Transporte y captura de portadores de cargas

The H eim at theme which I trace through MflUer’s work receives a new dimension in

H erztier in the conflation o f its rejection with adolescence. Remaining with the centrality in the novel o f the fiiends’ political and ethical motivations for renouncing their parents’ way

of life, their determination to break out o f their mould can further be read as an adolescent conflict My motivation for including this aspect in my discussion is related specifically to the thematic framework of my thesis. As a counterpart to Ecker*s reflections on the oedipal construction o f Heimat, the theme of adolescence can be viewed as a structural paradigm for m û-H eim at sentimait: while the H eim at constellation is oedipal, the 2mû-Heimat

constellation is adolescent. Müller couples the rq)udiation of Heimat with the adolescence of her protagonists. This not only constitutes an interesting sequel to the idea outlined in my previous section that love of H eim at can be explained psychologically as a re­ enactment o f oedipal desire, in that it carries forth the maternal constitution o f H eim at, but also if we understand adolescence as a time o f searching for moral ideals, by attaching this rejection to the adolescent phase, Müller depicts the disavowal o f Heimat as an ethical act.

It is widely accepted that adolescmce is accompanied by a hitherto non-existent and ofren intense moral striving. Adolescence is the phase in which ^das einst machtlose, moralisch unterwürfîge Kind [sich] zum Schütz- und Gesetzgeber der nâchsten Generation entwickelt”;^"^^ it is where our * adult' orientation towards the achievement and maintenance of moral integrity is firmly set in place: *^ines jener Vermâchtnisse, das die Jugendzeit dem Erwachsenen mit auf dem Weg gibt, ist der Drang nach ethischer VervoUkommnung.”*^^ The various determinations voiced by the four young people in

H erztier are aimed at moral integrity. These include apart from their political activities a clear renunciation o f the provincialism o f their parents and the traditional folkish (Swabian) way of life which is preserved in their villages. Parallel to the friends’ development o f new values is their occupation with emotional severance from their parents (particularly from the mother), indeed the rejection o f the values o f their parents can be seen in this light, that is, as a strategy which aids severance and as part o f the adolescent task.

Louise Kaplan describes the task o f adolescence as the roiunciation o f incestuous desire. The threat of incest becomes relevant when the child becomes aware o f h ^ genital sexuality. In order that the adolescent child successfully avoids the incest taboo, she must firstly resist her sexual (genital) desires for as long as these are fixated on the parents (severance), and secondly redirect this desire onto a person outside o f the family circle (libido transference). A number of strategies can be observed among adolescents who enter this developmental phase when genital desire begins to replace infantile non-genital desire; these are rated by Kaplan according to their degree o f success or failure. Among the most

Louise J. Kaplan. Abschied von der Kindheit. Eine Studie über die Adoleszenz. Klett-Cotta: Stuttgart, 1988,11.

common and 'normal* methods for achieving libido transference (in the sense that they have no pathological consequences) are physical asceticism, the developmmt of an unconçromising attitude (moral integrity) and the gradual renunciation o f the past, which is replaced by new relationships. More problematic solutions include a sudden and irrevocable severance from the parents (for example, leaving home), new relationships which are formed too hastily and are too intense, the transformation o f incestuous desire into hate and scomfulness as well as the unaltered, unadulterated emotional devotion to the parents (which is indeed no solution at all).

Many o f the above-mentioned sevannce and transference strategies can be found in

