Transplanting Heads Or Transposing Identities in Thomas Mann's Die Vertauschten Köpfe

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Transplanting Heads or Transposing Identities in Thomas Mann's Die Vertauschten Köpfe

(1940) and Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos’s Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads (2002)

A thesis submitted to the

Graduate School

of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature

in College of Arts and Sciences

by Courtney Rehkamp

B.A. Northern Kentucky University

March 2019

Committee Chair: Tanja Nusser P.h.D.

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Abstract:

This thesis looks at the questions of identity in connection with transplantation medicine in Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe (1940) and Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos’s

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads (2002). Both Die Vertauschten Köpfe and

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads use the unreal situation of accidentally switched heads of two close male friends to introduce the re-formed individual. Though this goes beyond the scope of medicine’s current transplant capabilities and the works do not focus on transplantation, I propose that the theories from transplantation literature and theories that focus on how we understand the body/head may help to understand what occurs when the individual experiences an identity shift due to changes in personality or body. In order to understand how these theories can be understood in relation to the novella and the film, I will engage in close reading of both.

In Die Vertauschten Köpfe I will focus on the individual identity, the hybridity of identity and the subsequent breakdown of that identity as the plot progresses. In the film

Fremkörper/Transposed Heads I focus on the different modes of representation, how they communicate the events of the story and how this plays back into conceptualizations of identity.

More specifically, I will demonstrate how identity works in relation to transplantation and how it is impacted in an extreme case such as the theoretical switching of heads.

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Table of Contents: List of Illustrations: 4 Glossary: 5 Introduction, Clarification and Transplantation: 6 Part I: Formulations of Identity in Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe (1940) 14 1.1: Die Vertauschten Köpfe as Representative of Single Identity 19 1.2: The Hybridization of Identity 24 1.3: Problems in and the Breakdown of the Hybridized Form 28 Part II: Multimodal Representations in Katja Pratschke’s and Gusztáv Hámos’s Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads (2002) 36 2.1: Reading the Film through Image 39 2.2 Reading the Film as an Auditory Work: 48 2.3: Reading the Film as a Multimodal Object 51 Part III: Texts as Reflections of their Time and Divergences: 57 Works Cited 63

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List of Illustrations:

Figure Page

Figure 1: The First Date (Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads) 46

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Glossary: Due to the complexity of relationships present within both works and the switch that occurs, I provide a short clarification of terms/people that reoccur in the text.

Thomas Mann: Die Vertauschten Köpfe (1940):

Schridaman: husband to Sita and friend of Nanda; more mind focused

Nanda: friend of Schridaman and Sita; more body focused

Sita: wife to Schridaman and friend of Nanda

Schridaman-on-Nanda: head of Schridaman on body of Nanda

Nanda-on-Schridaman: head of Nanda on body of Schridaman

Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos: Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads (2002):

Jan: partner of Marie and friend of Jon; more mind focused

Jon: friend of Jan and Marie; more body focused

Marie: partner of Jon and friend of Jan

Jan-on-Jon: head of Jan on body of Jon

Jon-in-Jan: head of Jon on body of Jan

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Introduction, Clarification and Transplantation: Literature is often able to handle topics that go beyond the realm of current possibility because:

Technology and knowledge push the limits of both medicine and society's ability

to process it. In the contemporary world, change comes rapidly, and although

technology and culture advance together in a series of mutually informing leaps,

individuals and social groups who are more distant from innovations are often left

to their own devices and to numerous communication media to make sense of

those changes. (Furr et al 192)

If one reads media to include multiple mediums, then one can interpret media as working like a filter to process new or current improbable scientific feats. Therefore, even if we are currently unable to time travel, authors such as HG Wells are still able to write about the technology, which is still non-existent. Through the ability to handle the non-real as if it were real, those who choose to work creatively with the topic are able to explore the potential problems and benefits of the topics, this also occurs if an author, artist or filmmaker chooses to work with a topic related to medicine. In the area of transplantation medicine, “[the] extent a body part can be understood as an adjunct or appendage to the rest of the body occupies a central meaning”

(Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-Memory/Memory of the Body” 54). One possible way in which authors, artists or film makers might work with the topic of transplantation medicine is through asking questions such as: a) how the body can be understood as the person, b) how the connection between the body and its identity functions and c) what happens when there is a separation of the body then reformation of the body with a different part. Rehkamp 7

Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe represents a mystical interpretation of the potential for transplantation technology when dealing with the body. By using Sita’s accidental switching of heads enabled by godlike forces (Kali), the text questions where the identity of the human being lies and what happens when a major body part (head/body) switches for another.

Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos take Mann’s idea into the present day and introduce the field of medicine into the story through full head transplantation.1 The full head transplantation allows for the discussion of identity – what forms identity, what controls the person and relationships, and how can a change in the whole body including the head change identity? These prior questions of identity and how one constructs it are important for those working with transplantation in connection with self-perception, and are critical when looking at Die

Vertauschten Köpfe and Fremdkörper/Transposed Bodies.

Using the above works, Die Vertauschten Köpfe and Fremdkörper/Transposed Bodies, this thesis centers on ideas of transplantation, translation and transposition in reference to broader ideas of (self-) identity, self-perception, perception of the body, and how the individual relates to society and is perceived by others within society. The first section, Introduction,

Transplantation and Clarification, explores the history of transplantation to understand the origins of the conceptions of identity. The use of term transposition instead of transplantation is then clarified and is followed by how the field of transplantation connects to literature. Part I:

Formulations of Identity in Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe (1940) focuses on Thomas

Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe. The analysis of this text explores the different evolutions present within the text, such as configurations of self-identity, hybrid identities and how they

1 See also Irmela Marie Krüger-Fürhoff’s Body-Memory/Memory of the Body: On the Visual Politics of Transplantation Surgery in Contemporary Film: Face/Off, (USA, 1997) and fremdkörper/transposed Bodies. In this article she focuses more on the idea of how the relationships of the protagonists in Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads she does still look at questions of identity connected with transplantation. Particularly in reference to Jan’s/Jon’s status as both donor and recipient (55). Rehkamp 8 breakdown.2 Part II, Multimodal Representation in Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads (2002) looks at how the different modes of representation

(image, sound and both) affect the telling and focus of the story. The final chapter of this thesis works with both cultural texts and explores how form of the story affects the translation/transplantation/transposition and how it influences the overall meaning of the works in relation to the above themes connected to identity.

Medical transplantation is the act of removing tissue, blood or organs from one area of the body or another's body and grafting it to another area or body, “Als T. [Transplantation ] versteht man die therapeutische Übertragung von lebenden Zellen, Geweben oder Organen an andere Körperstellen oder auf ein anderes Individuum (Krüger-Fürhoff Literatur und Medizin

787). Irmela Marei Krüger-Fürhoff further elaborates in her encyclopedia entry that the broadness of the term transplantation means it may apply to a variety of procedures and bodily components, such as blood, organs and other tissues/cells. Though transplantation can be applied to many types of procedures, one of the more common associations are with organ transplantation or “the surgical replacement of diseased organs with healthy organs (grafts) from live or cadaver donors” (Smith). Organ transplantation and other types of transplants or grafts are dependent upon different factors including:

2 Though the term hybridity can be used in reference to cultural studies, in this text it will refer to the medical definition of hybridity: the combinations of two different parts to form a new whole. In most cases, the use of medical hybridity refers to the combination of two different species/polarly different objects and in transplantation often refers to xenografting. However, one definition given in the Oxford Dictionary is, “A thing made by combining two different elements” (“Hybridity”). In this definition, the elements could be construed as the heads/bodies of the two men being switched and as the process that their identities undergo as a result of the switch. Though the bodies are of the same species, the process of the merging affects the identity of the men and can be seen as a creation of hybridized identities through the attempted formation of a new understanding of self, stemming from the merged figures. As a result of this reasoning, my definition of hybridization finds its basis in earlier medical/biological conceptions, however, I adapt the idea to refer more to the self-identification/identity process. Even so, it must be acknowledged that the term hybridity also possesses importance in cultural and post-colonial studies as describing processes underwent by imperial and colonized areas. For more information on hybridity in cultural studies see Homi K. Bhabha’s 1994, “The Location of Culture”, it is here that the term hybridity first appears in connection to cultural studies. Rehkamp 9

