La blind

The Blind or Jealousy is a novel by the French author Alain Robbe-Grillet . Published in 1957, Die Jalousie or Die Jalousie is a major work of the Nouveau Roman . The original French title La Jalousie is translated into German in its two meanings of (window) blind and jealousy . This double meaning is reflected in the plot.

Summary of the plot

There is no actual act. Rather, mental processes such as memories, dreams, ideas and hallucinations are depicted. The descriptions stand side by side without being connected.

The story takes place in a tropical banana plantation. The plantation owner believes his wife A ... is cheating on him with a neighboring plantation owner, Franck. In his jealousy, he watches his wife in her everyday actions such as writing letters, combing her hair and reading a novel. Franck often visits for dinner, but is never accompanied by his wife Christiane. One day A… and Franck are planning a day trip together to the distant port city. Franck wants to inquire about new trucks and A ... run some errands.

Text analysis

A work of the Nouveau Roman

In “Why and For Whom I Write” Robbe-Grillet clearly explains his intentions and what sets his works apart from traditional novels. "L'engagement pour l'écrivain, c'est la pleine conscience desproblemèmes actuels de son propre langage, la conviction de leur extreme importance, la volonté de les résoudre de l'intérieur." ("For the writer, commitment means the full Awareness of the current problems of one's own language, the conviction of its extreme importance, the will to solve them from within. ") The Nouveau Roman is a new type of novel that addresses the changed social conditions of the modern world (especially after the experiences of the second World War) with changed literature. Robbe-Grillet expresses the “unbridgeable strangeness between the world of things and man” (B. Duration) through the characteristics of gaps, fragmentation and contradictions. The individual narrative components are not linked causally or chronologically, but stand side by side; their connection - if there is one - often remains unclear. Compared to the traditional novel , Robbe-Grillet's work lacks a concrete structure; an act; a figure development in every sense; Temporal and content-related continuity (for the French original text it is also important to use the passé composé instead of the passé simple ). The narrative is made up of what has been seen, memories, hallucinations and dreams.

Narrative perspective

The story is told from the husband's perspective . The reader does not find out his name. The fact that it is about the husband only becomes clear in the course of the narrative through some hints in the text (for example a third place setting at dinner, although only A ... and Franck are mentioned). He himself is not mentioned in terms of content. Actions that can be ascribed to the husband are not portrayed or portrayed in a depersonalized manner, as if they were taking place by themselves (parts of the body such as hands, which can only belong to the narrator, feel surfaces). Nor does it appear grammatically, for example through pronouns . The neutral “man” is often used. Some researchers are therefore of the opinion that the narrator does not exist as a person, but, according to G. Zeltner, as a "cavity". Robbe-Grillet himself made it unmistakably clear that the narrator is a person involved in the plot. Even if nothing is known about this person, the frequently occurring “nun” ( “maintenant” ) is sufficient for anchoring. Because only a person who takes part in the story can introduce descriptions with “now”. An outside person or an uninvolved narrator cannot do this (Robbe-Grillet 1987).

Bernd Dauer (1976) states that the invisible narrator, who Robbe-Grillet also describes as a "narrateur invisible" , performs many hidden acts and must therefore be more than a hollow space delimited by things: he moves through the house, participates Eating and conversing with Franck and A…, opens doors, drawers, etc. His presence is indirectly detected by changing the direction of the gaze. When the observer meets A ... s gaze, he looks away and suddenly catches another picture. Many researchers also refer to the narrator as caméra-mari (German: camera husband) because of the real images he delivers of his surroundings .

Content interpretation

jealousy

There are two major themes in The Blind or The Jealousy . The foreground plot is already evident in the title: Jealousy. A jealous husband who suspects his wife is committing adultery with the neighbor and visitor. In order to be sure of his assumption, he looks for evidence. So he watches his wife and everything around her closely. To do this, he inventories each of their movements, analyzing the extent to which they move within a normal framework or deviate from habits. The narrator seldom looks at or remembers other things than his wife. In these moments the reader learns something about the plantation or about workers on the river, for example. The function of the window blinds is that the narrator can observe A ... unnoticed through them. The degree of inclination of the blinds going south changes in the course of the day, so that the section that the narrator can see through them also changes. The blinds only provide sections of what is happening, never a comprehensive view. The geometry of the objects is the narrator's attempt to restore order and security.

The episode of the centipede Scutigera is of particular importance . During lunch together, such a specimen appears on the A ... opposite wall. A ... is disgusted with these animals and freezes. Since the husband does not try to help her and instead is amused by A ... s fear, Franck finally intervenes. He gets up and kills the millipede with his napkin. A red stain remains on the white wall of the dining room. The narrator reruns this episode more than a dozen times. Details are changed in the process. They allow conclusions to be drawn about the degree of jealousy, because jealousy attacks trigger these episodes. In one the animal takes on monstrous proportions, in another it is only normal size. Eventually the narrator hallucinates the shape of the millipede in many other things like a lizard and a sauce stain. When A ... does not return from her visit to the city overnight, the narrator tries to remove this blot of failure with an eraser and razor blade. But the stain remains in a different form.

