The other and me

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The other and me is a radio play by Günter Eich , which was broadcast on February 3, 1952 by SDR under the direction of Cläre Schimmel . Gustav Burmester's production came three days later on the NWDR . In 1953, both productions were awarded the War Blind Radio Play Prize.

Frame narration

In this case, the figure constellation in the radio play title constitutes the form: An episode from the life of the wealthy first-person narrator Ellen Harland from Washington , who has been married to the ministerial official John Harland since 1930, frames the story. Together with her husband John and their two children Lissy and Bob on August 5, 1951 in a car on the way from Venice to Florence , Ellen made a detour to Porto Garibaldi on her 41st birthday . On the way to this short swim stop on the Adriatic , Ellen looks into the eyes of an old woman on the road near the town of Comacchio , which is located on a lagoon . For Ellen it is as if the look is returned. Then Ellen almost drowned while swimming in the sea. At that critical moment in the encounter with death, Ellen thinks of that old woman by the way. More than that, at this moment Ellen miraculously relived this woman's existence from beginning to end.

The experience just mentioned represents the internal narrative . Ellen introduces each subsection in which she lives as the fisherman's wife Camilla in the poorest conditions in Comacchio with a narrator's comment (easily recognizable from the stage direction “Raumlos”).

When Ellen emerges alive from the occasionally fatal sea, her three relatives want to continue the journey to Florence soon. But before that, Ellen visits the fishing hut Camillas in Comacchio. The old woman, deceased, lies laid out in her dwelling.

Internal narration

Camilla's mother notices the resemblance of Ellen to her daughter and is astonished at the American visit wearing Camilla's dress. Ellen is transferred to Camilla's youth (Günter Eich is generous with personal identities; leaps in time over decades). The mother Camillas tries to persuade the daughter Ellen / Camilla that the old fisherman Giovanni Foscolo is a good match. The family would be out of the woods through the sacrifice of the daughter. Ellen / Camilla's father also touted the same horn. In the following we abbreviate Ellen / Camilla with Camilla: Obedience, Camilla follows the parental wishes. The marriage with the elderly widower "between salt bins and fish carcasses" is naturally not a happy one, although Camilla is envied by the girls in Comacchio. Giovanni Foscolo owns three boats and a house. According to American standards, the husband is a beggar. Giovanni employs the young fisherman Carlo. Camilla gets involved with the five years younger and has four children from him: Antonio, Umberto, Lidia and Filomena. Giovanni dies in a stormy sea. Camilla and Carlo get married. The new husband turns out to be a drinker, confesses to his wife Camilla that he killed Giovanni and hangs himself in 1930.

The years go by. The son Antonio doesn't want to become a fisherman and works in the leather factory in Ferrara . Favorite son Antonio steals from his mother because he needs the money for his girlfriend and himself. In 1940, the now 19-year-old was drafted into the Navy. Antonio deserted and fell as a partisan. His wife Maria moves in with Camilla with her granddaughter. Umberto goes to sea and is missing. Lidia marries a greengrocer in Ferrara. Filomena has no husband. She gives her little daughter to Camilla and goes back to Ferrara. Camilla continues to work in Comacchio in fish processing .

Productions

Self-testimony

A radio play doesn't have to be realistic. Günter Eich liked to experiment with a form like the radio play.