[The] genetic relationship between the donor and the recipient is fundamental to

all else in transplantation. Successful transplantation between 2 individuals who

are not genetically identical requires diligent assessment of those differences

before transplantation, and individualized immunosuppressive therapy after

transplantation, to minimize recognition and subsequent rejection of the foreign

graft by the recipient's immune system. (Smith)

In the contemporary field of transplantation, there are different types of grafting that surgeons use, such as autografting, allografting and xenografting. An autograft is taken from within the individual him-/herself (human A→ human A), allografting from within the same species

(human A→ human B) and xenografting refers to cross species grafting (animal A→ human B). 3

Of the three, autografting has the highest success rate because of the relatively low chance of rejection due to the graft coming from the recipient him-/herself. Allografting usually has favorable outcomes, particularly due to the development of immunosuppressants in the 1960’s

(Hamilton 269).

Ideas of transplantation and the myth of transplantation existed in legends around the world well before the actual procedures became medical possibilities. In the European Middle

Ages and Renaissance, myths centered on miraculous occurrences involving saints and witchcraft. One example of accusations of witchcraft was in the case of Gaspare Tagliacozzi

(1545-1599), an Italian surgeon who performed several new and successful acts of transplantation that were eventually called witchcraft after his death (Hamilton 8). In other areas of the world, such as India and China, there have been recorded instances of autografting techniques upon the face (mostly nose) and ears to repair tissue in the area as early as 6th

3In early research at the beginning of the 20th century on human-human grafting, the procedure was known in literature as homografting rather than allografting (Hamilton 97) Rehkamp 10

Century BCE (Hamilton 10). In the subsequent centuries, doctors and scientists continued to experiment and had varying degrees of success with transplantation. These transplantations led to differing source-to-recipient constellations to try to guarantee post-operative success.

It was in the 20th century that researchers and doctors started to work intensively with the idea of organ transplantation. In 1902, scientist Emerich Ullmann performed experiments with kidney transplantations in dogs, both through xenografting (from goats) and allografting (from other dogs). In 1906 the first human kidney xenotransplants were undertaken (Barker and

Markmann 3). These initial transplantation attempts failed and in 1943, surgeon Tom Gibson and biologist Peter Medawar published their re-investigation of tissue transplantation that worked with immunological mechanisms and brought them back into the forefront of transplantation research (Hamilton 173). This coincided with the Second World War and the need for skin grafts due to wartime injuries (Hamilton 174-175). In the last sixty to eighty years the scope transplantation surgery has skyrocketed, to such an extent that scientist are now able to envision and execute procedures such as facial allografts, the transplantation of external limbs and internal organs such as the heart. These types of procedures require examinations of ethical, social and cultural implications of transplantation on the individual and upon societal perceptions of transplantation.

Medical definitions of transplantation serve to help define the process of what happens to the male figures in both Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe and Pratschke/Hámos’s

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. However, though both works refer to identity formulations affected by transplantation medicine, they do not directly concern themselves with the medical term transplantation. The medical word transplantation means: “…the process of taking an organ or living tissue and implanting it in another part of the body or in another body” Rehkamp 11

(“Transplantation”). This definition of transplantation implies that something has been lost at the site of donation. If surgeons remove a major organ, such as a kidney or lung, even if the donor outlives his/her own donation, the donor has still permanently lost a piece of him-/herself. The taken organ will not regrow or return to the donor body.4 If, as in the case of a skin allograft, the individual is both the donor and the recipient, then no part has been fully lost, rather, there is a localized loss at the site of donation. This area will regenerate, however, the loss, no matter how temporary, has still occurred.

