Wörter Jenseits der Sprache in Ingeborg Bachmanns „das Buch Franza.

In “das Buch Franza,” Bachmann attempts to “speak” to the relationship

between man and woman, one which Bachmann finds essentially violent.
Bachmann uses the term “fascist” to describe both intimate relations between
people and relations with the self. According to Filkens, this tendency to see
fascism as more than a political construct of war-time Germany, is what makes
Bachmann unique among her contemporaries. Just as Bachmann sees the
crimes of Nazi Germany on a larger scale, she also sees the fascist ways people
relate to one another and themselves as crimes. In her foreword, she writes,
“Das Buch ist aber nicht nur eine Reise durch eine Krankheit. Todesarten, unter
die fallen auch die Verbrechen. Das ist ein Buch :uber ein Verbrechen... Denn
es ist heute nur unendlich viel schwerer, Verbrechen zu begehen, und daher sind
diese Verbrechen so sublim, dass wir sie kaum wahrnehmen und begreifen
können, obwohl sie täglich in unserer Umgebung, in unsrer Nachbarschaft
begangen werden. Ja, ich behaupte und werde nur versuchen, einen ersten
beweis zu erbringen, dass noch heute sehr viele Menschen nicht sterben,
sondern ermordet werden.“ (201) A society, „deren schwache Nerven vor den
Bestialitäten erzittern,“ is also one that implicitly creates a place for the even
more insidious, sterile crimes of the modern world. Within this modern world,
however, crimes “findet innerhalb des Erlaubten und der Sitten statt.” (201)
Bachmann’s statement asks the question, “who actually grants this permission
within society as a whole?” most prominently, it is language which is at least
partially responsible for perpetrating these crimes, but it is the put in the ironic
position of becoming a tool for the rehabilitation against the victims of such
crimes. Thus duality points to the underlying nature of language as both a tool
for violence, in the form of language that actively encourages people to partake
or accept violent behaviour as the norm, as well as for healing. Quite simply,
Franza cannot tell her story without language, just as Martin can’t begin to
fathom his sister’s suffering without first being able to understand her complex
thought processes. Franza must come to terms with the violence that has been
inflicted upon her delicate psyche, and the resulting loss of herself. This can only
be done through language. Thus, the important relationship is between violence
and language, which rests completely on the ability and willingness of the victim
to verbalize her pain. However, Bachmann simultaneously attempts to express
the inexpressible. This essay seeks to examine how Bachmann uses language
to illustrate violence, and the kind of crimes she refers to in a post-modern, post-
colonial world. First I will examine the structure or form of the story to see how,
at the most basic level, language is asked to satisfy wholly new expectations,
and then I will look to the story and the way particular events within that story are
told.
…
It is so difficult to find Franza’s voice within the narrative because the
narrative does not strictly belong to Franza. In fact, Martin plays almost as much
of a roll as does Franza. The book as a whole is told from the perspective of
both Martin and Franza. Notably, Martin is the male who is responsible for his
sister and by extension the telling of her story. Once again, Franza’s story is
being symbolically subjected to the interpretation of a male – even on the level of
the narrative structure. Martin is somehow caught between the marginalizing
and terrorizing world of white men (die Weiβen), men of science (men in white
coats), and his love for his siter. Franza’s story is also told, at time from her
perspective, at other times from the perspective of an all-knowing entity, who
reveals much about the figures through the dialogue. Interestingly, Martin and
Franza’s stories are very similar, but Franza’s story is markedly different from her
brother’s. Even at the end of the novel when Martin is having dinner with the
Altenwyls, he talks more about the external signs of his trip (“als Martin den
Altenwyls schon ergänzende Erklärungen und Berichtigungen gab,
Überlegungen aufredete, sich in Details verlor…” (139) As he does this, he
leaves out the more important internal environment, which Bachmann describes
in her foreword:
“Die Schauplätze sind Wien, das Dorf Galicien und Kärnten, die Wüste, die
arabische, libysche, die sudanische. Die wirklichen Schauplätze, die
inwendigen, von den äuβeren mühsam überdeckt, finden woanders statt. Einmal
in dem Denken, das zum Verbrechen führt, und einmal in dem, das zum Sterben
führt. Denn es ist das Innen, in dem alle Dramen stattfinden, kraft der
Dimension, die wir oder imaginierte Personen diesem leidenmachen und
Erleiden verschaffen können.“ (201)

TRANSLATION : TO ENGLISH !
Beyond words of the language in Ingeborg Bachmann's "The Book Franza."

