Vanishing Point (White)

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Vanishing Point is a novel by Peter Weiss published in 1962, which largely resembles an autobiographical report, but also contains fictional elements. In terms of content, it ties in with Weiss' story Farewell to Parents . In the work, Weiss traces his early biography as an emigrant between 1940 and 1947, which were shaped by the struggle for his existence as an artist.

content

“The first half of the novel, which is divided into 59 sections, primarily tells of the debates about the role of art and the artist in the circles of Swedish emigration; the second half mainly describes the desperate 'adaptation' attempts of the first-person narrator in their new 'home' Sweden. "The report explains, like the narrator," after lengthy study stays in Switzerland and at the Prague Art Academy , at the age of 24 arrives in Stockholm . ”There, as an artist, he intends to“ expose himself to the lack of ties that family and upbringing have previously denied him. ”While the first-person narrator is initially still able to refrain from dealing with the anti-Semitic extermination policy of Nazi Germany , this will soon change fundamentally in view of the news about the “ final solution to the Jewish question ”. He gets into a crisis from which he can only free himself through a spontaneous trip to Paris. This trip triggers a tremendous "shock of freedom" in him. The newfound feeling of freedom is expressed at the end of the report in the realization that "I was able to participate in an exchange of thoughts that took place all around, not linked to any country."

Literary classification

The literary significance of the novel and autobiographical report Fluchtpunkt lies in the “unreserved openness” with which the first-person narrator recapitulates the period in his life that marked the beginning of his emigration years in Sweden. The text, which “takes a peculiar middle position between the novel and pure autobiography ”, ended a phase of monologically structured prose for Weiss, as Arnd Beise stated with reference to the end of the novel: “The turn to dialogue [at the end of Vanishing Point ] means turning away from the literary navel gaze of the previous story. "

Weiss himself was later quite skeptical about the published book. In one of his notebooks there is the sentence on vanishing point : "... more than a statement about my delusions and aberrations, what it should actually have been, the book became an evidence of my supposed perseverance and strength and the consistency of my actions."

Nevertheless, after Weiss' own biography seemed to have been banned narrative, the further literary activity of the author was characterized by a shift to historical material.

Characters from the novel and their real role models

For most of the literary characters in his novel, which are modeled on real people, Peter Weiss did not use their real names but pseudonyms. Some of the real names in question can be found in Weiss' Copenhagen Journal or the commentary in the critical edition of this journal:

Max Bernsdorf → Max Barth

Anatol → Endre Nemes

Hoderer → Max Hodann

Baahl → Dr. Iwan Bratt, psychoanalyst

Edna → Helga Henschen, painter and sculptor, married to Weiss from 1943 to 1947

Hieronymus → Erik Heinertz, Swiss national economist and painter

Cora → Carlota Dethorey, married to Weiss briefly in 1949

literature

expenditure

  • Vanishing point. Novel. With four collages by Peter Weiss. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1983.

Secondary literature

  • 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.
  • Nils Göbel: “We cannot invent a form that does not exist in us”. Genre issues, intertextuality and language criticism in “Farewell to Parents” and “Vanishing Point” by Peter Weiss. Marburg: Tectum 2007.
  • Steffen Groscurth: Vanishing points of resistant aesthetics. On the emergence of Peter Weiss' aesthetic theory . De Gruyter-Verlag, Boston / Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-034554-4 .
  • Sepp Hiekisch: Between surrealist protest and critical engagement. On Peter Weiss' early prose. In: Heinz-Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Text + Criticism, Volume 37. Peter Weiss. 2., completely changeable Edition. Munich: edition text + kritik 1982. pp. 22–38.
  • Michaela Holdenried: Messages from a stranger. Identity, language and fiction in the early autobiographical writings “Farewell to Parents” and “Vanishing Point” . In: Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss, Jürgen Schutte (Ed.): Peter Weiss: Life and Work. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1991. pp. 155-173.
  • Andreas Solbach: Narcissistic confession in Peter Weiss. Strategies of Denial in Autobiographical Prose. On “Farewell to Parents” and “Vanishing Point” . In: Literature for readers 24. Frankfurt am Main etc .: Peter Lang 2001. Issue 1. pp. 14–36.
  • Rüdiger Stehlein: A surrealistic " picture poet ". Visuality as a principle of representation in Peter Weiss' early narrative work. In: Rudolf Wolff (Ed.): Peter Weiss. Work and effect. Bonn: Bouvier 1987. pp. 60-87.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Hans-Horst Henschen: Vanishing point , in: Kindlers literature dictionary . 3rd, completely revised edition. Edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold . Vol. 17 Vil-Z. Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar 2009, p. 302
  2. ↑ Peter Weiss: Vanishing Point. Novel . In: Peter Weiss. Prose 2 . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1991 (Peter Weiss. Works in six volumes. Ed. By Suhrkamp Verlag in collaboration with Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss, 2). Pp. 143-294, here p. 197
  3. ↑ Arnd Beise: Peter Weiss . Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. 2002, p. 217
  4. ↑ Peter Weiss: Vanishing Point. Novel . In: Peter Weiss. Prose 2 . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1991. pp. 143-294, here p. 293
  5. ↑ Peter Weiss: Vanishing Point. Novel . In: Peter Weiss. Prose 2 . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1991. pp. 143-294, here p. 294
  6. ↑ Arnd Beise: Peter Weiss . Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. 2002. p. 221
  7. ^ Peter Weiss: Notebooks, 1960–1971, first volume . Frankfurt am Main: edition suhrkamp 1982. pp. 96-97
  8. ↑ Peter Weiss: The Copenhagen Journal, Critical Edition . Edited by Rainer Gerlach and Jürgen Schutte. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2006