{"id":1684,"date":"2011-11-10T18:14:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T23:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/?page_id=1684"},"modified":"2021-12-30T14:35:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T19:35:19","slug":"britta-kallin-glossen-33","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/archive\/most-recent-issue-glossen-332011\/britta-kallin-glossen-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Britta Kallin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intertextualities in Elfriede Jelinek\u2019s Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel)<\/em>:\u00a0<\/strong>Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s Exterminating Angel<\/em>, the Bible, and T.S. Eliot\u2019s \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elfriede Jelinek\u2019s play Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel)<\/em> (2008) examines the silence about a massacre at the Austrian-Hungarian border in the Austrian Burgenland that took place in the early morning hours of March 25, 1945. The countess Margit Batthy\u00e1ny, ne\u00e9 Thyssen, had invited around 30 guests on the evening of March 24, 1945, to her castle. After partying and drinking all evening, weapons from the castle were handed out. An unknown number of guests walked to the nearby town to use those weapons to kill Jewish workers who were assembled at the nearby train station. That night almost 200 already starving and weakened Jewish workers were shot to death for, as it seems, no other reason than amusement of the murderers. Various groups of SS soldiers and members of other National Socialist organizations who were invited as guests to the castle of Margit Batthy\u00e1ny supposedly committed the massacre. Two of those SS officers were Ortsgruppenleiter and SS-Sturmscharf\u00fcrer Franz Podezin and Hans Joachim Oldenburg.[1]An SS man who was willing to give testimony in court and one Jewish survivor of the massacre were both killed under strange circumstances in 1946. These two murders have never been solved. Nobody in the town of Rechnitz (Rohonc in Hungarian) has come forward to describe the events that took place that night. The corpses of the Jews have not been found. According to reports, 18 Jewish laborers who dug the graves for the killed Jews were shot dead the next day.<\/p>\n

When the historian David Litchfield published his book The Thyssen Art Macabre <\/em>\u00a0(2007) and various articles containing details about the massacre in the British newspaper The Independent <\/em>and the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung <\/em>in 2007, discussions took place in the German and Austrian media about the unresolved case. In the article in The Independent<\/em>, Litchfield writes:<\/p>\n

Six hundred Jews, assigned to strengthen the Rechnitz defences [sic], were housed <\/em>in the cellars of the castle, living in appalling conditions. Many were arbitrarily beaten and shot, particularly by Podezin, while local people reported the countess derived obvious sadistic pleasures from observing these barbaric acts.\u00a0(n. pag., 2007)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The massacre has become a representative case of the difficult relationship of Austria\u2019s involvement with National Socialism and crimes committed by Austrians during that period.[2] Countess Batthy\u00e1ny died in 1989 in Switzerland and was never held accountable for the shootings and killings and never brought to trial. Her lover at the time of the massacre, NS-Ortsgruppenleiter Franz Podezin, who participated in the shootings, lived in Kiel till the mid-1960s before leaving for South Africa. He also was never accused of the crime because it seemed impossible to gather enough evidence.<\/p>\n

In this article, I argue that Jelinek draws on several texts to highlight the interconnectedness of Western thoughts on human civilization, religion, brutality, and Austria\u2019s role in relation to National Socialism to strengthen her case against those who cover up crimes of genocide and to disturb those who try to keep silent about those crimes. As in many of her other texts, Elfriede Jelinek uses a subset of literary sources in which she entangles her play Rechnitz<\/em>. For example, there are a number of connections between the Jelinek play and Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s movie, The Exterminating Angel<\/em> (1962).[3] Another text is the poem \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d (1925) by T. S. Eliot, which explores the spirit of the time in Europe and the US after WW I. There are also parts of historians\u2019 descriptions of the massacre and the findings of two documentary filmmakers, Margareta Heinrich and Eduard Erne, who filmed a documentary movie about the backgrounds of the massacre and the reactions of the towns\u2019 inhabitants, entitled Totschweigen<\/em> (1994).[4] Jelinek also includes passages from the Bible in her play that underline the contrast between the brutality of the atrocities and the Christian tradition in which the victimizers were educated. In Rechnitz<\/em>, Jelinek also uses passages from G\u00fcnter Stampf\u2019s Interview mit einem Kannibalen<\/em> (2008), in which the murderer Armin Meiwes, also known as the cannibal of Rotenburg, reports on locating, contacting, murdering, and eating his victim Bernd J\u00fcrgen Armando Brandes. Meiwes was found guilty of killing and devouring his victim in 2004. He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. The following year the court changed the sentences from manslaughter to murder and Meiwes now serves a life sentence. Furthermore, Jelinek employs excerpts from Friedrich Nietzsche\u2019s Also sprach Zarathustra<\/em> (1883-85) for parts that deal with the philosophical debate about the existence or non-existence of God.<\/p>\n

