Lunar eclipse (Dürrenmatt)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lunar Eclipse is a story by Friedrich Dürrenmatt , which was written in the early 1950s and revised in 1978.

content

In deep winter, Walt Locher, who made money in Canada, drives his Cadillac to Flötigen, his small birthplace. He offers the village community fourteen million (one million for each household in Flötigen) for the murder of Mani. Back then, Mani stole his girlfriend from him, and Walt had sworn revenge before he emigrated. It should happen when the moon is full , the extremely rich homecomer demands. The fluteers are getting ready to kill. The vote is democratic - there is unanimity with one abstention: Mani should be slain, the village needs the millions. Almost everyone gets intoxicated with the idea of ​​the million ahead. Even Mani agrees, his life has become too difficult for him anyway and with the million you can renovate his shabby farm. On the night of the execution, however, the moon begins to darken . Doubts creep in the men who have started the execution - but only until the moon appears again in its full glory.

Creation and processing

  • According to Ulrich Weber's interpretation (see report from the Swiss Literature Archives), the idea arose in 1953/55 and was revised in 1978. The story appeared in the volume fabrics I – III (labyrinth) in 1981. The lunar eclipse is a preliminary stage to the play The visit of the old lady by Friedrich Dürrenmatt .
  • The novella Lunar Eclipse at the beginning of the 50s of the 20th century laid the basis for The Visit of the Old Lady and is little known. Sophie Männel writes in her student thesis Zu Dürrenmatt's Lunar Eclipse and The Visit of the Old Lady - Backgrounds of Origin and a comparative comparison of the origins and changes in the motif of revenge.
  • In 1996, Swiss Radio DRS produced the radio play Lunar Eclipse in Swiss dialect based on this story .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Final report Switzerland. Literature archive ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , see page 19. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nb.admin.ch
  2. ↑ Seminar paper on lunar eclipse and The Visit of the Old Lady .
  3. ↑ Lunar eclipse in the HörDat audio game database .

Web links