Due to the loss implied by the term transplantation, it seems necessary to find more applicable phrasing to describe the process undergone by the men, Schridaman/Nanda and

Jan/Jon. In doing so, I propose to use the term used by Pratschke in the English translation of her

German title Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. The term “transpose” is a verb that means to switch two or more objects (“Transposition”). The objects being switched are normally of similar value. In both stories neither of the two individuals suffer a loss, instead, they undergo a process where the heads/bodies switch. The term “transposition” also better suits Mann’s Die

Vertauschten Köpfe. According to the Duden dictionary the term “vertauschen” means: “etwas, was einem anderen gehört, [versehentlich] [weg]nehmen und dafür etwas anderes Gleichartiges zurücklassen” (“Vertauschen”). The Duden’s definition implies that Nanda and Schridaman have undergone an exchange or a transposition of two equal objects. Thus, the term transposition, or the switching of two or more things, seems to be the more precise term to use when describing the process experienced by the two figures. Accordingly, this thesis will use the term transposition in the place of or in conjunction with the term transplantation. Nonetheless,

4 One contra argument of the idea of inherent loss due to transplantation is through the advances of modern medicine, wherein, there has been experiments where skin cells are engineered to encourage growth at the site of transplantation. For more information see the National Health Institutes website at: https://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/tissue-engineering-and-regenerative-medicine. Rehkamp 12 philosophical concepts attached to the identity politics within transplantation literature still influence the reading of both works.

The term transposition is a way to address how Die Vertauschten Köpfe and

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads connect with one another. A second definition of

“transposition” given by the Oxford dictionary is, “[to] translate into another language”

(“Transposition”). This definition refers to both the linguistic and medial processes undergone by the works. The medium of the story changes several times over the course of its telling, through this process the story becomes a translation of itself, not only linguistically, but also medially. In its original form the story exists as an oral story that Heinrich Zimmer adapted into a written text; Thomas Mann used a version of the original legend taken from Heinrich Zimmer’s publication and forms it into a longer work.5

The story undergoes further transmedial translations in Pratschke’s re-interpretation of the story in the photo-essay type film Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. During these medial translations, the story takes on different meanings that both add to and change the story. The translation of meaning also occurs through the adaptation into a different culture. The text has undergone a linguistic translation from an Indian dialect to German; however, the text has also undergone cultural adaptations during the reformulation of the story from written text to film.

The most impactful of these changes is Pratschke’s choice to portray West Germany in the

1970’s/1980’s, rather than keeping the setting of pre-modern India. In making this choice,

Pratschke is able to bring in images and ideas that allow her to ground the story more firmly in medicine and science. Due to the choices made by Mann and Pratschke/Hámos in their respective works, the story itself exists as a transplantation through its translation, changing its

5 For more information on other changes, cultural context and on the Zimmer text see: "Switching Heads and Cultures: Transformation of an Indian Myth by Thomas Mann and Girish Karnad” by Anand Mahadevan. Rehkamp 13 form and taking on further identity formulations into itself as it moves from one cultural background (Indian) to another (German). The stories, though they are works of transposition themselves, also deal with physical concepts of transposition (transplantation) and how they might be misused or affect the individual.

The potential for and misuse of transplantation has been handled extensively in fictional literature, ethical explorations and philosophical writings. These works seek to question the effects of the transplantation upon the individual and society and the implications of the hybridization of the figure. 6 Fictional literature provides a bridge between scientific discourse and the public’s fears associated with transplantation as well as provides space to speak about the development of science: fictional works are able to, through non-real situations; provide the space in which the common person can access a topic such as transplantation (Frey 10-11). 7

Some relatively well-known examples of fictional genres where transplantation often occurs are in the genres of gothic and science fiction literature in the 19th and 20th century with novels such as The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) and Frankenstein (1818).

Literature is not the only medium that handles questions of transplantation.

