A child
Ein Kind is a story by the Austrian author Thomas Bernhard on an autobiographical background from 1982.
content
The narrator reports on experiences, situations and constellations of his childhood, primarily of mental and physical abuse by his surroundings and of his attempts to cope with it or to find ways out. The text begins with how the child, at the age of eight, would like to visit a relative in Salzburg by bike. The trip fails, like many things in his life, such as going to school. The only bright spot in the child's life are visits to his grandfather, whom he adores and who in turn values him very much. He has a communist-anarchist attitude and regards the poor academic performance of his grandson as an indictment of the teachers who, in his opinion, disgraced and ruined the youth. The child is confused by the frequent relocation of the family and the constant change between rural idyll and freedom on the one hand and the oppressive city on the other, reinforced by the difficult economic situation of his mother. Eventually they move to Traunstein in Bavaria, where they only have problems because they cannot adapt to the rest of the class and are therefore mocked. In addition, his mother's guardian and husband is not the biological father. Because of his school problems and disobedience, the child was sent to an education camp run by the National Socialist People's Welfare in 1942 , where he was only tormented and humiliated, mainly because he was bed wetter . However, it quickly makes friends with another, similarly outcast child. The narrator later visits his former reformatory and finds much there unchanged.
Subject
In this work, Thomas Bernhard processes his experiences during the first 13 years of his life, which were very turbulent and trend-setting for him. On the one hand, he was full of admiration for his grandfather ( Johannes Freumbichler ), a rather unsuccessful writer. On the other hand, he loved his mother too, although she treated him very badly; he knew she was angry with his father, not with him. The story describes what shaped childhood for later life, and how abuse can affect.
expenditure
- Thomas Bernhard: A child . 22nd edition Dtv, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-423-10385-5 .
- Thomas Bernhard: A child (autobiographical writings; Vol. 5). Residenz-Verlag, Salzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7017-1562-6 .
- Thomas Bernhard: A child. Audiobook (Library of Narrators; Vol. 9). Verlag der SZ, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-86615-366-X (4 CDs, read by Lambert Hamel )