In addition, Jelinek includes a number of quotes from Euripides Die Bakchen<\/em> (405 B.C.), a play that deals with Dyonisus who punishes Pentheus and his mother Agave because they refuse to worship him. While driven into an ecstatic frenzy, Agave and other women tear Pentheus\u2019 body apart without knowing who their victims are. Dyonisus is the central character of the play who directs the other characters according to his wishes. In a review of Foley\u2019s path-breaking study on Euripides, S.E. Scully quotes Helen P. Foley who writes, the poet \u201cuses the ritual crisis to explore simultaneously god, man, society, and his own tragic art\u201d (207). Scully continues, \u201cIn this \u2018protodrama\u2019 Dionysus, the god of the theatre, stage-directs the play (219)\u201d (Scully 1987, 321). Due to its gruesome theme, the play Die Bakchen <\/em>was for a long time overlooked as a serious engagement with theater\u2019s forces. It was Nietzsche\u2019s Geburt der Trag\u00f6die <\/em>(1872) that revived an interest in Die Bakchen <\/em>and the forceful chorus scenes were staged quite dramatically throughout performances in the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, Jelinek also incorporates the libretto of Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em> (1821), written by Friedrich Kind for Carl Maria von Weber\u2019s opera. The source of the Freisch\u00fctz <\/em>plot is a German folk legend in which a marksman agrees to a contract with the devil. The marksman receives bullets that do not miss the target, which the shooter aims at. In turn, the marksman will sacrifice his life to the devil. The connection here are the references to hunting, the deal with the devil that the Nazi soldiers seemed to agree on when shooting innocent Jewish workers, and the German nationalist undertones in the opera that was deemed the first German Romantic opera of its genre. David Boyden writes in An Introduction to Music<\/em>, \u201cThis work … marked the emancipation of the German opera from Italian and French models … In addition to the magic and supernatural elements, the opera specializes in local color of the forest, peasants, rustic love, hunting, and hunting horns … the folk tale, the folk-song type of melody, and folk dances. These elements are rather na\u00efve and nationalist in emphasis\u201d (339). Also, the corpse of the hero Kaspar who sold his soul to the devil is finally thrown into the Wolf\u2019s Glen (\u201cWolfsschlucht\u201d). The similarities between Wolf\u2019s Glen and Hitler\u2019s Wolf\u2019s Lair (\u201cWolfsschanze\u201d) are telling. While the victims disappear in a mountainous, dark valley in Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em>, the almost 200 victims of Rechnitz disappear in the soil that Hitler\u2019s men forced a group of the Jewish workers to dig up. Furthermore, the name of Agave is reminiscent of Agathe; Agave acts as the female hero in the play Die Bakchen <\/em>and Agathe is the heroine in Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em>. In addition, besides the fact that Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em> is based on a German folk legend it also draws on the dichotomy of Appolonian and Dyonisian elements of theater and nature\u2019s powers. Another source that Jelinek employs at the end of her play is the interview \u201cJammern ist nie eine gute Idee,\u201d printed in Die Weltwoche<\/em>, in which Hans Magnus Enzensberger talks about his book on the German military persona general Kurt von Hammerstein, Hammerstein oder der Eigensinn: Eine deutsche Geschichte <\/em>(2009). Jelinek analyzes several of Enzensberger\u2019s laconic comments in the interview about the role of the Holocaust in current day German schools and public debate.[5]\n

The parallels between Luis Bunuel\u2019s Angel Exterminador <\/em>(1962) and Jelinek\u2019s play are not as evident as some of the quotes of other sources. First, the setting of the film and the play are similar because in both cases a hostess or host invites guests to a party in a mansion. In the movie, all guests wear formal dress code. The men wear tuxedos and the women wear evening gowns as they are all coming back from an opera they watched that evening. The narrative line of Exterminating Angel <\/em>is not linear but here, Bunuel, plays with the limits of cinematic freedom. The movie is considered one of his many surrealist films where the spectator is confronted with continuity errors, repetitions, inconsistencies, and contradictions which are mirrored in Jelinek\u2019s play.[6] The film depicts class conflict in its extreme, neither the bourgeois nor the servants can identify with the opposite group. A female guest at the party describes a train wreck in which \u201cthe third-class compartment, full of common people, had been squashed like a huge accordion,\u201d and calmly continues, \u201cThe suffering of those poor people didn\u2019t move me at all.\u201d The female actor asserts, \u201cThe lower classes seem to be less sensitive to pain.\u201d Similarly, Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities who were persecuted by the Nazis were not considered human and less susceptible to pain. The sheep in Exterminating Angel<\/em> represent the thoughtless humans who are sacrificed when following religion or other groups such as the Nazis. After the guests seem to be trapped in the living room of the host\u2019s house in Bunuel\u2019s movie, they slowly lose all civilized behavior and turn into brutal savages when they demand the death of the host. They break down walls to get to water pipes and one couple commits suicide. They find solace in dreams, magic, chicken legs, and narrative. Marsha Kinder writes: \u201cTheir mysterious inability to leave the room is experienced as failure of will — perhaps no more mysterious than the one that prevents citizens from changing the totally corrupt economic, social, and political system on which their own privileges (and the miseries of the servants and other have-nots) are based\u201d (n.pag.).<\/p>\n

While there is no rational explanation for the guests\u2019 frivolous behavior in Bunuel\u2019s movie, there is also a lack of explanation for the behavior of the guests at Margit Batthy\u00e1ny\u2019s party in her castle in Rechnitz. [7] Yet, the guests in Bunuel\u2019s movie do not commit crimes like the soldiers who shot the Jews. At the end of the plot, Bunuel\u2019s guests are miraculously allowed to leave the house. Yet, a few days later again they are trapped inside a church with a large group of other churchgoers. There is no end to the absurdity of Bunuel\u2019s plot. In his movie, one guest comments on a loud noise that sounds like shattering glass he hears in another room and he expresses anti-Semitic sentiments. The guest explains, \u201cThat might have been a Jew.\u201d Marsha Kinder writes \u201cThe Exterminating Angel<\/em> demonstrates how religion provides an underlying justification for some of the worst injustices of the bourgeois social order\u201d (n.pag.).<\/p>\n