In the Book of Franza, Bachmann attempts to "speak" to the relationship between man
and woman, one Which Bachmann finds Essentially violent. Bachmann uses the term
"fascist" to describe both intimate relations between people and relations with the self.
According to filk, this tendency to see fascism as more than a political construct of war-
time Germany, is what makes man unique among her contemporaries Bach. Just as
Bachmann sees the crimes of Nazi Germany on a larger scale, she also sees the fascist
ways people relate to one another and themselves as crimes. In her foreword, she writes,
"The book is not only a journey through an illness. Deaths, which fall under the crime.
This is a book about a crime ... For it is only now infinitely more difficult to commit
crimes, and therefore these crimes so sublime that we can perceive and understand little,
although it every day in our area, are committed in our neighborhood. Yes, I say and I
will only try to provide a first evidence that even today many people do not die, but be
murdered. "(201) A society," the faint of heart tremble before the atrocities, "is also one
that implicitly creates a place for the even more insidious, sterile crimes of the modern
world. Within this modern world, however, crimes "taking place within the permissible
and the customs." (201) Bachmann's statement asks the question, "who actually grants
this permission within society as a whole?" Most prominently, it is language Which is at
least partially responsible for perpetrating these crimes, but it is the put in the ironic
position of becoming a tool for the rehabilitation of victims against the crimes examined.
Thus duality points to the underlying nature of language as both a tool for violence, in the
form of language that encourages people to Actively partake or accept violent behavior as
the norm, as well as for healing. Quite simply, Franza can not tell her story without
language, just as Martin can not begin to fathom his sister's suffering without first being
able to understand her complex thought processes. Franza must come to terms with the
violence that has been inflicted upon her delicate psyche, and the Resulting loss of
herself. This can only be done through language. Thus, the important relationship is
between violence and language, Which rests completely on the ability and willingness of
the victim to verbalize her pain. However, Bachmann simultaneously attempts to express
the inexpressible. This essay seeks to examine how Bachmann uses language to illustrate
violence, and the kind of crimes she Refers to in a post-modern post-colonial world. First
I will examine the structure or form of the story to see how, at the most basic level,
language is asked to satisfy wholly new expectations, and then I will look to the story and
the way Particular events within that story are told.
...
It is so difficult to find Franza's voice within the narrative because the narrative does not
strictly belong to Franza. In fact, Martin plays almost as much of a roll as does Franza.
The book as a whole is told from the perspective of both Martin and Franza. Notably,
Martin is the male who is responsible for his sister and by extension the telling of her
story. Once again, Franza's story is being symbolically Subjected to the interpretation of a
male - even on the level of the narrative structure. Martin is somehow caught between the
world of marginalizing and terrorizing white men (the white ones), men of science (men
in white coats), and his love for his siter. Franza's story is told so, at time from her
perspective, at other times from the perspective of an all-knowing entity, who reveals
much about the figures through the dialogue. Interestingly, Martin and Franza's stories
are very similar, but Franza's story is markedly different from her brother's. Even at the
end of the novel when Martin is having dinner with the Altenwyls, he talks more about
the external signs of his trip ("as the Altenwyls Martin already gave additional
explanations and corrections, deliberations aufredete, was lost in the details ..." (139 ) As
he does this, he leaves out the more important internal environment, Which Describes
Bachmann in her foreword:
"The venues are Vienna, the village of Galicia and Carinthia, the desert, the Arab, Libya,
the Sudanese. The real locations, the inward, from the difficulty äuβeren covers, are held
elsewhere. Once in the thinking that leads to crime, and once in the one that leads to
death. For it is the inside, held in which all the plays, by virtue of the dimension that we
or imaginary people can make this gain suffer and suffering. "(201)