reception

  • The fable is as simple as that of Tolstoy .
  • The charity will discussed. More precisely, the question is: How should the rich deal with the poor?
  • On the above-mentioned encounter with Ellen's death in the sea, Jens notes that the swimmer experiences what is sketched in the “internal story” after she has crossed the “line between this world and the hereafter”. And about the form, Jens thinks that Günter Eich avoids traditional narrative techniques and achieves his effect through more or less simultaneous movement on more than one level.
  • Günter Eich was at the scene of the action on August 5, 1951 mentioned above. Oppermann responds to the confused listener. Ellen's attempt to see the world through Camilla's eyes amounts to literary understanding. The latter is based on Ellen. In addition, Oppermann sees Ellen's encounter with Camilla as a confrontation with death.
  • The author has dealt with the essence of reality. The life of the wealthy American Ellen is enriched by the life experience as a poor fisher woman Camilla.
  • Regarding the first-person narrator's “shift in perspective”: In her “fainting dream” while swimming in the Adriatic, Ellen goes through “personality changes”. “Values ​​and ideas about life” of the bourgeoisie would be called into question.
  • The internal narrative consists of " traumatic episodes".
  • Wagner gives the following statements for the two productions, among others: Hans Georg Bonte on February 13, 1952 in the " Neue Zeitung ", an anonymous on February 25, 1952 in the " Evangelical Press Service / Church and Radio " ("Die Communio im Leiden" ), G. Brechte on April 18, 1952 in the " Rheinischer Merkur ", Erwin Wickert in the " FAZ " of February 23, 1953, Kurt Weigand on April 21, 1954 in the FAZ, Klaus Peter Lischka on December 16, 1958 in the " Neue Württembergische Zeitung ", Joachim Kaiser on June 22nd, 1961 in the " SZ " and Friedrich Wilhelm Hymmen in a broadcast on hr 2 on October 4th, 1981.
  • Stepath considers Ellen's homodiegetic narrative position.

literature

First edition

  • Günter Eich: The other one and me. Story for the radio. European publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1956. 52 pages

expenditure

Used edition

  • Günter Eich: The other and I (1951/1958) . P. 595–636 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays I. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume II . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN

Secondary literature

  • Heinz Schwitzke (Ed.): Reclam's radio play guide. With the collaboration of Franz Hiesel , Werner Klippert , Jürgen Tomm. Reclam, Stuttgart 1969, without ISBN, 671 pages
  • Günter Eich: Speech to the war blind. (1953) pp. 21–24 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (Ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Heinz Piontek : Call and Enchantment. Günter Eich's radio play. (1955) pp. 112-122 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Walter Jens : Epilogue to Günter Eich's "The Girls from Viterbo". (1958) pp. 123–128 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (Ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Michael Oppermann: Inner and outer reality in Günter Eich's radio play. Diss. University of Hamburg 1989, Reinhard Fischer publishing house, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88927-070-0
  • Sabine Alber: The place in free fall. Günter Eich's moles in the context of the entire work. Dissertation. Technische Universität Berlin 1992. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (European university publications. Series I, German language and literature, vol. 1329), ISBN 3-631-45070-2
  • Wilfried Barner (ed.): History of German literature. Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . CH Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38660-1
  • Sigurd Martin: The auras of the word-image. Günter Eich's mole poetics and the theory of inadvertent reading. Dissertation University of Frankfurt am Main 1994. Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 1995 (Mannheimer Studien zur Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, Vol. 3), ISBN 3-86110-057-6
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1999, ISBN 3-932981-46-4 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive ; Vol. 27)
  • Katrin Stepath: Contemporary Concepts . A philosophical and literary analysis of temporal structures. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8260-3292-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karst, p. 804, last entry vu
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 611, 7th Zvu
  3. ^ Wagner, p. 242, left column center
  4. ↑ Source: recording of the original broadcast above
  5. ^ Wagner, p. 245, top left column
  6. ↑ Günter Eich in the "Speech to the War Blind" in Müller-Hanpft, p. 23, 20th Zvu
  7. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 179, 2nd Zvu
  8. ^ Piontek, p. 118, 8. Zvo
  9. ↑ Jens, p. 124, 10th Zvu
  10. ↑ Jens, p. 127, 14. Zvo
  11. ↑ Oppermann, p. 75, 11. Zvo
  12. ↑ Oppermann, p. 73, 4. Zvo and p. 82, 5. Zvo
  13. ↑ Oppermann, p. 73, 7th Zvu
  14. ↑ Oppermann, p. 81, 17th Zvu
  15. ↑ Oppermann, p. 81, 3rd Zvu
  16. ↑ Alber, p. 108, 6. Zvu and p. 109, 8. Zvo
  17. ↑ Barner, p. 249, 3rd, 5th and 22nd Zvo
  18. ↑ Martin, p. 83, 1. Zvu
  19. ^ Wagner, p. 244, right column below and p. 247 left column above
  20. ↑ Stepath, pp. 205-212