A plane over the house

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The book of stories, A plane over the house , was published in 1955 as the first book by the author Martin Walser .

After a story contained therein (Templone's End) had received an award from Group 47 in 1955 , Walser's fellow student Siegfried Unseld passed this anthology to Peter Suhrkamp .

background

Walser should remove three of the 12 stories and change the actual title "My social situation". The Suhrkamp Verlag argued, regardless of the award of Gruppe 47, on the one hand, to want to bring Walser's literary work to a larger reading public. On the other hand, the closeness to Franz Kafka should not be covered up in some of the stories . In addition, the publisher argued with the publication of the volume in order to give Walser courage for his peculiarity. The revised volume found a very friendly reception, but the Kafkaesque in Walser's stories is confirmed. Slogans such as imitators of Kafka or Epigone Kafka were used .

content

  • A plane over the house
  • Dangerous stay
  • I was looking for a woman
  • The move
  • The complaints about my methods are mounting
  • The return of a collector
  • What would we be without Belmonte
  • Templone's end
  • The last matinee

interpretation

In Walser's collection of stories, attempts are made to make the fates of people in that time (post-war period) visible in parables. Yet you learn little or nothing about the characters. The author focuses on actions, little on thinking, feeling, that seems to him indifferent and irrelevant. The characters see themselves at the mercy of a world that they perceive as alien or hostile and feel threatened by an all-powerful authority to which they ultimately fall victim.

Although Kafka's school is mentioned in the blurb, the volume of stories is received in a very friendly manner. Nevertheless, critics rate the band as an exercise in style for the young Walser. A development and turning away from the Kafkaesque style takes place with “The complaints about my methods”. There both heroes try to exist without losing their individuality, but fail because of the world order and not because of their own inadequacy.

Templone's end

In “ A plane over the house and other stories”, the short story “Templone's End”, awarded by Group 47, also appeared. The influence of Kafka is significant in this narrative, because Walser's early narrative form is shaped by Kafka. There are central conflicts of characters incapable of development, whereby the narrative form is perceived as incomprehensible and foreign to the reader. From Kafka's school comes the constellation that the hero is confronted with an anonymous authority from which one cannot escape and Kafka's characters suffer a radical lack of development opportunities. These figures are determined down to the finest movements and can only change if their function changes.

It is therefore also typical of Martin Walser that there is a conflicting relationship between the characters and the surrounding narrative world. There is a basic structure of defeat as well as the unknown and fear. His characters also seem incapable of development, which exist in an order that is incomprehensible and perceived as alien. Motifs of alienation and loneliness predominate in “ Templone's End ”.

The grotesque narrative reflects on senile failure due to alienation and failure to comply with one's own laws. At the end of the short story, Walser inserts a punch line that makes the final sentence appear appended. Walser leaves the actual scope of action and expands the limited knowledge of the reader. The protagonist Templone defends himself against death, yet the outside world, which he perceives as threatening, does not penetrate into his sphere of activity or property. Templone is found by the gas man and the neighbors do not complain and organize the funeral. The end is crucial, as a change of perspective takes place here.

The social environment, namely the (new) neighbors, lose their threat and Templone loses his role as a victim of these (un) social conditions. He becomes an anti-hero. Because Templone cannot meet the demands of the time. He refuses all communication and it represents a staged disruption of the relationship between community (neighbors) / individuals (Templone). Through his death Templone recognizes the fragility of his existence as well as the inexorable passage of time and the changes in life.

The Kafkaesque is mixed with the irony and Walser skilfully distorts a representation of horror that is reinforced by the ridiculousness of the protagonist. The core of the narrative is the vague, unfounded, imaginary fear. Martin Walser says:

In this and other stories I want to refer to the psychological susceptibility of people, whether this shows up as seducibility, as obsessive thinking, as a loss of identity or, more generally, as fearfulness. In general, most of the people in these stories feel fear, are insecure, and feel threatened. The feeling of fear is neither the result of interpersonal conflicts, nor is it the result of privately caused feelings of guilt. No, this fear is much deeper, indeterminable, incomprehensible and - in "Templone's End" - even completely unfounded, that is, imagined. (In.)

criticism

Marcel Reich-Ranicki praised it with the words: "The author of these books considers it his duty to say what he sees here and now - although he does not have the power to change it and because he does not have this power."

The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote about the stories at the time: “Walser's stories are ironic-aggressive parables of human existence in a society that does not allow greatness, freedom, and abundance of life to arise because every spontaneous impulse seeps into a labyrinth of difficulties and inhuman resistance . "

literature

  • Martin Walser: A plane over the house and other stories . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1997, ISBN 3-518-39288-3 .
  • Anthony Wayne: "Templone's End" and Walser's arrival . In: Stuart Parkes (Ed.): The Gruppe 47. Fifty years on a re-appraisal of its literary and political significance . Rodopi, Amsterdam 1999, ISBN 90-4200677-3 , pp. 127-137.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The development of the protagonist in relation to his social environment at grin.com, accessed on May 9, 2017.
  2. ↑ Interpretation of Templone's end at api.vlb.de, PDF file, accessed on May 9, 2017.
  3. ^ Review by Marcel Reich-Ranicki at zeit.de, accessed on May 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ A plane over the house and other stories at suhrkamp.de, accessed on May 9, 2017.