In one scene in Bunuel\u2019s movie, a couple that just met at the party and has fallen in love with each other commits suicide in the bathroom, the only other room where the guests are going to the toilet, to have sexual intercourse, or commit suicide. After a female guest discovers the dead couple, she tries to shut the door to the bathroom but a hand sticks out that she cannot get back into the tiny, closet-like bathroom. A hand (without a body) reappears shortly after this scene to haunt the woman who just woke up from a bad dream. She then tries to poke the hand that moves around the room with a knife. The scene is interrupted when another woman shrieks because someone tried to hurt her hand with a knife. It is not clear from the plot if the hand is meant to be a fantastical twist of the woman\u2019s mind, the one who discovered the dead couple. The hand here represents the undead that return by getting into the business of those still alive. In Rechnitz<\/em>, <\/em>Jelinek uses the hand as a separate object that has its own force and also to taunt the living as a symbol of the undead:<\/p>\n

Sonst werden die doch gefunden, die Toten, 180 St\u00fcck, das ist keine Kleinigkeit, die alle umzubetten, das k\u00f6nnen wir uns sp\u00e4ter in Ruhe \u00fcberlegen, jetzt erst mal rein mit ihnen, das Blut h\u00e4tte diese harte Erde doch wirklich vorher etwas erweichen k\u00f6nnen, da schaut ja noch eine Hand heraus und dort ein Fuss oder was ist das. (129)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Bunuel\u2019s and Jelinek\u2019s works, two classes of society are involved. The servants in Bunuel\u2019s movie leave the scene before the situation escalates with the exception of one male servant who remains at the house and finally shows the guests the exit door. In Jelinek\u2019s play, she recalls the situation at the castle of Margit Batthy\u00e1ny who employed a number of servants. The cellar in Batthy\u00e1ny\u2019s castle was used to house Jewish workers who had been sent to work on the \u201cOstschutzwall\u201d which was supposed to be built in 1945 to keep the Russian army from advancing any further. According to reports, the Jews were kept in inhumane conditions and were beaten and otherwise tortured without reason.\u00a0 In Rechnitz<\/em>, a messenger reports: \u201cIch glaube, auch die Dienerschaft h\u00e4lt dicht, weil sie das schlie\u00dflich wei\u00df und muss\u201c (137). As the documentary Totschweigen <\/em>also shows, Batthy\u00e1ny\u2019s servants did not mention anything about the abuse of the Jews because their role was to keep quiet about what is now considered human rights\u2019 abuses.<\/p>\n

One of the more striking intertexts in Rechnitz <\/em>is T.S. Eliot\u2019s poem \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d that was written in 1925 and has since had a major influence on the culture of the United States. It has made its way into a number of literary and cinematic works as well as computer games. The poem is also read in the Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s movie Apocalypse Now <\/em>(1979) where Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent to find and eliminate Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who is said to kill the Viet Kong indiscriminately one by one. In reference to its literary source, the movie displays the primal violence of human nature and the brutality of the soldiers\u2019 hearts.<\/p>\n

Jelinek makes use of Eliot\u2019s allusions to Joseph Conrad\u2019s novel Heart of Darkness<\/em> (1899) in which an amoral British man loses himself in the African wilderness and commits terrible crimes only to realize the horror on his deathbed. Similar to Eliot, Jelinek draws allusions to the Conrad novel, Eliot\u2019s description of the death of cultures, and the modern man as hollow and corrupt. She also alludes to the scenes in Coppola\u2019s movie Apocalypse Now<\/em> in which Marlon Brando reads Eliot\u2019s poem and reflects on the destructive and evil nature of mankind. In the following, I will outline intertextual references in Jelinek\u2019s Rechnitz<\/em>, taken from T.S. Eliot\u2019s poem \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d by highlighting passages in bold that are directly taken from the English poem or passages translated into German and included in Jelinek\u2019s play:<\/p>\n

Gedenket unser, wenn \u00fcberhaupt, nicht als verlorene gewaltt\u00e4tige Seelen<\/strong>, sondern denkt an uns nur als die hollow men, the stuffed men<\/strong>, vollgestopft <\/strong>haben sie sich, haben wir uns, wieso sind sie, wieso sind wir dann hohl<\/strong>, wieso sind die dann aber H\u00f6hle und wir nicht? Hohl<\/strong>enmenschen? H\u00f6hlenmenschen?, was wei\u00df ich, was das ist, wer wir sind. Und die Herren P. und O. m\u00fcssen wir auch noch mitnehmen, geht ja alles in einem Blutaufwasch, denn das sind die echten hohlen Menschen<\/strong>, in die geht alles rein. Oder sind es die anderen, die hohl<\/strong> sind, weil schon fast verhungert? Hohl<\/strong> gegen hohl<\/strong>. Auf einen Totenacker hat sie ihr Weg gef\u00fchrt. (R 61-62)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jelinek plays with the expression \u201cstuffed\u201d as in \u201cstuffed after being emptied,\u201d the Jews who have not been given enough to eat in contrast to \u201cstuffed as in satiated,\u201d \u201cfull after a meal,\u201d the meal that Podezin and Oldenburg celebrated at Margit von Batthy\u00e1ny\u2019s castle. Jelinek offers contradictory images: the stuffed men are those who ate a lot because they are hollow and without essence in contrast to those who are starving. The original part of the Eliot poem reads like this:<\/p>\n

Remember us \u2013 if at all \u2013 not as lost
\nViolent souls, but only
\nAs the hollow men
\nThe stuffed men. (I, Eliot)<\/p>\n

The computer-generated translation, which Jelinek used to translate the text, reads slightly different. Jelinek mocks the inability of the computer software that translates the poem into words that are assembled in incorrect grammar:[8]\n

Nicht als verlorene heftige Seelen, aber nur als die hohlen M\u00e4nner die angef\u00fcllten M\u00e4nner. (CGT)<\/p>\n

Jelinek uses Eliot\u2019s paradoxical imagery at the end of the first stanza of \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d who are hollow and simultaneously stuffed. She projects the image on the victims who are starved as well as on the victimizers Podezin and Oldenburg who are stuffed from the food at the party but hollow inside and uses the word play of \u201chohl-H\u00f6hle\u201d to draw on their barbaric, uncivilized life.<\/p>\n

Jelinek quotes complete sentences from T.S. Eliot\u2019s \u201cThe Hollow Men.\u201d \u201cSie [die Geschichte, B.K.] h\u00e4lt eine Vorlesung. Between the conception and the creation between the emotion and the response falls the shadow<\/strong>\u201d (65). This is part of Eliot\u2019s original poem\u2019s fifth stanza. Eliot uses this as a rhythmic dance as part of the mulberry bush\/prickly pear sequence with its repetitive lines, two of which end with the biblical reference \u201cFor Thine is the Kingdom\u201d:<\/p>\n

Between the conception
\nAnd the creation
\nBetween the emotion
\nAnd the response
\nFalls the Shadow
\nLife is very long<\/em> (V, Eliot)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Repeatedly, Jelinek uses images of shadows that depict the undead who lament the living\u2019s lack of interest in justice for all. \u201c[D]ass diese letzten Hilflosen also abgeknallt werden, anstatt dass man zuerst an die Rettung der eigenen Haut denken w\u00fcrde, die ja viel mehr wert ist in death\u2019s twilight kingdom<\/strong>, und auch die Zeit ist viel wert, es ist n\u00e4mlich h\u00f6chste Zeit\u201d (R, 66). In \u201cThe Hollow Men,\u201d Eliot plays with the biblical expression from the Lord\u2019s Prayer: \u201cFor thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever,\u201d with which the prayer ends. Instead of praising the kingdom without hesitation, Eliot develops a new kingdom of death\u2019s twilight that is neither just nor bright.[9]\n

Similar to Eliot\u2019s allusions to the Lord\u2019s Prayer with the lines \u201cFor Thine is the Kingdom\u201d and the crippled line at the end of the poem, Jelinek also refers repeatedly to the Bible in her play Rechnitz<\/em>: \u201cAlso, wer der Herr, mein Hirte, ist, das wei\u00df ich nicht\u201d (R 161). \u201cMan hebt bei Dunkelheit eine Grube aus, und dann legt man das eben hinein. Dann spricht man den Psalm 23. Der ist sch\u00f6n. Ich glaub, den magst du auch. Man betet danach das Vaterunser. Dann schaufelt man die Grube eben wieder zu\u201d (R 202). Psalm 23 is sung by Jews and Christians alike. Jews sing it at the third Shabbat meal on Saturday afternoon. Sephardic and Hassidic Jews also sing it on Fridays. It is also read at Jewish and Christian funeral services:<\/p>\n

Der Herr ist mein Hirte, mir wird nichts mangeln. Er weidet mich auf einer gr\u00fcnen Aue und f\u00fchret mich zum frischen Wasser. Er erquicket meine Seele und f\u00fchret mich auf rechter Stra\u00dfe um seines Namens willen. Und ob ich schon wanderte im finsteren Tal, f\u00fcrchte ich kein Ungl\u00fcck; denn Du bist bei mir, dein Stecken und Stab tr\u00f6sten mich. Du bereitest vor mir einen Tisch im Angesicht meiner Feinde. Du salbest mein Haupt mit \u00d6l und schenkest mir voll ein.<\/p>\n

Gutes und Barmherzigkeit werden mir folgen mein Leben lang, und ich werde bleiben im Hause des Herrn immerdar. (Lutherbibel, 1984)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jelinek rewrites the Biblic message by twisting its meaning and adding a doubtful voice and critique of the Christian message: \u201cIch glaube, es hei\u00dft richtig: Im Hause meines Vaters sind viele Wohnungen\u201d (R 203). The original Bible quote reads: \u201cIn meines Vaters Hause sind viele Wohnungen. Wenn es nicht so w\u00e4re, so wollte ich zu euch sagen: Ich gehe hin euch die St\u00e4tte zu bereiten\u201d (Joh. 14, 2; Lutherbibel, 1984).<\/p>\n

Jelinek\u2019s take on the Biblical passages subvert their meaning: \u201cDann sagt der Herr: Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben. Niemand kommt zum Vater als nur durch mich\u201c (R 203). In the Bible, it reads: \u201cJesus spricht zu ihm [Johannes]: Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben. Niemand kommt zum Vater denn durch mich\u201c (Joh 14,6; Lutherbibel, 1984).<\/p>\n

The most frequently quoted passage from the New Testament demands that the Christian faith is the only true religion. In the last sentence of Rechnitz<\/em>, Jelinek again inverts a line from the Bible in which God is asked for help. He assures his followers that he will be there for them. Jelinek twists the line around by negating it: \u201cUnd wenn ihr etwas bitten werdet in meinem Namen, so werde ich es nicht tun\u201d (R 204).\u00a0 While the Bible reassures its readers: \u201cUnd wenn ihr etwas bitten werdet in meinem Namen, so werde ich es tun\u201d (Joh. 14, 14; Lutherbibel 1984). The questions by family members, historians, and Jelinek to find out the truth about the shootings of the Jewish workers has not been answered.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that the text is a play, a narrative voice carries the reader through the text. An actor will take that role on stage to tell the story of the dead and the victimizers. At one point, when the narrative voice reflects on Margit Batthy\u00e1ny as an art collector as well as art and its purpose for mankind, the voice refers back to Eliot\u2019s poem.<\/p>\n

