Zwei Clowns im Lande des verlorenen Lachens: Das Liedertheater Wenzel & Mensching by David Robb

Abstract

520 Reviews schiebungergibt'. The firstvolume of 1998 centredonthe Todesartenproject, whereas this one addresses a much broader range of texts, but has a distinctive methodological focus in that it is made up of 'diskursanalytische und kontextualisierende Beitrage' (P- 10). The opening essay by Sara Lennox may be familiar to English readers from its original version in Thalia'sDaughters: German WomenDramatistsfrom theEighteenth Century to the Present, ed. by S. L. Cocalis and Ferrel Rose (Bern: Francke, 1996). It focuses on Der gute Gott von Manhattan, and sees it as a text poised between 'nicht mehr' and 'noch nicht'?in other words, marked by the interplay of prevailing socio-cultural conditions and utopian aspirations. In particular, female love enacts this dialectic, being an entrapped, even masochistic, urge on the one hand, and on the other a redemptive energy. The historical and dialectical disposition of Lennox's enquiry serves as a springboard for the rest of the volume. There are no explicit cross-references, but the various essays link, to varying degrees, back to the opening piece. Under the heading 'Diskursanalytische Lektiiren und intertextuelle Konstellationen ', Lesley Morris compares the poetic practice of Bachmann and Sylvia Plath. Britta Herrmann's essay on the representation of 'das Weibliche' raises broader ques? tions which are at the very heart of current Bachmann reception. Moving away from an essentialist approach, she reads Malina as an interplay of various gendered dis? courses which ultimately define the feminine perspective as unviable. Essentially, Herrmann is concerned to show how the text develops 'eine Poetik der Kritik ? einer Kritik des von ihm selbst evozierten Diskurs-Kontextes' (p. 52). The argument is clearly indebted to Judith Butler's categories of performativity and mimicry, but Herrmann stops short of claiming Bachmann for postmodernism: the novel may anticipate 'postmoderne Konzepte flexibler Geschlechter- und Subjektpositionen', but remains 'einer melancholischen Moderne verhaftet' (p. 66). In the section on 'Philosophische, wissenschaftliche und politische Kontextualisierungen ', Maria Behre argues that poems like 'Hinter der Wand' act out the insights Bachmann gained when she worked with Viktor Frankl, whose teaching rested on the premiss of logotherapy, the articulated word as an antiphobic agent. Jost Schneider alerts us to a number of historical-political correspondences in Bachmann 's 'Biichnerpreisrede'. B. Mennel, again much indebted to Butler, focuses on Der Fall Franza and starts from the much-debated question of whether masochism connives at existing power structures or subverts them through critical mimicry. She concludes that while the text invokes the topos of the woman as victim, it also sub? jects it to critical differentiation. This essay stands out by its impressive theoretical underpinning, but its case rests ultimately on the much more familiar claim that there is critical distance between the narrator and Franza. Overall, then, the book offers a stimulating spectrum of critical contributions, al? though it does not entirely avoid the slightly random feel of most miscellany volumes. The introduction extends an unusually welcoming hand to young Bachmann schol? ars, and the 'Anhang' is of particular interest as it includes a recent interview (1999) with Hans Werner Henze. King's College, Cambridge Erika Swales Zwei Clowns imLande des verlorenenLachens: Das Liedertheater Wenzel & Mensching. By David Robb. Berlin: Links. 1998. iv + 208 pp. ?14.90. ISBN 3-86153156 -9 (pbk). This is the first monograph to examine the prolific GDR poet/Liedermacher duo Steffen Mensching and Hans-Eckardt Wenzel and their controversial theatre group MLR, 98.2, 2003 521 Karls Enkel. It traces their work from its origins in the GDR Singebewegung to the cult DEFA filmLetztes aus der Da Da eR (1990), and beyond into the new Germany. In the course of his study, David Robb (himself a Germanist and Liedermacher) of? fers a unique insight into previously unpublished scripts, and uses photographs, Stasi files, detailed stage-books, and interviews to get closer to the phenomenon that was 'Mensching & Wenzel ? fast eine Markename'. It is exciting to see a young academic from a British university publishing with a commercial publishing house in Germany and taking on the kind of essential primary research which will allow us better to understand the workings of the GDR state. Mensching and Wenzel are perhaps known to Auslandsgermanistik through their poetry and novels. In the...