Creativity and Imagination in the Work of Barbara Frischmuth

Abstract

Creativity and Imagination in the Work of Barbara Frischmuth DAGMAR C. G. LORENZ (Translated by Use Andrews) Taking a Wittgensteinian view of world as language, Barbara Frischmuth does not see herself as a feminist, if the term feminism is restricted to a socio-political stance. She nevertheless mentioned during a conversation in Altaussee, in July 1984, that her novel Kopftänzer (published in the Fall of 1984) represents a change of perspective versus her earlier work by having a less central feminine standpoint. Admittedly, therefore, the author has hitherto been concerned with women's problems and the world of women. Contributing, as a woman, to women's discourse, broadening it, and expanding its boundaries through creative expression: this approximately is the role which Frischmuth claims for herself. It has been characteristic of Frischmuth from the very start that she avoids absoluteness in any standpoint. Never has the exclusively female viewpoint dominated her writing. There are even occasional texts in which there is a fictional male narrator speaking from a male perspective . Within one text, two or more positions are often dialectically contrasted and counterbalanced, all retaining some degree of justification. One standpoint illuminates the other, relativizing itself as a result of its inherent narrowness in the process of dialectic interpretation. Because she presents a variety of viewpoints, Frischmuth's texts are frequently reminiscent of dialogue. She avoids achieving harmony through forcible compromise and pseudosolutions, just as she avoids clearcut value judgments. Multiple layers of exposition are the result. Choice of position is left up to the creativity of the reader who is thus required to participate intellectually in the making of the text. Since she is an orientalist, Frischmuth is familiar with more than one culture. Having lived in Turkey for several years, she is an insider and 37 therefore able to avoid regarding others — Muslims, for example — just from the outside, as a stranger would. Convention and imagination of the other language form a part of Frischmuth's literary world, of her expansion of linguistic boundaries. Through the inclusion of Near Eastern culture, she also selectively takes issue with her own German-Austrian conventions; yet, by identifying herself with the latter, she also does not accept the other culture uncritically, as though it were colorful exoticism, but adopts a critical stance toward it. Her detailed knowledge prevents the bias or even racism which find their way all too easily into the work of less informed and more dogmatic authors, e.g. Reinig and Jelinek. It is this Turkish-Austrian dialectic in Frischmuth 's work, admitting synthesis as it does, which constitutes a creative act when seen against the backdrop of contemporary political and social reality: it is a vision which overcomes chasms created by a male-dominated pragmatic realpolitik through language and, comparable to Else Lasker-Schüler ' s dreams of Jewish-Arabic reconciliation through the children, has a feminine air about it. In contrast with Lasker-Schüler, a harsh, realistic thrust is characteristic of Frischmuth's work. Polarity between man and woman is a constant, though it is not interpreted as a struggle of the sexes based on biological and psycho-physical differences. Instead, Frischmuth's writing casts gender-bound modes of expression conditioned by socialization and language convention and differing from culture to culture rather than being innate. As much as Muslims and Christians, men and women are representatives of different cultures, rendered almost incapable of communication with one another by the difference in their modes of thinking, which are due to their specific language. Although humans of both sexes live in the same country, have access to what appear to be the same sources of information, and speak the same language, communication founders on fundamentally different states of consciousness. Ich liebe dich, sagt Pierrot und schickt sich ihr selbst als Panther. Ich liebe dich, sagt Columbina und streichelt das nachtschwarze Fell des Panthers. Sie reden miteinander 38 und missverstehen sich. Sie verstehen sich und reden aneinander vorbei. Men and women do not form homogeneous groups, so that it would be impossible to deduce from Frischmuth's writing that men and women are different types or races of humans, as Reinig suggests. Individuals in the two...