Kunst ist prinzipiell und unerkl\u00e4rlich. Nur zwei, drei Leute verstehen sie. Sie ist ein Ph\u00e4nomen, sie ist sichtlos, sinnlos, nutzlos. Die Augen<\/strong> kommen immer wieder mal vorbei, doch umsonst, sie wollen sich was anschauen, aber sie sehen nichts, weil die Kunst sich geweigert hat, sich zu sammeln, sightless,<\/strong> useless the eyes reappear as the perpetual star multifoliate rose of death\u2019s twilight kingdom the hope only of empty men.<\/strong> Die Leeren. Ja, die Leeren sind irgendwo eingegraben worden\u201d (R 74).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Eliot, it reads:<\/p>\n

Sightless, unless
\nThe eyes reappear
\nAs the perpetual star
\nMultifoliate rose
\nOf death\u2019s twilight kingdom
\nThe hope only
\nOf empty men. (IV, Eliot)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jelinek uses the third stanza of the fourth part in its entirety as a run-on sentence by only changing one word: unless becomes \u201cuseless\u201d in Rechnitz<\/em>. While Eliot leaves the option open that the rose can appear, Jelinek\u2019s narrator describes it as unnecessary.<\/p>\n

Aber wenn Deutschland auch nur fl\u00fcstert<\/strong>,\u00a0 kracht es schon \u00fcberall. Wenn aber gleich zwei Deutschl\u00e4nder mit einem leisen Wispern<\/strong>, einem Wimmern<\/strong> von Millionen Stimmen, ineinanderst\u00fcrzen, dann gibt es keinen bang<\/strong>, dann gibt es eben genau dieses gewhisper<\/strong>, und danach traut sich keiner mehr zu fl\u00fcstern. (R 76)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The two German countries, Germany and Austria, joined forces under Hitler and the whispering of millions of Jews and other victims can still be heard. So no one dares to speak but they only whisper in light of the tragic history of the Shoah. Eliot\u2019s original reads:<\/p>\n

Our dried voices, when
\nWe whisper together
\nAre quiet and meaningless (I, Eliot) \u2026
\nThis is the way the world ends<\/em>
\nThis is the way the world ends<\/em>
\nThis is the way the world ends<\/em>
\nNot with a bang but a whimper. <\/em>(V, Eliot)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The last stanza in Eliot\u2019s poem again plays with the musical allusions of the children\u2019s song \u201cHere we go round the mulberry bush\u201d and its repetitive lines. In \u201cThe Hollow Men,\u201d however, Eliot changes the twist of all kids falling down to the world coming to an end in a dreadful state rather than in a powerful, imposing state. The whispering reoccurs several times in Rechnitz<\/em> as the narrator recalls the whisper of the gassed and burnt victims in the sky. The act of whispering is particularly important in Jelinek\u2019s oeuvre as she repeatedly connects the author\/writer and a way to interfere while speaking about the content of her plays. The act of speaking is a dialectical dilemma for Jelinek because she has been asked to stop talking, commenting, etc. but cannot keep silent in light of her knowledge about the brutalities of the war and the brutalities in current day Austrian and German society.<\/p>\n

Moment, man sagt mir: 180, an die 200 Wehrlose, ich sollte lieber sagen: vollkommen Wehrlose, um das Vollkommene daran mit Worten und Werten noch zu betonen, keines, keener bleibt \u00fcbrig, sie fallen um wie Kegel, diese hohlen Menschen<\/strong>, nein, nicht H\u00f6hlenmenschen, das sind die hohlen M\u00e4nner, die wir die angef\u00fcllten M\u00e4nner sind, die zusammen das Oberteil lehnen, das mit Stroh gef\u00fcllt wird.<\/strong> Leider hat der bl\u00f6de Computer das Gedicht nicht so sch\u00f6n \u00fcbersetzt, ich h\u00e4tte es besser gekonnt, aber im Prinzip stimmt es, was hier steht, es steht hier als Vorbote eines Gedichts. Ein Gedicht, das Ganze! Eigentlich sehen diese H\u00f6hlenmenschen aus wie richtige Menschen, nur eben hohl<\/strong>, weil sie nie etwas gegessen haben, hohl<\/strong> ihre getrockneten Stimmen, wenn<\/strong> sie zusammen fl\u00fcstern<\/strong>, sie sind ruhig<\/strong>, sie schreien nicht, und als Wind im trockenen Gras oder in gebrochenem Glas der F\u00fc\u00dfe der Ratten \u00dcberschu\u00df in unserem trockenen Keller bedeutungslos<\/strong>. (R 96-97)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jelinek here returns to the first few lines of Eliot\u2019s poem:<\/p>\n

We are the hollow men
\nWe are the stuffed men
\nLeaning together
\nHeadpiece filled with straw. Alas!
\nOur dried voices, when
\nWe whisper together
\nAre quiet and meaningless
\nAs wind in dry grass
\nOr rat\u2019s feet over broken glass
\nIn our dry cellar. (I, Eliot)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jelinek uses both Eliot\u2019s poem and a female narrator\u2019s voice from a documentary, a woman who recalls the night of the massacre in Totschweigen<\/em>. She reports on the victims who do not scream, that she could only hear bullet shots through the night. Jelinek continues to draw on Eliot\u2019s \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d and the references in Rechnitz <\/em>multiply and become more intense during this first part of the play.<\/p>\n