Transplantation and its potential are also questioned in films such as Face/Off (1997) and in works of art. 8 In the anthology Signs of Life (2007), edited by Eduardo Kac, authors working in

6 Ethical literature deals with the morality behind the act of the transplantation. Ethical and fictional literature also handles questions of obtaining organs and material for transplant, including topics such as the black market for body part sales and transplant tourism. These questions however reach beyond the scope of this text. 7 Examples of fictional literature include but are not limited to Frankenstein (1818), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), Never Let Me Go (2005) and Unwind (2007). For more information on transplantation and its impact on film and literature, see Representations of Organ Transplants: Western Fantasies and Black Market Realities (2014) by Sita Maria Frey. 8 Also used by Krüger-Fürhoff in connection with Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. It is a 1997 film featuring Nicholas Cage as an international terrorist and John Travolta as the FBI agent obsessed with catching him. In order to infiltrate the terrorist plans Travolta undergoes a facial allograft to go undercover as the Cage character. In this film only the outside changes, nothing internal is affected. Rehkamp 14 the intersection of art and biotechnology explore at associated topics such as bioethics.9 Lori B.

Andrews handles the connection between bioethics and visual arts in her article, “Art as a Public

Policy Medium”, “Art can explain to us how biotechnologies work. The works created by life- science artists can emphasize the limits of these technologies and the likely social impacts”

(Andrews 142). The concept that bio-art provides the space in which discourse on biotechnology can take place extends to literature and film as well. The three mediums provide different modes and possibilities of expression to explore ideas and allow for different ways of understanding these ideas. Moreover, the intersection of image, word and movement provides a potential structure for how one could interpret the Pratschke/Hamos project. Through this, one could look the impact of head/body transplantation/transposition on personal identity, as each mode of representation in the film works through different themes.

In the coming sections, conceptions of identity, the hybrid and perception by others take on greater meaning when understood through Die Vertauschten Köpfe and

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads.

Part I: Formulations of Identity in Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe (1940)

In 1940, during his exile to America, Thomas Mann published his work Die Vertauschten

Köpfe. 10 The book opens with a description of two friends, Schridaman and Nanda. Both men come from different socio-cultural backgrounds in India; in addition, they possess different but complementary strengths and weaknesses. Nanda comes from a lower caste and works as a shepherd and blacksmith, which, develops his physical strength and body. He also possesses, according to local belief, a lock of lucky hair upon his chest. Schridaman is the polar opposite of

9 Bioethics is the study of how ethics are used to interpret the morality of medicine and medical procedures. For further information, see Rodert Dell'Oro and Corrado Viafora’s Bioethics: History. 10 This was also the first story published by Mann after the start of the second world war, it was published in Stockholm, Sweden and translated to English in 1941 (Blödorn and Marx 140). Rehkamp 15

Nanda. He is weak in stature, due in part to his status as a merchant; however, he is well educated. The tension in the novel stems from the introduction of the lovely Sita, who Mann calls the lovely hipped. She first meets Nanda during a festival, but eventually marries

Schridaman, causing a rift between the two friends. The rift stems from the desire that both

Schridaman and Nanda have for her and leads to the confusion following the transposition of heads and the self-/other caused death at the end of the work. Since they have switched bodies, when Schridaman and Nanda stab each other, Schridaman’s head stabs its own body, through this action killing Nanda. Nanda performs the action in reverse, killing Schridaman.

Die Vertauschten Köpfe takes place in pre-modern India.11 One way that Mann references the Indian origins of the legend is his use of, “(…) whole details of the action with epic breadth and poise and he lets the story unfold before the reader (…)” (Shroti and Mulla 79). Mann also emphasizes the nature of the tale as an Indian legend through the use of names in the text:

