Sunrise (narration)

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Sunrise is a short story by the Austrian writer Michael Köhlmeier from 1994. The plot takes place on several levels, on each of which a story is told. With their life stories, two characters in the narrative address against death , which appears as a personification . The frame narrative takes a surprising turn after the continuation of this story. The idea behind Sunrise comes from Richard O'Brien , the inventor of the Rocky Horror Show .

content

Richard and the first-person narrator sit on the edge of a country road before sunrise and try to stop a car without success. To bridge the gap, Richard tells the story of Leo Pomerantz and Rita Luna. Leo, also known as "Sneezy", is a homeless drunk who camps near Hollywood Boulevard . When he has just made the decision to stop drinking, death wants to fetch him, but hits Rita with his sickle . A stripper from a place on Hollywood Boulevard called I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper (based on the Sarah Brightman song ), she is reluctant to die because of such a mistake. Death stops time for an hour and gives both of them the opportunity to "talk their way out" of the matter. But at the end of the lesson he can't decide who to let live.

At this point Richard breaks off with his story. The first-person narrator is dissatisfied with this open ending and he is looking for a solution to the story. In its end, the death would give Rita and Leo a year of reprieve. If during this time a “clever head” managed to find a solution, he would let them both go and take the “smart head” with him. Richard then takes a sickle out of his backpack and kills the narrator with the words “Yes, you have told my story to the end and everything will happen exactly as you told me - clever head!”.

Text analysis

The narrative has many of the characteristics of a novella . There is only one storyline and one turning point , which is not in the middle, as is usual in most novels, but at the end. The scythe can be seen as a central thing symbol and stands for death, but also for chance, which intervenes in the plot several times: The sickle of death hits Rita instead of Leo, in the framework plot, whoever tells a story is drawn by lot.

There are three nested narrative levels that are linked by different narrators: The entire text is narrated by a first-person narrator. In the frame narration Richard tells the story of Leo and Rita. On the second level, they in turn tell their third level stories to death. The narrative is reminiscent of oral speech. The dialogue of speech and counter-speech appears authentic and lively through narrative means such as digressions, interruptions, inquiries and reflective comments. In the end, the frame and the narrative merge , with Richard turning out to be death. There had already been indications of this identity: both have the same thin stature, Richard speaks many, Death all languages.

reception

Eva Schobel judged Michael Köhlmeier's Sunrise : “It's great how the author manages to turn the narrative obstacle course of his involuntary adversaries into a novelty gem.” Alfred Bodenheimer described: “The design of the whole narrative out of the dialogue, the settling in of The authors in the individual narrative styles of the characters give this simple and at the same time terribly complicated story depth, but at the same time a pleasantly unobtrusive and astonishingly believable looseness. "

Sunrise was implemented as a radio play by ORF in 2001 . Sylvester Groth , Nicole Heesters , Thomas Holtzmann and the author himself spoke under the direction of Klaus Gmeiner . Michael Köhlmeier also read an audio book version of his story.

expenditure

literature

  • Christa Wernisch: "Sunrise" by Michael Köhlmeier. A full text in class. In: Informations zur Deutschdidaktik (ide), 27 (2003) 1, pp. 90–96.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Vellusig: The narrator. Reflections on the work of Michael Köhlmeier . In: Günther A. Höfler (Ed.): Michael Köhlmeier . Droschl, Graz 2001, ISBN 3-85420-573-2 , p. 61.
  2. ↑ See section: Silvia Vukovich: Michael Köhlmeier: Sunrise ( memento of the original from June 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.haymonverlag.at archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Teaching materials from Haymon Verlag , pp. 5–6 (pdf; 270 kB).
  3. ^ Eva Schobel: Scheherezade in Los Angeles . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 20, 1994. Quoted after press comments  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Haymon publishing house.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.haymonverlag.at  
  4. ↑ Alfred Bodenheimer: The missed goal of death. Michael Köhlmeier's story Sunrise. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 6, 1994. Quoted after press comments  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Haymon publishing house.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.haymonverlag.at  
  5. ↑ Sunrise in the HörDat audio game database