\u2026 da stehen sie nun, bestellt und auch abgeholt, die, die mit direkten Augen<\/strong> uns gekreuzt haben, zu anderem K\u00f6nigreich des Todes erinnern sich an uns<\/strong>, aber dazu werden sie keine Gelegenheit haben, sie wurden uns zum Erschie\u00dfen \u00fcbergeben, und wir \u00fcben das Schie\u00dfen aus, das ist unser Privileg. Das ist das Privileg der Menschen, welche nicht hohl<\/strong> sind, welche so angestopft sind mit Stroh, stuffed<\/strong>, im Gegensatz zu den andren, die nicht angestopft sind, jedenfalls nicht mit Stroh. \u2026 Es macht nur Spa\u00df, wenn man sich vorher ordentlich einen ans\u00e4uft, soviel Zeit muss sein\u2026das ist wie Tageslicht auf einer defekten Spalte dort<\/strong>, die sich schlie\u00dft, ist ein Baum, der w\u00e4chst, nein, ein Baum, der schwingt, und Stimmen sind im Wind<\/strong>, die entfernteres und erster als ein<\/strong> verblasener Stern singt<\/strong>, jetzt wei\u00df ich nicht, meint der Sternsinger oder wen oder was? (R 98-99)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The computer-generated translation reads almost identical with a few minor differences:<\/p>\n

Die, die mit direkten Augen gekreuzt haben, zu anderem K\u00f6nigreich des Todes erinnern sich an uns\u2026 Tageslicht auf einer defekten Spalte dort, ist ein Baum, der schwingt und Stimmen sind im Wind, der entfernteres und ernster als ein verblassender Stern singt.[10] (CGT)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jelinek adds the personal pronoun \u201cuns\u201d \u2013 die uns gekreuzt haben \u2013 in the sense of \u201cthey have killed us.\u201d She also changes the German translation of Eliot\u2019s original English \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d back into a more elegant translation of the original:<\/p>\n

Sunlight on a broken column
\nThere, is a tree swinging
\nAnd voices are
\nIn the wind\u2019s singing
\nMore distant and more solemn
\nThan a fading star. (II, Eliot)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jelinek changes the \u201ccolumn\u201d as a column in the text to a \u201cdefekte Spalte\u201d in the translation as something that is alive and can close again, associating the \u201cSpalte\u201d with women\u2019s genitalia. Here, Jelinek plays with the sexual allusion of a moving cleft. Furthermore, she changes the grammar such that the sentence is incorrect as the \u201cStimmen\u201d in the wind connect to a singular verb \u201csingt\u201d instead of \u201csingen,\u201d unless \u201csingt\u201d refers back to \u201cSpalte.\u201d While the computer correctly offers \u201cverblassender Stern,\u201d Jelinek changes the fading star to \u201cverblasener\u201d \u2013 verblasen meaning \u201cblow or backfill\u201d as well as the allusion to \u201caufgeblasen\u201d which means \u201cbloated,\u201d \u201cinflated,\u201d and \u201cpompous\u201d referring to the attitude of the guests who shot the Jews. The Nazi shooters wrongly but confidently assume that it is their right to take the lives of the already tortured Jews. The voice\u2019s final question if the computer means \u201cSternsinger\u201d refers to children or adults who dress up as the Three Kings. Particularly in Southern German tradition, they dress up as the Three Kings and go from house to house between Christmas and January 6 to collect money for charitable donations.[11] A passage where Jelinek uses a longer quotation from Eliot stands out in the middle of the play:<\/p>\n

\u2026die Augen<\/strong> werden nicht dabei sein, die Augen<\/strong> werden nie dabei sein, bei der Gedenkfeier in der Senkfeier, in der Senkgrube, in dieser hohlen Senke<\/strong> dieser gebrochenen Kiefer<\/strong>, dieser zerbrochenen Knochen. Und eingraben m\u00fcssen wir das alles auch noch, eingraben in dieser Senke<\/strong>, dieser Senkgrube, in diesem letzten der Treffpunkte<\/strong> suchen wir 60 Jahre sp\u00e4ter oder so, vielleicht 70, 80, 180?, etwa 60 Jahre sch\u00e4tze ich mal, aber es k\u00f6nnen auch mehr sein, suchen wir diesen letzten der Treffpunkte<\/strong>, suchen wir<\/strong> ihn, zusammen tastend, und vermeiden die Rede<\/strong>, indem wir sie halten, die Rede<\/strong> immer wieder halten, die irgendwann von diesem Fluss<\/strong> des Ged\u00e4chtnisses erfa\u00dft<\/strong> werden wird<\/strong>, am Strand dieses tumid Flusses<\/strong>, sightless<\/strong> heute, sightless <\/strong>morgen, es sei denn, die Augen wieder erscheinen<\/strong>, aber nicht einmal im Traum uns erscheinen diese Augen. (R 101)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The original text from Eliot, however, reads:<\/p>\n

IV<\/p>\n

The eyes are not here
\nThere are no eyes here
\nIn this valley of dying stars
\nIn this hollow valley
\nThis broken jaw of our lost kingdoms<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this last of meeting places
\nWe grope together
\nAnd avoid speech
\nGathered on this beach of the tumid river
\nSightless, unless
\nThe eyes reappear
\nAs the perpetual star\u2026 (IV, Eliot)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The computer-generated translation of \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d provides us with:<\/p>\n

IV<\/p>\n

Die Augen sind nicht hier dort sind keine Augen hier in dieser Senke der sterbenden Sterne in dieser hohlen Senke dieser gebrochenen Kiefer<\/em> unserer verlorenen K\u00f6nigreiche<\/p>\n

