The caravan and the resurrection

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The caravan and the resurrection is a short story by Ingeborg Bachmann , which was printed on December 25, 1949 in the " Wiener Tageszeitung " with a woodcut by Werner Berg under the title "Caravan in the Beyond". The " Wiener Kurier " brought a second version at Easter 1952.

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A dead old man finds himself wandering in a desert in the hereafter. In this some earthly laws of logic are apparently suspended. Although the old man has only been on the road for a short time, he cannot overlook the wasteland. In a twilight, neither shadows nor colors can be seen. While the dead man marched alone at first, he is now joined by a happy little boy. That is not enough. The funeral procession grows into a caravan, which also consists of a young girl, a young disabled man and an old woman. None of the three newcomers is happy, but everyone has been able to hold onto a few of their thoughts - of the family, of fellow human beings, of their death before God or of the spring season on the day of death. The little boy knows nothing about the family, about fellow human beings, about dying before God, let alone about spring. All his short life he lay in the orphanage without a peep. The emptiness and the vastness of the desert described above are familiar to him. Then the little one - initiated by the terribly loud sound of the bell - overtakes an unprecedented happiness. That drives him. He jumps forward to the old man at the head of the caravan. When the little boy tries to talk to the old man, he gets no answer. None of the other three dead answers. The boy is on fire. The hikers "are no more". Instead of the little one, a little flame burns in the complete darkness that has fallen.

shape

When the little one speaks and the young injured person wants to answer him, but can no longer, Ingeborg Bachmann changes the remainder of the short text from the past tense to the present tense.

reception

The author took over the caravan of the dead from the world of imagination of the ancient Orient and replaced the nasty demons in the otherwise deserted desert with the horrific ringing of bells. When, after that acoustic break into seclusion, the little boy is suddenly aware of all languages ​​without speaking a single one, Bartsch is reminded of Wittgenstein's Tractatus : If man recognized this world outside of our sphere, he would not be able to convey his famous knowledge to us precisely because it is ineffable. Nevertheless, Ingeborg Bachmann found the image of the pure flame - apparently borrowed from the burning bush - for that ineffable . The resurrection - associated with metaphors such as fire - is not verifiable, but can be conveyed through the mystical image of the “overcoming of the diffuse” through this flame. Weigel's reference to the Whitsun miracle is even more catchy than Bartsch's “explanation” of the above-mentioned language miracle .

Bucking sees the comforting in this allegory . It is precisely the vulnerable individual that can be redeemed under certain circumstances .

literature

Text output

Used edition
  • 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 , pp. 23-27

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)
  • Kurt Bartsch: Ingeborg Bachmann. Metzler, Stuttgart 1997 (2nd edition, Metzler Collection. Volume 242). ISBN 3-476-12242-5
  • Monika Albrecht (Hrsg.), Dirk Göttsche (Hrsg.): Bachmann-Handbuch. Life - work - effect . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-476-01810-5
  • Sigrid Weigel : Ingeborg Bachmann. Legacies in compliance with the confidentiality of letters . dtv , Munich 2003 (Zsolnay, Vienna 1999). ISBN 3-423-34035-5 , pp. 52-53 and pp. 69-71

annotation

  1. ↑ According to Weigel (Weigel, pp. 52–53 above) the little prose piece marks a temporary turning point in Ingeborg Bachmann's work. Her appearance a few weeks later in Niendorf initiated her rise as a poet.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bareiss, Ohloff, p. 18, entry 42
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 602, last entry
  3. ↑ Weigel, p. 52 middle
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 27, 4th Zvu
  5. ↑ Jost Schneider in: Albrecht and Göttsche, p. 108, right column, center
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 27, 2. Zvo
  7. ↑ Bartsch, p. 46 below
  8. ↑ Bartsch, p. 47 middle
  9. ↑ Weigel, p. 70 middle
  10. ↑ Beicken, p. 63 below