddenly jammed. The narration ends with the arrival of the coachman, who has a completely depressing effect on the narrator. In an echo of Plato's allegory of the cave , the narrator sees the coachman's shadow unite with that of the housekeeper on the kitchen table. For the narrator suffering from depression, reality crumbles. Even through his meticulous registration of the events, he can no longer get to grips with reality.

reception

The Suhrkamp Verlag included Peter Weiss' "micro-novel" Der Schatten des Körper des Kutschers ( The Shadow of the Coachman's Body ), which was written in 1952, in the series of exclusive "thousand prints" through Walter Höllerer's agency . The author illustrated the text with his own collages. Weiss' narrative method of meticulously describing the narrator's surroundings found countless imitators and made Weiss an often imitated literary avant-garde (among other things, he inspired Ror Wolf to write the novel, Continuation of the Report in 1964 ).

Radio processing

The BR produced a 78-minute radio play version of the story, directed by Michael Farin , in 2010 (first broadcast on June 12, 2010). An audio book edition of this BR production was published in 2011 by Münchner Hörverlag.

literature

expenditure

  • The shadow of the coachman's body . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1960 (Tausenddruck, 3).
  • The shadow of the coachman's body . Audiobook edition. Editing and direction: Michael Farin. Munich: The Hörverlag 2011.

Secondary literature

  • Regula Bigler: Surreal Encounters of Image and Text: Readings in Intermedia Dialog , Fink, Paderborn 2014, pp. 95ff, ISBN 978-3-7705-5763-9 (dissertation University of Lausanne 2013).
  • Heinz J. Drügh: " Let the seeing eye speak the word?" Peter Weiss' microgram "The shadow of the coachman's body" and the phenomenological description . In: Heinz J. Drügh, Maria Moog-Grünewald (Hrsg.): Behext von Bilder? Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2001. pp. 205–225.
  • Hans Esselborn: The experimental prose Peter Weiss' and the nouveau roman Robbe-Grillets . In: Michael Hofmann (Ed.): Literature, Aesthetics, History. New additions to Peter Weiss. St. Ingbert: Röhrig 1992. pp. 29-48.
  • Rainer Gerlach: Isolation and Liberation. On the early literary work of Peter Weiss. In: Rainer Gerlach (Ed.): Peter Weiss. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1984. pp. 147-181.
  • Christine Ivanovic: The language of images. Attempt to revise Peter Weiss' Der Schatten des Kutschers Körper des Kutschers. In: Michael Hofmann, Martin Rector, Jochen Vogt (eds.): Peter Weiss-Jahrbuch 8. St. Ingbert: Röhrig 1999. pp. 34–67.
  • Helmut J. Schneider: The prodigal son and the language. To "The shadow of the body of the coachman". In: Volker Canaris (Ed.): About Peter Weiss. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1970. pp. 28-46.
  • Adam Soboczynski: From shadow or black on white: reflections on “The shadow of the coachman's body” . In: Michael Hofmann, Martin Rector, Jochen Vogt (eds.): Peter Weiss-Jahrbuch 8. St. Ingbert: Röhrig 1999. pp. 68–88.
  • Mireille Tabah: Modernity in “The Shadow of the Coachman's Body” . In: Irene Heidelberger-Leonhard (Ed.): Peter Weiss. New questions to old texts. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1994. pp. 39-50.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arnd Beise: Peter Weiss . Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. 2002, p. 189.
  2. ↑ On the intensive working relationship that Peter Weiss maintained with the Suhrkamp publishing house from 1960, see: Rainer Gerlach: The importance of the Suhrkamp publishing house for the work of Peter Weiss . St. Ingbert: Röhrig 2005. - Rainer Gerlach (ed.): Siegfried Unseld / Peter Weiss: The exchange of letters . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2007.
  3. ^ Table of contents , Peter Weiss: The shadow of the body of the coachman