In diesem Letzten der Treffpunkte suchen wir zusammen tastend und vermeiden<\/em> die Rede<\/em>, die auf diesem Strand des tumid Flusses erfa\u00dft wird<\/em><\/p>\n

Sightless, es sei denn die Augen wieder erscheinen<\/em>, wie der unaufh\u00f6rliche Stern (CGT)<\/p>\n

Jelinek composes several changes in her version of a translation from the English original and the computer-generated translation in this paragraph. She turns the valley from \u201cSenke\u201d back to \u201cSenkgrube\u201d or \u201cGrube\u201d where the dead Jews were buried. Since the right location of the graves is still not known, the organization Refugius holds a memorial service once a year near the Kreuzstadl, a remembrance celebration to which Jelinek refers with \u201cGedenkfeier.\u201d Jelinek changes \u201cAvoid the speech\u201d to \u201cRede vermeiden, die Rede immer wieder halten\u201d as a warning not to forget and a reminder to remember the dead by speaking up against the silence that surrounds the victims. She also changes the \u201cbeach of the tumid river\u201d to a \u201cFluss des Ged\u00e4chtnisses\u201d a \u201criver of thought\u201d that does not stay still but keeps moving and thus searches for and remembers the dead. Jelinek constructs the imagery of the \u201ceyes\u201d in Eliot as the eyes of those who claim they did not see what happened during that tragic night in March 1945 in Rechnitz<\/em>. Thus, Jelinek does in Rechnitz<\/em> what she does best among contemporary post-dramatists. By invoking Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s movie The Exterminating Angel<\/em>, quotes from the Bible, and T.S. Eliot\u2019s poem \u201cThe Hollow Men,\u201d among other references to texts from literary, religious, and philosophical canons, she manages to awake the dead to haunt the living. Rechnitz <\/em>rightfully reminds audiences in Germany and Austria of sins that have not been forgiven because no one acknowledged the guilt in the first place of committing the murders, no one has been held responsible for the crimes, and no one has asked for repentance for the deadly shootings that killed close to 200 Jews, a mass murder committed seemingly as pure amusement for some of Margit Batthy\u00e1ny\u2019s cruel party guests.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n
Notes<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong>
\n1 There is not much information available about the lives of Franz Podezin and Hans Joachim Oldenburg and what happened to them after the war.<\/div>\n
\n

2 See Sandra Kegel, who did an interview with Litchfield, the article on \u201cMassenmord\u201d in the Spiegel<\/em>, Martin Pollack, and Rudolph Walter\u2019s articles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3 The subtitle of the Jelinek play Der W\u00fcrgeengel<\/em> is the German title of the movie Exterminating Angel<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4 Compare Die endlose Unschuldigkeit. Elfriede Jelineks Rechnitz<\/em> (2010), edited by Pia Janke, Teresa Kovacs, and Christian Schenkermayr. It includes contributions from historians, literary scholars, historical background information, performance reviews, and an interview with Jelinek about the writing process of the play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5 For reviews of some of the performances of Rechnitz<\/em>, see Christine D\u00f6ssel, P. Jandl, Norbert Mayer, David McNamee, Barbara Petsch, Sylvia Stammen, Barbara Villiger Heilig, and Mirko Weber.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

6 See Martha Kinder, n. pag.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7 Compare the responses by family members of Margit Batthy\u00e1ny, Sacha Batthy\u00e1ny and Dominik and Ladislaus Batthy\u00e1ny.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8 \u201cLeider hat der bl\u00f6de Computer das Gedicht nicht so sch\u00f6n \u00fcbersetzt, ich h\u00e4tte es besser gekonnt, aber im Prinzip stimmt es, was hier steht, es steht hier als Vorbote eines Gedichts\u201c (R 96-97)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9 Compare Z. A. Usmani, \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d 18-23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

10 In italics, I highlight the words in the translation from English to German in the CGT (computer-generated translation) of the Eliot poem that also reoccur in Rechnitz<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

11 There are several other instances in Rechnitz<\/em>, where Jelinek draws on Eliot\u2019s poem. Due to space restrictions, I cannot analyze all of them in this article (R 121, 131, 144, 148, 151, 152, 156, 157, 158, 163, 167, 185).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n

Batthy\u00e1ny, Dominik and Ladislaus E. \u201cSehr geehrte Frau Jelinek!\u201d Die Presse<\/em> 22 May 2010.<\/p>\n

Batthy\u00e1ny, Sacha. \u201cDas Grauen von Rechnitz.\u201d S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung Magazin<\/em>. 16\/2010.
\n—. \u201cEin schreckliches Geheimnis.” Das Magazin<\/em> 12 December 2009.
\nBoyden, David D. An Introduction to Music.<\/em> New York: Knopf, 1956.<\/p>\n

Bunuel, Luis. Dir. The Exterminating Angel<\/em>. Criterion Collection, 1962. DVD.<\/p>\n

Computer-Generated Translation. www.bryantmcgill.com\/World_Poetry<\/p>\n

D\u00f6ssel, Christine. \u201cDie Obsz\u00f6nit\u00e4t des B\u00f6sen.\u201d S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em> 30 November 2008.<\/p>\n

Eliot, T.S. \u201cThe Hollow Men.\u201d 1925. Poetry X<\/em>. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 13 Jul 2003. 20 Oct. 2011 .<\/p>\n

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus. \u201cJammern ist nie eine gute Idee.\u201d Interview with Eugen Sorg und Peer Teuwsen. Die Weltwoche<\/em> 23 January 2008.<\/p>\n