Herztier. The adolescent task o f the four friends is exasperated by their mutual decision to avoid relationships. Despite rumours to the contrary which reach the narrator’s mother, the narrator does not have a sexual relationship with either Kurt, Georg or Edgar and indeed for a long time consciously avoids one with other men. If as Kaplan claims, the acquisition of new extra-familial love objects constitutes an unavoidable pre-requisite for a successful resolution of the adolescent task, then its neglect in the case o f the four friends can explain the difficulties they expmence in releasing themselves from emotional dependency on their mothers. Maternal dependency is symbolised in the narrative by the image o f the child bound to the chair, which occurs in the narrative of the child discussed in the previous section and is remembered or retold several times. When the child rebels against having its fingers cut, the mother ties it to a chair with her belts: "Ein Kind lâût sich die Nâgel nicht schneiden. Das tut weh, sagt das Kind. Die Mutter bindet das Kind mit den GOrteln ihrer Kleider an den Stuhl” (14). From now on the word 'losbinden’ (untying) is used to refer to the project o f the narrator and her friends o f escaping their mothers’ influence. The plea of the child becomes a lifelong desire for freedom from the constraints o f the family. It is uttered at times as an incantation indicating the determination or the desire o f the friends to achieve release and at the same time demonstrating the fact that the wished-for achievement is still outstanding. In this instance, the disinclination o f the mothers to loosen their emotional ties to their children is perceived as the obstacle to severance. The mother in the above scene is tied to her love and her child: "weil ihr Verstand genauso an die Liebe angebunden ist, wie das Kind an den Stuhl” (14). All four mothers succeed in retaining the bond with their children by compelling them to feel empathy. They send regular letters to their children in the city complaining about their physical sufferings. The children feel

Kaplan, 12.

The semantic pair losbinden/ anbinden recurs in Heute wûr ich mir lieber nicht begegnet: the narrator’s mother is desa*ibed as iosgd>undai’ Wien ho* frther dies, she now sleeps better and stops aging. (Herta MOlla". Hetae wàr ich mir lieber nicht begegnet^ 88-89)

trapped by the ‘snare* of their mothers’ complaints: “Mit den Zügen, in die wir nicht mehr einstiegen, schickten sie uns den Schmerz ihrer Galle, ihres Magens, ihrer Milz, ihres Kreuzes nach. [...] Die Krankheiten, dachten sich die Mütter, sind eine Schlinge fûr die Kinda". Sie bleiben in der Feme angebunden” (54). This aspect o f parental responsibility in failed severance is not mentioned by Kaplan. She explains the motivation o f the adolescent to leave home as an over-compensatory reaction to the child’s acknowledgement o f her own incestuous wishes; the child becomes so (ear-stricken by her unlawful desires, that she seeks the most direct way o f overcoming them. From the point o f view of the young protagonists in Herztier^ however, the mother’s desire is the source o f panic. Thus, there appear to be two reasons why the protagonists remain ‘angebunden’, why th^r fail, that is, to attain complete severance: firstly because o f the damaging effects o f the emotional traps of their mothers and secondly because they, for reasons outlined above, resist the second part o f the adolescent task - the relocation o f the libido.

Lola faces quite different adolescent problems than the narrator and her friends. She seems in some respects more grown-up in comparison to the other girls in her room. While all the girls have left home and are already at a physical remove from their parents, regular parcels from home represait for most o f them the continued « u staice o f strong ties. The cheese, sausage and mustard sent from home upholds the parents’ role as provider and are signs of the girls’ reliance on their parents. Instead o f parental provisions, Lola has gifts from her lovers in the communal refrigerator. They are workers in a meatworks and bring ha- the tongues or kidneys o f the slaughtered animals:

Wenn ich dai KOhlschraok ôffîiete, lagen ganz hintai im Fach eine Zunge oder eine Niere. Van Frost wurde die Zunge trocken, die Niere platzte braun auf Nach drei Tagen war hinten im Fach der Platz leer. [...] Weder in der Kantine nodi in der Tumhalle sah ich Lola an, ob sie die Kleini^eiten der geschladiteten T iae afi oda wegwarf (23).

