Moles (Günter Eich)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mole is a prose collection by Günter Eich that was published in 1968.

Content and style

The moles are introduced by a foreword in which Eich goes into the subject of the "moles". The texts, which are kept quite short, cannot be classified as genre. They are formally assigned to the short stories , but also contain features of a poem . The individual stories are often episodic and represent small picture puzzles . They are seldom longer than 15-20 lines.

The topics are quite diverse. Günter Eich falls back on topoi that he already addressed in his Georg Büchner Prize speech: the critical writer and his relationship to power. The texts are full of intertextual and contextual allusions, in particular several moles contain allusions to Michail Alexandrowitsch Bakunin , Gruppe 47 , of which Eich was a co-founder, and Friedrich Hölderlin .

Factory history

In 1967, Eich presented his first moles at the last meeting of Group 47. This was divided at this point. The texts that Eich read out were received with mixed feelings. Günter Grass, for example, could be seen shaking his head during the lecture. Overall, however, the enthusiasm prevailed.

Eich published the first moles in 1967 in the cultural magazine Merkur . The short prose collection appeared in 1968 and was continued with A Tibetan in My Office - 49 Moles in 1970. Further moles were found in Eich's estate that had not yet been released for publication. The handwritten templates that have survived show that Eich often refined the stories until they were available in the form later published.

interpretation

Günter Eich wanted to evade an interpretation of his works and in this case spoke of a meditation which, in his opinion, would be indispensable for dealing with his moles.

The word moles can be interpreted in several ways. Eich himself commented on this at a school meeting and emphasized that it was a word from his family language. In the early years of his marriage to Ilse Aichinger , a certain mole played a major role. Semantically , it is made up of the two words "mouth" and "throw". It means, so to speak, thrown scraps of speech.

reception

The moles were mixed up in the literary controversy. Marcel Reich-Ranicki described them as "somewhat embarrassing trivia" and as "talkative". Heinrich Vormweg praised the "nervous acumen" and spoke of an "event" in connection with the publication of the moles. The moles developed through the approval of criticism from other writers from Eich's generation ( Heinrich Böll , Karl Krolow ) as well as from those of contemporary writers ( Gabriele Wohmann , Peter Härtling ) and an almost consistently positive appreciation of Eich's poetry after 1968 to his greatest popular success to date.

The best-known pieces in the collection include “Housemates”, “Collector's Luck” and “Episode”, which have been included in the Reclam Verlag 's “Contemporary German Short Prose” collection . Individual moles were also included in the canon of school books and used for various collections of contemporary German literature.

Primary literature

  • Günter Eich: Moles. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 3-458-19283-2 ( Insel-Bücherei 1283), (current edition).
  • Collected works in four volumes. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991:
Volume I: The Poems. The moles. Edited by Axel Vieregg. ISBN 3-518-40209-9 .

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Bekes: Günter Eich: Moles - "Housemates", "Collector's Luck", "Episode". In: Werner Bellmann, Christine Hummel (Hrsg.): German short prose of the present. = Interpretations - German short prose of the present. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-017531-3 , pp. 61-76 ( Reclam's Universal Library 17531 Interpretations ).
  2. ^ A b Heinz F. Schafroth: Günter Eich. Beck, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-406-06263-6 , p. 136 ( authors' books 1).
  3. ^ Heinz F. Schafroth: Günter Eich. Beck, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-406-06263-6 , p. 134 ( authors' books 1).
  4. ↑ Interview by Johannes Poethen in: Günter Eich: Gesammelte Werke in four volumes. Edited by Axel Vieregg. Volume 4. Revised Edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-518-40212-9 , p. 515.
  5. ↑ Peter Bekes: Günter Eich: Moles - "Housemates", "Collector's Luck", "Episode". In: Werner Bellmann, Christine Hummel (Hrsg.): German short prose of the present. = Interpretations - German short prose of the present. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-017531-3 , p. 62 ( Reclam's Universal Library 17531 Interpretations ).
  6. ↑ quoted from Peter Bekes: Günter Eich: Moles - "Housemates", "Collectors' luck", "Episode". In: Werner Bellmann, Christine Hummel (Hrsg.): German short prose of the present. = Interpretations - German short prose of the present. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-017531-3 , p. 62 ( Reclam's Universal Library 17531 Interpretations ).
  7. ↑ quoted from Peter Bekes: Günter Eich: Moles - "Housemates", "Collectors' luck", "Episode". In: Werner Bellmann, Christine Hummel (Hrsg.): German short prose of the present. = Interpretations - German short prose of the present. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-017531-3 , p. 61 ( Reclam's Universal Library 17531 Interpretations ).