Euripides. Die Bakchen<\/em>. Tran. J.A. Hartung. Stuttgart: Deutscher B\u00fccherbund, 1961.<\/p>\n

Jandl, P. \u201cIm Schatten des Kreuzes.\u201d Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em> 18 October 2008.<\/p>\n

Janke, Pia. Die endlose Unschuldigkeit. Elfriede Jelineks \u201cRechnitz” (Der W\u00fcrgeengel)<\/em>. Vienna: Praesens, 2009.<\/p>\n

Jelinek, Elfriede. Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns. Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel). \u00dcber Tiere. Drei Theaterst\u00fccke<\/em>. Hamburg: rororo, 2009.<\/p>\n

Kegel, Sandra. \u201cDie K\u00f6chin sah die M\u00f6rder tanzen.\u201d Interview with David Litchfield. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung<\/em> 26 October 2007.<\/p>\n

Kind, Friedrich. Libretto for Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em>. Carl Maria von Weber. Leipzig: Breitkopf und H\u00e4rtel, (ca. 1880) 1821. Projekt Gutenberg. 31 October 2011. http:\/\/gutenberg.spiegel.de\/buch\/4544\/1<\/p>\n

Kinder, Marsha. \u201cThe Exterminating Angel: Exterminating Civilization.\u201d Film Essay in Booklet with DVD. Criterion Collection, 2009.<\/p>\n

Litchfield, David. The Thyssen Art Macabre<\/em>. London: Quartet Books, 2006.<\/p>\n

—. \u201cThe Killer Countess: The Dark Past of Baron Heinrich Thyssen\u2019s Daughter.\u201d The
\nIndependent<\/em> 7 October 2007.<\/p>\n

—. \u201cDie Gastgeberin der H\u00f6lle.\u201d Die Zeit<\/em> 18 October 2007.<\/p>\n

Mayer, Norbert. \u201cEine geile verlogene M\u00f6rderbande.\u201d Die Presse<\/em> 25 May 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassenmord als Partygag.\u201d Spiegel<\/em> 43 (2007): 22.<\/p>\n

McNamee, Dardis. \u201cJelinek\u2019s Rechnitz: The Horror of Silence.\u201d Review of Rechnitz. The Vienna Review<\/em> 6 January 2010. http:\/\/www.viennareview.net\/commentary\/jelinek-s-rechnitz-horror-silence-3875<\/p>\n

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Die Geburt der Trag\u00f6die. Aus dem Geiste der Musik<\/em>. 1872. Berlin: Insel, 2000.<\/p>\n

—. Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch f\u00fcr alle und keinen<\/em>. Berlin: Reclam, 2008.<\/p>\n

Petsch, Barbara. \u201cMassaker mit Ei.\u201d Review of Rechnitz Performance. Die Presse<\/em> 1 December 2008.<\/p>\n

Pollack, Martin. \u201cMutmassungen \u00fcber ein Verbrechen. Was ist es, das den Menschen den Mund verschlie\u00dft?\u201d Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em> 20 June 2009.<\/p>\n

Scully, S.E. Review of Helen P. Foley, Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides<\/em>. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985. Phoenix 41.3 (1987): 318\u2013322.<\/p>\n

Stammen, Silvia. \u201cErbarmunslos heiter: Grandiose k\u00fcnstlerische Komplizenschaft: Jossi Wieler inszeniert Elfriede Jelineks Botenst\u00fcck Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel)<\/em>.\u201d Review of Rechnitz Performance<\/em>. Die Zeit<\/em> 4 December 2008.<\/p>\n

Stampf, G\u00fcnter. Interview mit einem Kannibalen: Das geheime Leben des Kannibalen von Rotenburg<\/em>. Wolfenb\u00fcttel: Seeliger Verlag, 2007.<\/p>\n

Totschweigen<\/em>. Dir. Margareta Heinrich and Eduard Erne. Freunde der deutschen Kinemathek, 1994. DVD.<\/p>\n

Usmani, Z. A. \u201cThe Hollow Men: A Significant Ceasura in Eliot.\u201d The Aligarh Journal of English Studies<\/em> 13.1 (1988): 13-33.<\/p>\n

Villiger Heilig, Barbara. \u201cGeschlossene Gesellschaft: Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel)<\/em> von Elfriede Jelinek in Z\u00fcrich.\u201d Review of Rechnitz<\/em> Performance. 21 December 2009.<\/p>\n

Walther, Rudolph. \u201cKir Royal und Massenmord: Der Thyssen-Bornemisza-Clan und das unges\u00fchnte Massaker an 200 j\u00fcdischen Zwangsarbeitern im \u00f6sterreichischen Rechnitz 1945.\u201d Die Tageszeitung<\/em> 16 January 2010<\/p>\n

Weber, Mirko. \u201cDu eklig\u2019s Austria: Urauff\u00fchrung in M\u00fcnchen: Elfriede Jelinek\u2019s Rechnitz<\/em>.\u201d Review of Rechnitz<\/em> Performance. Stuttgarter Zeitung<\/em> 1 December 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intertextualities in Elfriede Jelinek\u2019s Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel):\u00a0Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s Exterminating Angel, the Bible, and T.S. Eliot\u2019s \u201cThe Hollow Men\u201d Elfriede Jelinek\u2019s play Rechnitz (Der W\u00fcrgeengel) (2008) examines the silence about a massacre at the Austrian-Hungarian border in the Austrian Burgenland that took place in the early morning hours of March 25, 1945. The countess Margit Batthy\u00e1ny, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":394,"featured_media":0,"parent":1511,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1684","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/394"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1684\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/glossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}