A July day
A July day is Hans Werner Richter's last novel and can be understood both as a romance and an exile novel .
content
Christian is at his brother's funeral in Sweden and meets his wife. Christine, as she is called by Christian's brother, is Christian's former girlfriend and is actually called Karoline. After the funeral, Christian and Karoline sit in their garden and reflect on the past time in World War II, first their getting to know each other, then the time in Berlin and later the escape and stay in Paris .
Text analysis
The novel itself functions on two time levels, the shared past and the present experienced. Christian and Karoline quickly notice in their conversations that they have led different lives and that they only connect their common past and their brother. The conversations of the present are conducted by two alienated people who confront each other with their reflective life stories:
Christian:
- "What else does he have to do with the man from back then, a fanatic, someone who wanted to change the world according to his model."
- "... he has, he is aware at this moment, always lived his own life, his existence as the focus, also for others."
Christine / Karoline:
- "It was a short marriage, she says, it didn't even last two years."
- "... from a time that she struck from her memories, from her life, an episode in which his childhood poems, their poems, were lost."
Nevertheless, there is no trace of bitterness in this novel - rather, one's own life is classified in German history.
The different perception of the time the two protagonists shared seems interesting. For Karoline, the trip to Paris is an adventure, for Christian it means escape and exile.
In the memory, the exile in Paris seems all the more terrible - thus three places are presented in the novel in comparison and comparison: Sweden, Berlin, Paris.
Sweden is the hospitable, warm country that Philipp, Christian's brother, welcomed in a friendly manner after he fled the GDR. Berlin, on the other hand, is initially romanticized and portrayed heroically in Christian's stories; the reality, however, quickly shows itself in the hostility of the times of National Socialism. The raids and the demonstrations troubled Karoline and Christian, leaving them only to flee to Paris. Paris shows itself to be a cold and cold city for emigrants. They have no contact with the locals and find themselves in solitude.
Hans Werner Richter's autobiographical novel deals with his own past in exile.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Werner Richter: A July day . Nymphenburger, Munich, 1982, ISBN 3-485-00431-6 , p. 69.
- ↑ Hans Werner Richter: A July day . Nymphenburger, Munich, 1982, ISBN 3-485-00431-6 , p. 71.
- ^ A b Hans Werner Richter: A July day . Nymphenburger, Munich, 1982, ISBN 3-485-00431-6 , p. 75.
- ↑ Hans Werner Richter: A July day . Nymphenburger, Munich, 1982, ISBN 3-485-00431-6 , p. 92ff.