Germanistische Beiträge 25.2009
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The bibliography of the present volume has been composed by the writer, essayist, literary historian and translator Joachim Wittstock.
Joachim Wittstock presents three outstanding personalities from the Transylvanian Saxon and Romanian past – the theologian and reformer Johannes Honterus, the Saxon count and Royal Judge Johann Zabanius Sachs von Harteneck, and the Walachian prince Constantin Brâncovean – from very new, innovative and surprising points of view by combining fact and fiction in a subtle way. A special feature of Joachim Wittstock’s approach is the matching of form and content, naturally with varying emphasis on language construction or topic composition in the three pieces of prosa. In terms of the content, the author combines a circular perspective with a parallel one, thus creating a distinct up- and- down pattern. Linguistically, Joachim Wittstock uses cultivated everyday speech laced with telling word play, proverbs and idioms, foreign and archaic words, to ev oke the historic atmosphere of the past and making subtle political connotations. The unpretentious but deliberate syntax, with its most noticeable structural parallelism, sustains the author’s intentions. Joachim Wittstock encourages thought, not only about the contents, but especially about how we can improve things nowadays, about the responsibility that we have for our actions.
The present article is a review of Joachim Wittstock’s last novel: Die uns angebotene Welt. Jahre in Klausenburg [The World offered to us. The Years in Cluj] printed by the ADZ Publishing House of Bucharest in the year 2007.
In his 1985 published volume “Rain of ashes” the writer Joachim Wittstock presents on parallel levels the tragic destinies of young men, belonging to different ethnic groups from Romania, during the Second World War. The main theme of the collection of stories is the question of guilt and redemption, a question that is being asked obsessivly by all protagonists in the last chapter. The self analysis and confession of the heroes take place in Salzburg, a bathing resort with salt lakes close to Sibiu. The essay focuses on the symbolic value and dimension of the place and its surroundings, which become by means of poetic transposition the gate to the underworld/otherworld, where the souls of the dead soldiers come together, trying to find an explanation and a sense for the terrible suffering and the mutilation of lives caused by the war.
"Literatur als Erinnerungsspeicher" : die Erzählung "In der Nachbarschaft" von Joachim Wittstock
(2009)
Memory has established itself as an important paradigm in many different sciences since the 1980s, as also in literature. Memories form and stabilize identity and are therefore indispensable for individuals and communities. Literature, as a memory medium, has an important role in the transition from individual recollections to collective memory. It is a storage medium. Narrations make others’ experiences understandable; they fix memories and so make the transition into cultural memory possible. The narration „In der Nachbarschaft“ (In the neighbourhood) by Joachim Wittstock serves as a good example of this. Written in the style of a diary, it allows the reader to experience the hours and days of the upheaval in 1989. Collective experiences are recorded, such as the demonstrations, as well as the very personal impressions of Joachim Wittstock. Through the narration the recipient can comprehend both. The memories exist beyond their carrier.
The present article focuses on the problem of remembering and on some places of remembrance of the Transylvanian landscape as well as on the way these aspects are presented in the works of two German writers from Romania, Eginald Schlattner and Joachim Wittstock. Although the theme and the places are identical or nearly identical, the approach of the two writers is different. Whereas in Eginald Schlattner’s work there can be perceived an endeavor to create a “closed” form, an “open” form predominates in Joachim Wittstock’s work, namely the merging of reflection with a quasi-documentary style.
Hybridität als Strukturprinzip in der beschreibenden und betrachtenden Prosa von Joachim Wittstock
(2009)
In all of Joachim Wittstock’s works, in his novels as well as in his shorter prose writings, there is a tendency towards merging the factual with the fictional. This study deals with literary travel descriptions, the impulse to my considerations being given by a text written by J. Wittstock entitled Auf Reisen which contains some of the author’s ideas with regard to travel as a literary theme. The present approach deals analytically with the following texts: Christian Schesäus Transsilvanus, Die dalmatinische Friedenskönigin, Toskanische Türme, presenting imaginary travels in time and to particular places on the one hand and creating fictional works starting from authentic travels on the other hand. The travel descriptons of J. Wittstock merge real objectivity with aesthetic subjectivity in their structure. Of their structural elements the following are mentioned: multidimensionality of narrative structures; predomination not of temporal successions, but of leit motifs which structure the story; temporally delimited facts are combined in such a way that the space is being simul- taneously presented on several time planes. Well, I think that one can state that in J. Wittstock’s works the travel is a form of existence and that his travel descriptions must be regarded as examples of postmodern prose.
The present study refers to a working method of the writer Joachim Wittstock from Sibiu, namely to the use of the factual (published or unpublished works, quotations, press releases, etc.) for creating literary works, i.e. fiction. Horst Schuller uses examples from the novels Ascheregen (1985) and Bestätigt und besiegelt (2003) as well as from the volume of stories Keulemann und schlafende Muse (2005). Beyond the factual-fictional structure of the texts the author stresses elements of interculturalism, intertextuality and of what is understood as “high style” and the esthetic character of Joachim Wittstock’s works
Vorliegende Arbeit setzt sich zum Ziel, einen weniger besprochenen Aspekt aus dem Werk von Joachim Wittstock aufzugreifen und auf dem Hintergrund des allgemeinen Kontexts rumäniendeutscher Literatur der 70er und 80er Jahre zu analysieren. Vor allem werkpoetologische Aspekte sowie einige Motive und Aufbau- prinzipien seiner Lyrik stehen im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung.