[...] Sita reminds us of the wife of the legendary God Rama, the hero of the Indian

epic Ramayana... Nanda was the cowherd who brought up Krishna, the

incarnation of God Vishnu. Even though the name Schridaman is a changed form

or the mythological figure Sudama, Krishna's friend, it is associated by Thomas

Mann partly with Krishna in the characterisation. As we can read in the

Bhagavata Purana, Krishna persuaded Nanda and the other milkmen to give up

the Indra rituals and to pray to Mount Govardhana. In Thomas Mann's story,

11 Since Mann’s novella is based off an Indian myth, the concept of Orientalism, or the appropriation of Eastern and Asian culture, texts and ideas enter the text. Edward Said in his seminal book Orientalism discusses not only the understanding of 'oriental culture' as belonging to the area. He rightfully points out that the concept of Orientalism has to be understood first and foremost through one’s own (Eurocentric) cultural lens (Said 11), and therefore is a cultural construct. He also discusses the German interaction with the concept of Orientalism as the refinement of the British and French gathered materials (Said 19). Though the idea of Orientalism is connected to this text and how it might be read in the 1940’s, the exploration of this topic goes beyond the scope of my current project, it would be one that could be addressed when working further on the novella and the later film.

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Schridaman suggests the same to Nanda ... Even the ascetic Kamadarnana (the

vanquisher of desire), and the child Andhaka (the blind one) can be traced back to

the Indian mythological world. (Ganeshan 3-4)

V. Ganeshan goes on to discuss the attention to religious detail paid by Mann in the text, as seen in some details of Hinduism – for example Nanda’s and Schridaman’s gird with the sacred thread of the second born – and remonstrate others – such as the misnomers present in his portrayal of the caste system (Ganeshan 712-713).12 Mann’s decision to use the legend from

Indologist Heinrich Zimmer, and create an adaptation of the story, creates an opportunity to explore further themes of identity, reproduction and how they can be used to interpret the effect of transplantation on identity (Blödorn and Marx 140). 13 14 Mann further differentiates his text from Zimmer’s through the development of the story after the naming of the rightful husband

(Blödorn and Marx 140).15 Though Zimmer’s telling of the story does not exactly resemble the original legend, it serves as a building block for Mann’s text. It provides a base that Mann used to create his adaptation of the story. Through his adaptation, Mann allows himself the ability to deepen the narrative, further explore components of identity and give the figures, “personalities, whereas in the original source they were hardly even types” (Willson 5).

12 For more information on how Mann changed the original story see: Anand Mahadevan’s "Switching Heads and Cultures: Transformation of an Indian Myth by Thomas Mann and Girish Karnad”. 13 Siegfried Schulz in his article, “Hindu Mythology in Mann's Indian Legend” write that the Zimmer version of the tale had made adaptations not existing in the original Indian legend. He says, “These Vetala stories were very popular in their time and were committed to writing at a relatively late date, and there are consequently many versions. But none, except perhaps for a very late concoction, has the subjective motif Zimmer read into it” (Schulz 130). Schulz goes on to elaborate that the key change made by Zimmer was the shifting of responsibility/blame to the female figure (131-132), this change plus the addition of the wise man and broadening of the story allows Mann to introduce the idea that the mind (spirit) controls the body (Schulz 132). 14 Neither Zimmer nor Mann were the first German authors to writes a text based upon the legend of the transposition of heads. Before him, Goethe wrote a poem in his Paria-Trilogie based on the south Indian myth (Wilhelm 410-411). 15 In the Zimmer text, the story ends after the King decides, like, the wise man in Mann’s text that the head of the husband atop the body of the friend is the rightful husband (Blödorn and Marx 140). Rehkamp 17

The reader develops through Mann’s characterization of the figures, more so than in

Zimmer’s text, per Willson, an idea of the relationships that exist between the characters and how the characters work with their own internal conceptions of identity. This happens through the discussion of their thoughts and feelings, meine Gefühle. These feelings can be observed by those around them, however are controlled by the individual. Outsiders cannot understand the meine Gefühle as they can only be an internal object for the ich. The presence of the Ich and meine Gefühle within Mann’s text point back to internal configurations of identity. The Ich and meine Gefühle show that the figures are cognizant of their own conceptions of self-identity and the way in which their conceptions of self-identity connect with others. The theme of self- identity in Mann’s work further connects to other themes in the text such as transposition/transplantation, paternity, relationships and relation to the self, perception of the body, the individual’s relation to others, and other’s perception of him/her.