According to the theory supported by Kaplan, howeva, early libidinal transference is cause for concern. In the case o f Lola, h a relationships with men have a connection for h a with h a childhood and are thus signs o f a less successful transition to adulthood than those around h a . While Lola receives no paraital support during h a time in the student hostel, h a parents do in fact continue to constitute love objects for h a . Lola’s adolescent ‘case’ is différât to the narrator’s in this respect. While the la tta ’s conflict is aggravated by a clinging m otha, Lola is still yearning for the sole affection o f a m o th a who has nev a paid h a sufficient attention: in this m otha/ daughta constellation, the child is the one who cannot let go. Lola’s excess o f libido which the girls once witness as she masturbates on h a bed, is com matated on in the text as being connected with a lack of love: “Ich hôrte

Lola die Liebe mâhen, die nie gewachsen war, jeden langen Halm auf ihrem dreckigweifien Leintuch” (26). Her nocturnal activities reflect immature attempts at transference and the men she stalks become replacements for the parental love that she never enjoyed: “Es raschelten Blatter über ihr Gesicht, solche wie damais vor Jahren einem halbjâhrigen, von niemandem als von der Armut gewoUten sechsten Kind. Und wie damais waren Lolas Beine zerkratzt vom Geâst. Aber nie ihr Gesicht” (20). She does not find the love she is looking for with these men, but only perpetuates her childhood and the cycle of abuse which it contained, insinuated in the image o f her scratched legs. The lack o f love from her parents for which she is now trying to compensate is also suggested in a diary entry where she writes o f a "small* childhood. Hctc she explains her neglected emotions as the result o f being the last o f too many children:

Zwei, drei Kinder im Dwf haben keine BlStter, und sie haben eine groBe Kindheit. Es sind Binzelkinder, weil sie Vater und Mutter haben, die geschulte Leute sind. Die Blattflôhe machœ aus âlteren Kindem jüngere Kinder, aus einem vieijShrigen ein dreijShriges, aus einan dreîjâhrigen ein einjShriges. Und noch ein halbjShriges, schreibt Lola, und noch ein frischgeborenes. Und je mehr Geschwister die Blattfl&ie machen, umso kleiner wird die Kindheit (14).

Lola is instrumoital in triggering the narrator’s sense o f individuality and her fascination with Lola is inseparable from her first experience of self-det«mination. The recurrent use of the subject ‘jemand’ in the early stages of the narrative (“Jemand im Viereck fragte”, 18; “Jemand ging ans Fenster”, 19; “Jemand sang”, 11; etc) in which the narrator retrospectively includes herself (“Vielleicht hieB ich in den a^ten drei Jahren in diesem Viereck jemand”, 19) insinuates a minimum degree o f particularity. She is even still a ‘someone* when she first begins to associate with Kurt, Edgar and Georg: “Edgar, Kurt und Georg suchten jemanden, der mit Lola im Zimmer war” (43). Lola’s difference to the other girls in this regard, that is, h ^ greater degree o f individuality, is what attracts the narrator to her, an attraction which in turn forms the foundation o f the narrator’s first clearly formulated self-determined aim: “ich wollte Lola im Kopf behalten” (42). Furthermore, the narrator’s formulation o f a concrete aim has Lola’s death as its pre­ requisite. Her death attaches an importance to the act o f remembering, making this a worthy aim. More crucially, it is the fact that Lola’s aspirations dissolved in tragedy which leads to the narrator’s decision to act: Lola’s death awakens in the narrator a sense for justice and instrumental to her acquisition o f a moral standpoint. The irony is that in the act of procuring justice for Lola (by paying tribute to her memory), in her endeavours to counteract the injustices already committed against her, the narrator begins to proceed along the same path which has already for Lola ended in defeat. The ironic repetition o f a

narrative o f failure is portrayed in the novel as both (increasingly) self-conscious and unavoidable.

