Negotiating Positions: Literature, Identity and Social Critique in the Works of Wolfgang Koeppen by Wolfgang Koeppen , Simon Ward (review)

Abstract

MLR, 98.4, 2003 1059 Writing after Hitler: The Work ofjakov Lind. Ed. by Andrea Hammel, Silke Hassler , and Edward Timms. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 2001. xii + 222 pp. ?30. ISBN 0-7083-1615-8 (hbk). This collection represents the firstcomprehensive study of the work of the multilingual writer Jakov Lind. A native of Vienna, Lind survived the Shoah by seeking refuge in the Netherlands and taking on jobs inside Nazi Germany with false 'Aryan papers'. After the war he moved between the Netherlands, Palestine/Israel, Austria, back to the Netherlands, and on to the UK, and is now criss-crossing the world between Majorca, London, and New York. The volume approaches Lind's writing from a number of literary,linguistic, and thematic perspectives. Exemplary articles include Stella Rosenfeld's study of Lind's literary career and the author's commitment to a literature of significance in the vari? ous national contexts of his life. Mark Gelber examines the ways in which Lind's works draw on essential tenets of Zionism even while representing a harsh critique of the actual reality of the state of Israel. Waltraud Strickhausen discusses Lind's autobiographical writings within the notion of the self-constructed nature of per? sonal narratives and the particular features of such writings by child survivors of the Shoah. Edward Timms and Eva Eppler focus on the stylistic and grammatical ruptures in Lind's writing across differentlanguages and dialects, demonstrating both the author's personal displacement and his exposure of the cultural and political ruptures caused by the Shoah in post-war Austrian and German society. The articles by Ursula Seeber and Silke Hassler focus on the reception of Lind's work in the German- and English-language contexts respectively. A second article by Silke Has? sler examines Lind's employment of the grotesque and the satirical in the context of Austrian Volkstheater. As Hassler argues, these aesthetic means serve to expose the paradox of Austrians' complicity with the Nazis and their post-war reconfiguration of themselves as victims. Andrea Hammel compares the gendered nature of themes and styles evoked in the works of Jakov Lind and Ruth Kliiger. The collection effectivelyinspires interest in an author whose works have oftenbeen ignored or discounted by critics as linguistically and aesthetically flawed. For pre? cisely this reason, it would have been interesting to contextualize Lind's work within the works of other post-war (and mainly male) Jewish authors and dramatists similiarly employing the grotesque, such as George Tabori, Edgar Hilsenrath, and more recently Maxim Biller. Lind's case would thus also open up an interesting pathway into the ongoing theoretical discussion around 'appropriate' Holocaust representa? tions in the more recent critical literature by Dori Laub, Lawrence Langer, and James Young. It is to be hoped that this multifaceted and thought-provoking anthology will lead to further research on a hitherto under-examined author, and to a more forceful consideration of Lind's work within the developing canon of Holocaust literature. University of Manchester Cathy Gelbin NegotiatingPositions: Literature, Identity and Social Critique in the Worksof Wolfgang Koeppen. By Simon Ward. (Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Lit? eratur, 146) Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. 2001. vii + 150 pp. ?26; $24. ISBN 90-420-1576-4 (pbk). Wolfgang Koeppen's exiguous canon has recently been extended by the rediscovery of his two early novels and the problematic 'outing' ofJakob LittnersAufzeichnungenaus einemErdloch, while, too late forSimon Ward to use, Jorg Doring adduces more mate? rial in his exhaustive study of Koeppen between 1933 and 1948 {'ich stelltemich unter, ich machte mich klein . . /: Wolfgang Koeppen ig33~ig48 (Frankfurt a.M.: Stroem- 1060 Reviews feld, 2001)). The outcome is to make Koeppen even more of enigmatic. Pending a full evaluation of Koeppen's fragments, and failing a dramatically unifying overall interpretation, he remains inscrutable. In the meantime, Ward offersclose readings and careful and convincing analyses of themes, notably liminality: the author and his figures gravitate towards marginal positions from which to observe the world. Whether such a position is enforced, e.g. by political pressures, or voluntary, or in? deed (seen anthropologically) a necessary ritual function, must make a difference,but it is rarely clear to the...