The following is an extract from ‚Gregor‘ (S. 42-45) in which Gregor reflects on the
statue of the young reading monk in Sansibar oder der letzte Grund (published in English as Flight to afar) by Alfred Andersch.
‘Then
he became aware […] of the presence of the figure. It was sitting on a low
metal plinth at the foot of the pillar diagonally opposite. It was carved from
wood, which was neither light nor dark but simply brown. Gregor approached it.
The figure represented a young man reading in a book that was lying on his
knees. The young man wore a long garment, a monk´s garment, no a garment which
was even plainer than that of a monk: a long gown. Under the gown his naked
feet protruded. His two arms were hanging down. His hair, too, was hanging down
straight on both sides of his forehead covering his ears and his temples.
[…]
How
old is he? As old as we were when we read just so. Eighteen, no more than
eighteen.
Gregor
bent down lower in order to be able to look at all of the young man´s face/to
look the young man right/straight in his face. He bears our face, he thought,
the face of our youth, the face of the youth chosen to read the texts which
matter. But then he noticed suddenly that the young man was completely
different. He was not rapt. He was not even absorbed in his reading. What was
it he was doing? He was quite simply reading. He was reading attentively. He
was reading precisely. He was even reading with the utmost concentration. But
he was reading critically. He looked as if he knew at each and every moment
what it was that he was reading. His arms were hanging down, but they seemed
ready to carry a finger to the text at any moment which would point out: this
is not true. I don´t believe this. He is different, thought Gregor, he is completely
different. He is lighter than we were, more birdlike. He loks like someone who
can close his book at any time and get up to do something entirely different.
So
is he not reading one of his holy texts, thought Gregor. So is he not like a
young monk? Is this possible: being a young monk and not being overawed by the
texts? Taking orders and nevertheless remaining free? Living by the rules
without subduing the spirit?
Gregor
stood up. He was confused. He observed the young man who continued reading as
if nothing had happened. But something happened, thought Gregor. I have seen
someone who lives without a mission. Someone who can read but who can still get
up and go. He looked at the figure with a kind of envy.’
Alfred Andersch, Sansibar oder der letzte Grund. Diogenes
Verlag 1972.
Translation: Gudrun Rogge-Wiest, 26.02.2018
Gregor, a communist party functionary, perceives in the
sculpture of a young reading monk his own younger self, the student of the
Lenin Academy in Moscow[1],
who devotedly absorbs the teachings offered to him. On closer examination,
however, he notices a crucial difference. While he identified with the content
of his books as a student, the sculpture represents an independent-minded
reader who concentrates on his texts on the one hand, but at the same time
keeps his distance and thus has the option to disagree with them, to question
their teachings. Thus he can protect himself against being manipulated.
Composure and a sense of humour, which the observer perceives in the corners of
the monk´s eyes, help to uphold such a stance of inner freedom. [2]
These reflections on the sculpture of the young monk have
the character of a moment of awakening for Gregor through which he gets his
bearings and finds his purpose. As a young man he dedicated his life to the
communist party not unlike a monk. Now he is on a mission to organize
resistance against the Nazi regime among the party members in Germany. Even
before his encounter with the sculpture Gregor daydreamed of a possible flight
from Nazi Germany and from the communist party mainly because he was scared,
but also because he needed some space to find out what his own position was.
And I, what
do I want? I want to escape from my corner and go anywhere, to a place where
you can think […], think about if it still makes sense to believe in the party.
(49)
With his own experience of alienation from the communist
party in mind, he immediately understands why the Nazis are keen on making the
figure disappear from public view. An invitation to reading and thinking
critically could not be in their interest, because this would lead to doubts
about their ideology and their rule.[3]
Thus, the reading monk becomes an allegory of independent thinking and by
implication a symbol of resistance against ‘the Others’, the author´s term for
supporters of the National Socialist Party.[4]
Gregor understands that by rescuing the sculpture the stance it represents will
be preserved for the new era after their rule. Due to the significance he
attributes to this enterprise, he is willing to put his life on the line in
order to achieve the new purpose, which he has found for himself.[5]
In the description of the monk´s way of reading the term
attentiveness takes central place. The critical reader approaches the text with
an open mind, is both thorough and alert.
Critical reading can be taken as far as to be
deconstructionist, that is, according to the manner described by
deconstructionism, a postmodernist method of literary studies. While reading
‘against the grain’, deconstructionism always takes the text as a point of
reference.[6]
Therefore, it is not a licence for arbitrariness or for criticism in the
service of a world view or some vested interest. Instead, proper
deconstructionists outline their method and reflect their points of view as all
other good researchers do. A well-founded deconstructionist analysis leads to
replicable findings and insights.
In the light of today´s
heated public debates, it takes a great effort to nevertheless be free (trotzdem
frei bleiben). It can also be made an ideal with regard to our understanding of the
world around us, the world as the text we read and interpret every day. The
sculpture of the reading monk can remind us to stop and think without subduing the spirit (ohne
den Geist zu binden) in
order to be able to form our own opinion.
[1] The Lenin
Academy was the training centre of the Comintern (Communist International), the
international association of communist parties.
[2] The German
sculptor Ernst Barlach´s work Lesender Klosterschüler (Young Reading Monk) 1930 was the model
for Andersch´s sculpture. A photo can be found on www.landesmuseum-mecklenburg.de/exponate/Ernst-Barlach-Stiftung-Guestrow/ernst-barlach-lesender-klosterschueler/.
[3] Immanuel Kant famously defined Enlightenment as independent
thinking leading to the liberation of the individual. ‘Answering the Question: What Is
Enlightenment?’ (German ‘Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?‘) Berlinische
Monatsschrift, Dezember 1784)
[4] Cp. the
definitions in Jeremy Tambling, Allegory,
London [u.a.]: Routledge, 2009. ‘I will, in order to present personification,
assume throughout that it is an allegorical mode, providing concrete forms for
complex, abstract ideas which it makes recognizable.’ Tambling, 5.and ‘[…]
personification, which like prosopopoeia, ascribes a mask, or face, and by
implication a voice and personality, to an object or something in nature, or
even to a man-made object, such as a statue (43).
[5] Erich Fromm
distinguishes this kind of sacrifice from the one the Nazi´s glorified: ‘It is
one of the tragic facts of life that the demands of our physical self and the
aims of our mental self can conflict; that actually we may have to sacrifice
our physical self in order to assert the integrity of our spiritual self .This
sacrifice will never lose its tragic quality. Death is never sweet, not even if
it is suffered for the highest ideal. It remains unspeakably bitter, and still
it can be the utmost assertion of our individuality. Such sacrifice is fundamentally
different from the ‘sacrifice’ which Fascism preaches. There, sacrifice is not
the highest price man may have to pay to assert his self, but it is an aim in
itself. This masochistic sacrifice sees the fulfilment of life in its very
negation, in the annihilation of the self. It is only the supreme expression of
what Fascism aims at in all its ramifications--the annihilation of the
individual self and its utter submission to a higher power.’ The Fear of Freedom, chapter 7, ‘Freedom
and Democracy‘, 231.
[6] A good
introduction is the chapter ‘Structuralism and post-structuralism- some
practical differences’ in Barry, Peter Beginning
theory. An introduction to literary and cultural theory, Manchester and New
York: Manchester University Press, 2002
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