»Eine so vielfältige Verwechslung …«. Frauenliebe und Eros der Macht in Robert Neumanns Roman Festival (1962)

Abstract

In his novel Festival, published in 1962, Robert Neumann interlaces two epic plots. On the one hand the story of two men and one woman which reaches back into the days of the Second World War and the French Resistance and is thus strongly focussed on the questions of political and personal developments within the political frames of capitalism and socialism. On the other hand the encounter and lesbian love affair of two women which, with its dialogic character and the repeated interchange of roles, as an ephemeral realisation of intimate equality is opposed to the corruption and subjection of eroticism, love and sexuality under the primacy of political and financial interests shown in the other part of the narration. Basically exposed as a search for dialogue and appropriate language, Neumann’s literary portrayal of lesbian love not only represents a recourse on his own intellectual and cultural tradition dating back to the days before the Nazi takeover of power, but also reflects his own search for language in the time of his slow return from biographic and linguistic exile.