The narrator’s decision not to enter into sexual relationships with men, although not made explicit in the text, can be explained as a reaction to Lola’s experiences. The theme of the suffering and oppression o f women in socialist Romania on account o f their ability to become pregnant and bear children is touched on at several points in the story. Frau Grauberg, for example, who lives in the same building as the narrator, looks after a grandchild because the mother died from the complications of a caesarean, and the mentally handicapped homeless woman whom the narrator observes on her rambles through the city is frequently pregnant as the result o f being raped by passing guards. Because o f the unavailability of contraception and the criminalisation of abortion, women in socialist Romania were subjected to far greater oppression than men and this too is Lola’s bitter experience. When she becomes pregnant, she is condemned as the sole guilty party and has no choice other then to keep the unwanted baby or commit suicide. The narrator’s disidentification with the other girls in her dormitory and her preference for male companions can be seai as a fear o f her socially imposed gmder role whose implications she becomes aware o f by observing Lola. When the narrator does, for a few months, have an affair, she consciously avoids emotional attachment (**und nachher keinen Moment an seinen Augen hângen”, 172) and thus succeeds in upholding her independence from men.

Beyond her catalysing role in the narrator’s individuation process, Lola’s association with the narrator extends to the former’s aforementioned attempts at libido transference. One o f the common successful methods for achieving libidinal transference is, according to Kaplan, giving a peer group the representative role o f the new love object. While up until her suicide the objects o f Lola’s transf^ence are older men, her final act points towards a new choice. When Lola commits suicide, she hangs herself with the narrator’s belt, a gesture which leads the other girls in the dormitory to place the blame on the narrator and the narrator herself to feel implicated in Lola’s crisis. The belt, already a symbol of a forced emotional bond, now connects Lola and the narrator. The narrator had already felt drawn to Lola (her attempts to *see’ or understand her) and now, in death, Lola has made a gesture which may have helped her had she lived - she has ‘tied* herself to the narrator. Lola thus becomes p ost mortem a new love object: the diary she finds in her suitcase confirms the intaition o f the gesture and from now on she dedicates herself to Lola. She continues her efforts to dispel her blindness and undo-stand her. But the new bond is a posthumous one, it is difficult to maintain and Lola oftai appears to be slipping away.

The bond with Lola, a girl her own age, is too fragile to help the narrator achieve severance from her parents. The doting mother remains the narrator’s main hindrance.

Later in the novel when the narrator meets her mother in town, she perceives a sudden new degree of detachment between them. Yet, instead o f rejoicing that her efiForts at ‘losbinden’ have finally come to fruition, she registers a feeling o f ambivalence at the loss of unity: **Wie gingen in den Laden. Wir redeten nichts miteinander. Wenn ich einen der beiden gleichen Kôrbe getragen h&tte, w&ren wir fÜr Fremde wahrscheinlich wie Mutter und Kind gewesen. So aber gingai Passanten immer wieder zwischoi uns hindurch, weil Platz gaiug war” (185). The narrator both perceives her separateness from her mother and imagines at the same time how they could be reunited. However, this remains a fantasy and the course she continues to steer with her mother is one o f defiant estrangement. When her mother begins to criticise her changed ways, the narrator asserts herself by threatening to break off all contact: “Ich schrie sie an. Wenn du mich nicht in Ruhe l&fit, dann siehst du mich nie wieder, wenn du noch ein Wort sagst” (186). The narrator’s momentary regret at the rift which opens up between herself and her mother is caused by the fact that the mother’s retreat has not proceeded as amicably as it might. The mother’s letters demanding affection are suddenly replaced with rent payments when the narrator loses her job; the mother’s strong love evaitually bows to disappointment and anger as her daughter’s actions appear increasingly incomprehensible to her.

The four friends’ rejection o f the values and lifestyle o f their parents is a moral act, typical of the adolescent stage and can be seen as part o f their attempts to loosen their emotional ties/ libidinous desire for their parents. Their m ii-H eim at attitude (that is, their rejection of a traditional provincial way o f life with the attendant attitudes discussed in the previous section) is a manifestation o f adolescence, an intensification o f the adolescent conflict. As I discussed above, their rejection extends to their parents’ attitude towards nature. In opposition to their parents’ fatalism and their belief in their reliance on the natural wwld, the four friends conceive o f themselves as self-autonomous beings, able to control nature. The metaphor for this control, the act o f mowing grass, recurs significantly