My name is Gantenbein

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My name is Gantenbein is a novel by the Swiss writer Max Frisch . It was published in autumn 1964 and, together with Stiller and Homo faber, is one of Frisch's main prose works.

In Mein Name sei Gantenbein, Frisch takes up one of the main themes of his work with the question of a person's identity and their social role . After a failed relationship, the narrator invents changing identities in order to trace his own experience from different perspectives. The playful handling of biographies and fictions follows the motto “I try on stories like clothes” and finds its formal implementation in a literary montage of short narrative sections.

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Abandoned by his wife, the narrator sits in an empty apartment with covered furniture. He says he had an experience and is now looking for the story behind it. He tries on stories like clothes. Every self that speaks is just a role, every person invents the story for himself which he thinks is his life. As an example, he tells of the milkman who goes crazy because his identity has been used up and he cannot think of a new one, and of the imaginary unlucky person who would rather lose his lottery win than have to change his self-image.

He invents a man named Theo Gantenbein who is in danger of going blind in a car accident. When the bandage is removed from him, he can see, but he now plays the role of the blind man . Equipped with a white cane and black glasses, he does not have to react to the world as it is, he does not have to perceive what he sees. Since no one fears his control or his judgment from now on, his popularity and social prestige grow.

When Gantenbein walks in front of a woman named Camilla Huber in front of her Karmann , he doesn't have to recognize her as a prostitute. The blind man visits her regularly as a manicure and tells her “true” stories. He tells her about the man who receives his own obituary and attends his funeral. He tells her the fairy tale of the love of the shepherd Ali and his blind wife Alil. Camilla realizes that Gantenbein is not blind, but she promises to be silent if he is silent about her. A dentist wants to marry her, but she is murdered the day before the wedding. The indictment is against a well-known person who is already ruining the publication of the letters addressed to Camilla. Gantenbein, summoned to appear in court as a witness, saw the defendant at the time of the crime, but he does not give him an alibi so that he does not fall out of his blind role.

The narrator also invents other people: Felix Enderlin, who surprisingly receives a call to Harvard , but also believes he is terminally ill. He is incapable of playing a role and fears nothing more than repetition and monotony. When he meets a woman, he knows in advance how the relationship will develop. And Frantisek Svoboda, a tree-long Bohemian whose wife Lila starts an affair with Enderlin. He travels alone and stoically waits for her decision whether she wants to live by his side, by the side of the other, or alone in the future.

All three men intersect in their relationship with a woman named Lila, an actress who is loved by all three men. Gantenbein compares his relationship with her to that of Philemon and Baucis . At the beginning both are happy. As a blind man, he doesn't have to notice that she is unfaithful to him, Lila doesn't have to pretend to be. She ignores any signs that he can see. But the signs of their infidelity burden him more and more. There is a young man from Uruguay named Einhorn, there are Danish letters that she hides from him, there is a locked drawer that only contains his own letters.

The relationship between Gantenbein and Lila could end when she visits a young drama student who Gantenbein thinks is his rival and locks him in the bedroom with Lila, whereupon she no longer wants to live with a madman. Lila could also have a daughter, but Gantenbein is gnawed by the doubt whether a Herr Siebenhagen is the father. When he finally confesses to Lila that he has seen all these years, she feels betrayed by him and rejects him.

At the end, the narrator tells Camilla a story of a Zurich native who wanted to die without leaving a name or a story. The dead man almost actually managed to drift away in a nameless coffin in the Limmat . With his own death in mind, the narrator is interrogated by an authority as to which of his characters he himself was. When he got back to the present, it seemed to him that nothing had happened at all. He sits under the southern late summer sun, he likes life.

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As the title Mein Name sei Gantenbein suggests, the narrator slips into the roles of the male characters and changes the stories by trying them on like clothes . The stories are therefore not told one after the other, but rather in 91 sections using an associative assembly technique . By presenting his own experience as an invented example, the narrator as an outside observer can express his experience as objectively as possible and minimize the falsification of his personal subjective views. The narrator himself describes this situation as follows: A man has had an experience, now he is looking for the story of his experience .

History of origin

Max Frisch (1961)

Frisch's work on Mein Name sei Gantenbein dates back to 1960. In that year he published the text Our Greed for Stories in Weltwoche , which became a programmatic draft for the novel. Among other things, Frisch wrote: “You can't tell the truth. […] All stories are made up, games of imagination, drafts of experience, images, true only as images. Everyone, not just the poet, invents his or her stories - only that, in contrast to the poet, he considers them to be his life - otherwise we do not see our patterns of experience, our first-person experience. "

Frisch wrote the novel for three years. A first draft, which he finished in May 1963, was called Lila or I am blind . Further revisions followed, among other things, Frisch deleted a part titled Opera without a singer, a series of operatic scenes around the figure of Hermes . The completed novel was published by Suhrkamp Verlag in autumn 1964 .

