Völkerschau, Kannibalismus, Fremdenlegion: Zur Ästhetik der Transgression (1897-1936) by Volker Mergenthaler

Abstract

596 Reviews Enghaus, the strong self-possessed woman. 'Miinnlichkeit [ist] bei Hebbel etwas zu tiefstFragiles, weil sie nichtwirklich existiert. Sie istnur vorhanden als soziokulturell konstruiertes Verhaltensmuster' (p. I96). Mecky Zaragoza would say: 'I told you so.' EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD HELEN WATANABE-O'KELLY V1lkerschau- Kannibalismus- Fremdenlegion: Zur Asthetik der Transgression (I897-1936). By VOLKER MERGENTHALER. (Hermaea, 109) Tiubingen: Nie meyer. 2005. X+27OPP. ?64. ISBN 978-3-484-15IO9-3. What 'aesthetics of transgression' is supposed tomean in this study is defined on page 236: 'nicht der literarischeUmgang mit dem Phanomen des Ubergangs, nicht die Freisetzung der isthetischen Produkivkrafte angesichts von Ubergangen [. . ], sondern zunachst und umgekehrt die Frage nach dem Poetischen, Rhetorischen, Literarischen, Asthetischen von Transgressionen selbst'. Consequently, the author has selected three cases of transgression which are not in the first instance present in literary representations but in other media of public discourse. In analysing the sources, he identifies the aesthetic potential of the acts themselves, which means he investigateswhether the acts of rule-breaking or deviation fromnorms possess a di mension thatcould be described as setting freeaesthetic energies. He then juxtaposes thediscourse on these acts (in newspaper reports, factual and polemical literature,and other extra-literarymedia) with three literary treatments of related themes and uses one element of these pairings to identify the aesthetic qualities of each of the others. Even thoughVolker Mergenthaler does sowith the explicit intention of understand ing the aesthetic nature (and appeal) of the actual 'cases' of transgression, not their representations, he manages also to bring intomuch sharper focus the aesthetics of the literaryrepresentations of the fictitious transgressions. The pairings of 'cases' and literary 'counterparts' are as follows. First, Peter Altenberg's text 'Ashantee' (I897) about an encounter with the 'actors' in an ethnological exhibition (V6lkerschau) in Vienna isjuxtaposed with the 'case' of the teenage girls fromDresden who absconded from home in 1913 to travelwith the 'Indian' actors of aWild West Show: inboth these instances the sexual implications of the crossing of the dividing-line between spectators and 'actors' is suggested by the device of aposiopesis, and this aposiopesis contains and conveys theaesthetic quality of the act and the literary treatment.Next, Hanns Heinz Ewers's story 'Mameloi' (1907) about a European's participation in Voodoo rituals that involve the drinking of human blood is juxtaposed with the case of Franz Bratuscha, who confessed tohaving killed his own daughter and eaten of her flesh: inboth instances (fictitious account and confession) the allegation was derived from extraneous sources (ethnographic reports) which, according toMergenthaler, cast the two versions as acts of 'dissimulation'; the aesthetic energy thus arises out of casting as genuine a second-hand experience. Thirdly, Ernst Jiinger'sAfrikanische Spiele ( 936), the storyof a young man firstjoining and thenoutgrowing theForeign Legion, isjuxtaposed with the case ofPaul Tromel, mayor of a small town innorthern Germany, who joined theForeign Legion in I913, allegedly in a state ofmental con fusion: in both instances the transgression is seen as an act of self-empowerment in defiance of domestic conventions; aesthetically forJuinger,this step isone of enabling literaryagency or 'Autorschaft' (p. 2 I8 and passim). This entire subject-matter is fascinating and themeticulous interpretations are compelling. What the three themes have in common is their extraordinarily strong presence in themedia around the turn of the twentieth century; Mergenthaler's painstaking reconstruction of the contemporary debates on these subjects in news papers, pamphlets, police reports, and other sources is truly admirable. This work MLR, I02.2, 2007 597 allows him todefine the social and cultural function of thedebates as one of collective self-assurance or self-definition vis-a-vis the extreme, the abhorrent, the unknown. Those readerswho arewilling to read past some high-brow theory and tolerate some convoluted, quotation-soaked, and occasionally rather inflated language will be re warded with a thrillingjourney into a strange and fascinating area of encounter with extremes and with an enhanced understanding of the attraction inherent in under taking, reporting, and fictionalizing such transgressions. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH FLORIAN KROBB Zwischen Abenteuer,Wissenschaft undKolonialismus: Der deutscheAfrikadiskurs imi8. und I9. Jahrhundert. By MATTHIAS FIEDLER. Cologne: Bohlau. 2005. 30I PP. E34g90. ISBN 978-3-412-I9Io5-4. Since the I990S, postcolonial enquiry inGerman literature,culture...