2.2. MARCO TEORICO
2.2.17. METODOLOGÍA DE LA AUDITORIA DEL GRI
Fabian is praised for his previous work and is told to think out a 'kleines, hübsches Preisausschreiben'. The boss addresses him as 'junger Freund' but at the same time he warns of pending redundancies and directly threatens Fabian with his, 'Vas das fur Sie bedeuten würde, kdnnen Sie sich denken'. However, Fabian shows no reaction to the threat and simply leaves the office.
Withdrawal, escapism and (enforced) passivity characterize the behaviour of all the protagonists in these three novels. Doris, more than Fabian and Finneberg, seeks to interact with society. She appropriates different forms of behaviour and language in an attempt to find something with which she can identify. The various discourses she
employs represent attempts to find a niche for herself. But due both to bad luck and the idealization of a life-style that does not offer fulfilment, she fails in the end to achieve her aim, and her language returns to sober, simple description while she is left wondering what to do.
Finneberg also fails to find a niche for himself. He flees to the refuge of his private, sentimental sphere when the public world, which has made him so acutely aware that success depends on personality, goes on to attack and destroy his sense of pride and personal worth.
The perception that Finneberg and Doris have of themselves has, largely unbeknown to them, been shaped by various marketing discourses. Finneberg is unable clearly to see behind the motives of the managers' appeals to his sense of manhood and personal value. Instead, he comes to perceive himself in similar terms, and he struggles to find ways to counteract the adverse effects of such a perception. Likewise, Doris is frequently unaware of what is influencing the way she thinks, she does not radically question her image of a Glanz, nor her desire to acquire so many fashionable consumer products. Neither Finneberg nor Doris notice that they are speaking a discourse that is being aimed at them, largely because they cannot achieve any critical distance from it; the commercial interests have latched onto and hooked themselves into the protagonists' perception of themselves. It is a language which has been dictated by more powerful groups and which uses less powerful groups to disseminate it (Finneberg) and to consume it
(Doris).
Unlike Finneberg and Doris, Fabian has education and self- confidence; he is able to formulate what he does not like about society. But because he considers any concession to the outside world to be a
breach of personal integrity, he refuses to do anything about it. Even though he works with commercial language, he manages to distance himself from it, but this leaves him Just as isolated as Finneberg and Doris. Stylistically, his isolation is reflected in the dominance of one discourse throughout the novel.
In all three novels, the protagonists (unconsciously) find their language restricting. Part of their linguistic entrapment stems from the fact that all three of them work or spend their free time in environments where personal qualities (charm, wit, sophistication) have been appropriated by the public commercial realm. There then remains little linguistic room for the protagonists to express themselves; they either have to accept this commercial language or reject it. If they reject it, they find they are left with no other socially effective discourse. Doris may still have her journal, Finneberg may still have Lammchen and Fabian may die with his integrity intact. But their language, like their actions, becomes ineffective and they become passive spectators of the world around them.
CHAPTER FOUR SPACES OF THE CITY
The language which the protagonists have at their disposal constitutes only one part of their (restricting) environment. Another crucial component is, quite obviously, the urban world within which they must live. How do the narrators describe the spaces of the city and how do the characters behave in them? In what ways do buildings and streets influence the actions, themes and ideas of the novels? Are the buildings and streets restrictive or liberating? In the following, I am primarily concerned with the spaces within which the characters move; their homes, public institutions, the areas they seek for entertainment and the streets which both facilitate their movement and which also encroach upon their senses with noise, traffic, crowds and shops.'
It will become clear that the city is a place in which the characters, for good and for ill, live, move and have their being. But, particularly in times of crisis, the city can become a hostile place, home more to powerful and destructive social forces than to the characters. The city is a place that, on the one hand, accommodates the characters and, on the other, constantly disturbs and disorientates them, forcing them to adopt new strategies of defence and self-protection, whether it be in the form of coming to terms with their situation or causing them to flee the city. As we shall see, the role commercial forces play in this is again particularly significant.
The Private Realm
At first sight it might seem more appropriate to end, rather than begin, an analysis of spaces of the city with a discussion of the private sphere, because the home would seem to provide a refuge from the city.
This is, however, not always the case. Indeed, with the exception of Kleiner Mann - Was Nun?, the private sphere of the protagonists reveals itself to be generally grim and depressing, an area in which the protagonists spend as little time as possible and which forces them out into other areas of the city.
Only in Kleiner Mann - Vas Bun? is the private sphere depicted as a haven away from the rest of the world. It is Finneberg's and Lammchen's most profound wish to have a place to call their own. This wish becomes fulfilled when they move into the rooms in the yard of Keister Puttbreese's furniture shop. The rooms are situated above a cinema in Alt-Moabit. This space becomes the area in which Finneberg and Lammchen cannot be reached by the outside world; they do not have to share with other people, they live there unofficially because Meister Puttbreese is not actually allowed to let the rooms and the rooms have to be reached via a ladder - the implication being that if they so wanted, Finneberg and Lammchen could draw up the ladder in the event of outside danger. Indeed, the flat is referred to as a 'Burg' (KM-VN?, 26b), 'Kajütenwohnung' (184), 'Schiffskabine' (186), and a 'Mastkorb' (260). Outside noise only penetrates the rooms dimly and even then it is described using nautical imagery: