'Lieber in Gedanken reisen': Some Notes on the Back of a Camel

Abstract

'Lieber inGedanken reisen5: Some Notes on the Back of a Camel ROBERT GILLETT Queen Mary, UniverdtyofLondon In The Oxford Companion toGerman Literature,Friederike Mayr?cker isdescribed as 'an avant-garde poet [who] has published poetry and prose'.1 This assess ment, however, has scarcely been reflected in the secondary literature on her work. Not only has her experimentalism been seen as a passing phase ? Matthias Luserke quotes the author herself on the end of this period and her return after 1973 tomore autobiographical writing2 ? but critics have also shown a curious reluctance to engage with her poetry. Renate K?hn, in her preface to a collection which, unusually and programmatically, covers the whole spectrum ofMayr?cker's output, complains that the poetry has been consigned to the margins of the critical debate.3 At the same time it is common to dwell on the 'poetic' nature of Mayr?cker's prose: Daniela Riess-Beger devotes a whole book to the subject,4 and Gisela Lindemann paradoxically asserts thatMayr?cker's prose ismore poetic than her poetry.5 The aim here is to approach the issue as itwere from the other end, by taking a careful look at some ofMayr?cker's (relatively recent) poems. In the process, a number of tropes ofMayr?cker criticism, especially those that straddle the genres of poetry and prose, will need to be revisited. Yet because the approach adopted is programmatically inductive, these matters of general poetics will not be the centre of attention. That role is reserved for a particular collection of poems by Friederike Mayr?cker ? theNotizen auf ?nem Kamel [Notes on a Camel] of 1996.6 1 Henry and Mary Garland, The Oxford Companion toGerman Literature (Oxford, 1976), p. 578. 2 See Matthias Luserke, '"Ein unsteter Zyklus Schreibkunst." Betrachtungen zum Werk von Friederike Mayr?cker', EuphoHon, 89 (1995),438-54 (p.440). 3 Renate K?hn, 'Vorwort', in Friederike Mayr?cker oder 'Das Innere des Sehens'. Studien zu Lyrik, H?rspiel und Prosa, ed. by Renate K?hn (Bielefeld, 2002), pp. 7-13 (p. 10). 4 Daniela Riess-Beger, t?ensstudien. Poetische Verfahrensweisen in Friederike Mayr?ckers Prosa (W?rzlpurg,1995). 5 Gisela Lindemann, 'Das Licht am Ende des Tunnels. Versuch ?ber das Werk der Friederike Mayr?cker', inFriederikeMayr?cker, ed. by Siegfried J. Schmidt (Frankfurt a. M., 1984), pp. 92-101 (p. 100). 6 Friederike Mayr?cker, Notizen auf einemKamel. Gedichte iggi-igg6 (Frankfurt a. M., 1996). All references to this volume will be by page number in parentheses. Poems from this collection are reprinted with the kind permission of the Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt a. M.. robert gillett One of the most immediately striking things about this book is its tide. This conjures up a mental image of a poetess seated astride a ship of the desert looking around her curiously with a notebook in her hand. And because camels are not indigenous to Europe, any European lady wishing to bestride one will normally have to have travelled some distance. The chances are that the notes written on camel-back will reflect that distance. Hence there is some justification for expecting that theNotizen auf einemKamel will somehow belong to the genre of travel writing. Yet Friederike Mayr?cker is not generally regarded as being that kind of traveller. On the contrary, R?diger G?rner describes her as a 'quint essentially urban poet, deeply rooted in Vienna5.7 And Iris Radisch even goes so far as to insist that 'Friederike Mayr?cker verl?sst ihre papier?bers?te Schreibkammer in der Zentagasse seit 45 Jahren nur noch, wenn es gar nicht anders geht' [For the last 45 years Friederike Mayr?cker has lefther paper strewn study in the Zentagasse only when she has had no choice].8 If she travels at all, then, it is likely to be a journey of themind. Or, as Mayr?cker herself puts it relatively early on in Notizen auf einem Kamel, in a line which can be read as deserving of special emphasis: 'lieber in Gedanken reisen, HoKUSAi' [Travel in themind instead, Hokusai]. Here the small capitals that encourage us to lay stress on this line also mark itout as a possible surrogate tide for...