In a fictional interview entitled I write for readers , Frisch reported on the intentions and the process of writing. An initial idea developed after a car accident in black ice. Frisch, who was unharmed, wondered during the waiting time what could have happened. He imagined a man who is in danger of going blind in a traffic accident, but can still see and in the future just plays the blind man. He gave the name "Gantenbein" at random: "Gantenbein is a common name in Switzerland, not too common, peculiar, but not conspicuous."

Had during the writing process, the disturbing imperfect emerged that gave the fiction credibility. Only when Frisch put the novel in the present tense were variations in the process possible. Frisch justified that the human being is a sum of possibilities “that go beyond the biography. Only the variants show the constant. ”The novel is full of stories, but has no plot, it remains stationary, there is no course of action, but a sequence of associations . Frisch's intention was to "transfer the inevitability of associations to the reader."

reception

My name sei Gantenbein met with a great response from readers after it was published. Just a few months after the first edition in September 1964, the circulation of 100,000 copies was exceeded. Daniel de Vin saw the novel "in the Federal Republic of Germany as a literary event in the focus of conversation for a long time". In the GDR too, Mein Name sei Gantenbein, with its rather apolitical content, was the first of Frisch's great narrative works.

However, in contemporary literary criticism, the novel found a skeptical to negative reception in many cases. Heinrich Vormweg called the novel an “exemplary dead end”, Hans Egon Holthusen lamented the “lack of integration of all narrative elements” and assessed: “The modern intellectual at the end of his Latin.” Helmut Heißenbüttel distinguished between successful and unsuccessful stories, but they “kick do not come together to form a unity, but are also not so contradictory that they are mutually exclusive ”, which for him was an“ unfortunate solution ”. In the end, Hans Mayer crept in "this dull feeling for sheer stories from the everyday cliché", and he asked whether the "parasite Gantenbein, despite all artistic intentions" had triumphed over the narrator Max Frisch.

A plea against Mayer and for Frisch's Gantenbein - “a good novel” - was made by Marcel Reich-Ranicki , who criticized: “Anyone who tries to approach this book with categories that are derived from Frisch's earlier novels, especially from Stiller , fails to recognize its subject, its peculiarity, its climate. "For Reinhard Baumgart ," this narrative building "was not able to cope with the" boldness of its planning and its humor [...], "but precisely because of this" our imagination is not served, but disturbed, an uncomfortable, an inexhaustible pleasure. ” Günter Blöcker saw in the novel“ by far Max Frisch's most successful narrative work. Here form is what it should be, the ultimate consequence of the material, its transition into the spiritual. ”However, his judgment was put into perspective by the rejection of the two previous novels.

Peter Schneider , in turn, took the reviews of Heißenbüttel, Mayer, Reich-Ranicki, Baumgart and Blöcker of Mein Name sei Gantenbein as the occasion for his investigation into the shortcomings of contemporary literary criticism . In it he came to the conclusion that the judgments of the five critics “fall from heaven”, that the critic's person is “more important than his arguments”, his language is “prone to platitudes and vanity”: “The majority of the reviews appear as a loose list of Impressions that the critic has gathered while reading. "

After a while, my name was Gantenbein was classified differently. Was the verdict Volker Hage : "The novel is the most intricate and fascinating book that fresh ever wrote." Volker Weidermann evaluated: "It is a great novel, anxiety, intense, history rich, rich in perspective, intricate and enigmatic: Max Frisch's on the The high point of his art. ”For Jürgen H. Petersen, My Name was Gantenbein next to Stiller Frisch's work with the greatest influence on contemporary literature. The novel was“ in several respects a pivotal point within the German novel of the last three to four decades ”and was taken up again and again both in the variation of the ego and in the telling of fictions instead of facts. "This breaking through of the fictional art framework has become common fashion today, Max Frisch's Mein Name sei Gantenbein has practically set an example on this point."

Adaptations

The film adaptation of an episode of the novel - the story of the man who attends his own funeral - was planned by the 1965 Atlas film . But the project failed first because of differences between Frisch and director Erwin Leiser , then because of a serious illness Bernhard Wickis , who was supposed to replace Leiser, before it was completely discontinued due to a delay and follow-up obligations. About 72 minutes of the filming exist in the Düsseldorf film archive , but these are not complete scenes. The book edition Zurich - Transit. A sketch of a film was published in the spring of 1966. It was not until a year after Max Frisch's death that Zurich - Transit was remake in 1992, directed by Hilde Bechert .

In 1966, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Südwestfunk produced a radio play adaptation of the novel. Directed by Rudolf Noelte , speakers were Robert Freitag , Dagmar Altrichter and Miriam Spoerri , among others . In 2006 the production was released on CD. According to Edelgard Abenstein, the radio play "had no patina" and is characterized by "wit" and "sophistication". The seminar for general rhetoric at the University of Tübingen chose the radio play as audio book of the month and judged: “This is great theater on the audio stage” that “ seems to plunge into Beckett's sphere ”.

expenditure

  • Max Frisch: My name is Gantenbein . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1964 (first edition). (For 12 weeks in 1964 and 1965 at number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list )
  • Max Frisch: My name is Gantenbein . Volume 1000, Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg 1968.
  • Max Frisch: My name is Gantenbein . Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-518-06786-9 .
  • Max Frisch: My name is Gantenbein . Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-39458-4 .