The Blanc-Noir paradigm

The background story consists of the construction of an opposing paradigm Blanc-Noir (white-black). It outlives the foreground story: After the narrator finds no evidence of his suspicion and the relationship between A ... and Franck cools down after the city visit, nothing remains of the original event, the jealousy.

The paradigms of Blanc-Noir are more important. Blanc , that is the world of the white colonial rulers . As persons, this includes A ..., Franck and the husband. The latter can be seen as an old-style colonialist with reactionary ideas. Franck differs in his attitude towards the natives (so he does not deny the blacks a basic technical understanding and efficiency). A… is also more liberal. The blanc includes all objects that have been artificially produced and have a linear or rectangular shape (blinds, tablecloths, closets, dressers, photo frames, cars, the younger plantings, railings). This paradigm includes the colors white, blue, and yellow. A ... and Franck wear white clothes, Franck sometimes also wear yellow, Franck's limousine is light blue. Paradigm Noir is the world of the native, black. It includes all natural colors such as red, brown, green and of course the color black. Its shapes are round (water jug) or barely discernible. The night counts as well as the non-analyzable language and the singing of the natives. The objects of Paradigma Noir cannot be geometrized or inventoried like, for example, “the green mass of bananas”.

The investigation of A… s based on these paradigms is interesting. It has features of both paradigms (white clothing, articulate language; black, red shimmering hair, naturalness). The research sees a political aspect of the narrative in the background plot. This interprets the fall of colonial rule. Gradually the elements of noir expand : sudden, all-encompassing darkness; threatening animal cries; the light of the lamp makes straight lines circular.

Although Robbe-Grillet speaks out against a symbolic content of his literature, his works and especially Die Jalousie or Die Jeaersucht allow for a variety of interpretations, which is also expressed in a rich secondary literature. His depiction in pictures or image details ( "école du regard" ) finds even more expression in his later work as a director.

literature

• Jean Alter: La vision du monde d'Alain Robbe-Grillet. Structures et significations. Librairie Droz, Genève 1966.
• Karl Alfred Blüher (ed.): Robbe-Grillet between modern and postmodern: "nouveau roman", "nouveau cinéma" and "nouvelle autobiography". Narr, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-8233-4399-8 (= Acta Romanica . Kiel publications on Romance philology, volume 1).

  therein Alain Robbe-Grillet: Why and for whom I am writing. Pp. 17-64

• Bernd Duration: Flight from reality and alienation . Studies on the narrative structure in the novels Alain Robbe-Grillets and Michel Butors. Winter, Heidelberg 1976, ISBN 3-533-02418-0 (= Studia Romanica , Volume 26, also dissertation at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , 1973).
• Gerhard Goebel: Functions of the “Book in the Book” in the works of two representatives of the “Nouveau Roman” . In: Eberhard Leube, Ludwig Schrader (Hrsg.): Interpretation and comparison. Festschrift for Walter Pabst . Schmidt, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-503-00725-3 .
• Jacques Leenhardt: Political Myths in Novels. Using the example of Alain-Robbe-Grillets “The blind or jealousy” . With an afterword by André Stoll (original title: Lecture politique du roman, translated by Jochen and Renate Hörisch), Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-518-07453-9 .
• Manfred Nowak: The novels Alain Robbe-Grillets. From 'Les gommes' to 'Projet pour une révolution à New York' . Structure and genesis of the narrative. Winter, Heidelberg 1982, ISBN 3-533-03098-9 / ISBN 3-533-03099-7 (= Studia Romanica , Volume 43, also dissertation at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , 1980).
• Alain Robbe-Grillet: Pour un noveau roman. Les Éditions de Minuit (Collection critique), Paris 1963.
• ders .: Die Jalousie or Die Jeaersucht (translated by Elmar Tophoven), reprint, Reclam, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 978-3-15-008992-7 .

  therein afterword by Gerda Zeltner: Alain Robbe-Grillet, technician and dreamer. Pp. 123-132

• Franziska Sick: Nathalie Sarraute : "Portrait d'un inconnu" 1948 and Alain Robbe-Grillet: "La Jalousie" 1957. In: Wolfgang Asholt (Ed.): Interpretations. French literature 20th century: novel. Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8605-7909-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ G. Zeltner (1966): Alain Robbe-Grillet, Technician and Dreamer. In: Robbe-Grillet, Alain (1966): The blind or the jealousy. Stuttgart: Reclam. P. 130.