literature

  • Heinz Gockel: Max Frisch: Gantenbein, the open-artistic storytelling. (= Treatises on art, music and literary studies. Volume 211). Bouvier, Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-416-01239-9 .
  • Sybille Heidenreich: Max Frisch: Stiller. My name is Gantenbein. Montauk . Beyer, Hollfeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-88805-152-4 .
  • Brigitta Hochuli: Mythical Discourses in Max Frisch's "My Name Be Gantenbein" . Bautz, Nordhausen 2004, ISBN 3-906752-95-X .
  • Frauke Maria Hoß: Philosophical elements in the work of Max Frisch. Basic phenomena of human existence in the novels "Stiller", "Homo faber" and "My name is Gantenbein" . Bautz, Nordhausen 2004, ISBN 3-88309-212-6 .
  • Martin Kraft: Studies on the subject of Max Frisch's novel “My name is Gantenbein” . Peter Lang, Bern 1969.
  • Frederick Alfred Lubich: Max Frisch: "Stiller", "Homo faber" and "My name is Gantenbein" . Fink, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7705-2623-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Hage : Max Frisch . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-50616-5 , p. 73.
  2. ↑ Max Frisch: Our greed for stories In: Collected works in chronological order. Fourth volume. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-06533-5 , p. 263.
  3. ↑ Max Frisch: Collected works in chronological order. Fifth volume . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-06533-5 , p. 585.
  4. ↑ Max Frisch: I write for readers. In: Collected works in chronological order. Fifth volume. P. 324.
  5. ↑ Max Frisch: I write for readers. In: Collected works in chronological order. Fifth volume. Pp. 326-327.
  6. ↑ Max Frisch: I write for readers. In: Collected works in chronological order. Fifth volume. P. 330.
  7. ↑ Hermann Kähler: Max Frisch's "Gantenbein" novel. In: Thomas Beckermann (ed.): About Max Frisch I . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1971, ISBN 3-518-10404-7 , p. 198 with reference to sales surveys of the mirror and Heinz Gockel: Max Frisch: Gantenbein, the open-artistic narration. P. 7 with reference to volume 1000 of the paperback edition of the Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag .
  8. ^ Daniel de Vin: Max Frisch's diary . Böhlau, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-412-00977-6 , p. 56.
  9. ^ Daniel de Vin: Max Frisch's diary. P. 57.
  10. ↑ Frederick Alfred Lubich: Max Frisch: "Stiller", "Homo faber" and "My name is Gantenbein". P. 87.
  11. ↑ Quoted from: Heinz Gockel: Max Frisch: Gantenbein, the open-artistic narration. P. 8.
  12. ↑ Hans Egon Holthusen : A man of fifty years. In: Merkur October / November 1964. Reprinted in: Albrecht Schau: Max Frisch - Contributions to an impact history . Becksmann, Freiburg 1971, quotation pp. 121–125, citations, pp. 124–125.
  13. ↑ Helmut Heißenbüttel : A narrator who hates his craft? In: The world . September 3, 1964. Quotation from: Peter Schneider: A pause for breath . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1977, ISBN 3-499-25086-1 , p. 11.
  14. ↑ Hans Mayer : Possible views on Mr. Gantenbein. In: The time . September 18, 1964. Reprinted in: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): About Max Frisch II . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-518-10852-2 , pp. 314-324, citations p. 324.
  15. ↑ Marcel Reich-Ranicki : Plea for Max Frisch. In: The time. October 2, 1964. Reprinted in: Walter Schmitz (Ed.): About Max Frisch II. Pp. 325–334, quotations pp. 327, 334.
  16. ↑ Reinhard Baumgart : Othello as Hamlet . In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 1964, pp. 92-93 ( online ).
  17. ^ Günter Blöcker : Max Frischs roles. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 3, 1964. Reprinted in: Günter Blöcker: Literatur als Teilhabe . Argon, Berlin 1966, pp. 15-19. Quote, p. 19.
  18. ^ Peter Schneider : The shortcomings of contemporary literary criticism. In: ders .: respite . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1977, ISBN 3-499-25086-1 , pp. 9-30, citations pp. 28-29.
  19. ↑ Volker Hage: Max Frisch. P. 84.
  20. ↑ Volker Weidermann : Max Frisch. His life, his books . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-462-04227-6 , p. 262.
  21. ↑ Jürgen H. Petersen: Max Frisch . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-13173-4 , pp. 188-190.
  22. ↑ Hervé Dumont : Max Frisch once again missed his rendezvous with the film. In: Luis Bolliger (Ed.): Now: max fresh. Pp. 183-184.
  23. ^ Transit on the Hanns Eckelkamp Filmproduktion website .
  24. ^ Zurich - Transit in the Internet Movie Database (English).
  25. ↑ Edelgard Abenstein: Blind antihero . On: Deutschlandradio Kultur . April 21, 2006.
  26. ↑ Audio book of the month May 2007 of the seminar for general rhetoric at the University of Tübingen .