In looking at identity, many theorists have handled the concept of self versus the other.16

One major development came out of the Renaissance from Rene Descartes, who develops a perception of the self in his Meditations that is based on a mind-body dualism: the mind is conceptualized as thinking and the body as unthinking matter (Dicker 69):

Thus, simply by knowing that I exist and seeing at the same time that absolutely

nothing else belongs to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing, I

can infer correctly that my essence consists solely in the fact that I am a thinking

thing. It is true that I may have (or, to anticipate that I certainly have) a body that

is very closely joined to me. But nevertheless, on the one hand I have a clear and

distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am simply a thinking, non-extended thing;

16 Some of the earliest individuals to discuss the mind versus body are Homer and Plato using concepts of soma (corpse/body) and psyche (mind). For more information, see Psyche and Soma edited by John P. Wright and Paul Potter. Rehkamp 18

and on the other hand I have a distinct idea of body, in so far that this is simply an

extended non-thinking thing. (Descartes 109)

The above quote from Descartes illustrates the dualistic nature of the body and the mind.

However, he places emphasis on the idea that major conceptions of being exist in connection to the mind, the thinking thing; however, we are acting through the body, the extended thing. Moreover, he connects the body to the mind, “And yet we can clearly and distinctly perceive the mind without the body and the body without the mind” (Descartes

229). Although Descartes looks at the body and mind as separate entities, one could also look at the body and the mind as acting together to form identity. If so, then the switching of one or the other could cause a change in the individual.

Continuing the idea that the mind in the body exist in conjugation with each other in a more modern example, is Jean-Luc Nancy who wrote the short text, “L’Intrus”.17 In this, he discusses his experience of having an intruder in his own body as an organ recipient. He opens his text discussing his transplant organ saying:

Once he has arrived, if he remains foreign, and for as long as he does so—

rather than simply “becoming naturalized”—his coming will not cease; nor will it

cease being in some respect an intrusion: [] that is to say, being without right,

familiarity, accustomedness, or habit, the stranger’s coming will not cease being a

disturbance and perturbation of intimacy. (Nancy 7)

Here, through the idea of the intrusion of the stranger, Nancy begins to create his metaphor of the transplant organ as an intruder. The transplant organ that it has intruded is a stranger in the body and something that one does not become accustomed. Nancy’s evaluation of the transplant organ

17 L’Intrus translates most accurately as intruder. Rehkamp 19 is interesting, in that it speaks to the implantation of a foreign organ that was once part of another in one’s own body. One could also potentially attribute the constant feeling of foreignness to the actions undertaken to prevent rejection; after the transplantation of an organ, the individual must continue to take immunosuppressant drugs, thereby consciously ingesting daily a reminder that a foreign part must be acclimated into their body. Taking this into consideration one can argue that the individual never fully leaves the transplantation behind, but rather, like a scar or a prosthesis its effect always remains omnipresent and inescapable. Due to the inability to fully assimilate the

“new” organ(s) the, I/other, becomes confused and the individual ceases to be able to differentiate the other from the self. It is therefore, as Nancy later refers to it, a disruption of the internal body (Nancy 7). This disruption saves the life of the individual, but also disrupts the individual’s self-identity. Even though Nancy works with rejection and currently possible transplantations, his ideas could also apply to more improbable procedures that work with identity, such as the one presented in the Pratschke/Hamós project or in the transposition in

Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe.

1.1: Die Vertauschten Köpfe as Representative of Single Identity

The perception of self plays a key role in Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe. In the beginning of the work, their individuality and the polarity of their characteristics define both

Schridaman and Nanda. The differentiation of their characteristics start at the beginning of the work and continue until the midpoint of the text, at which point, the characters undergo such a transposition that they must attempt to hybridize. The first characterizations of the figures are,

“two friends of an unequal background: Schridaman, a merchant of the Brahman class, and

Nanda, a simple cowherd shepherd and blacksmith” (Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-Memory/Memory of the Body” 53). The prior characteristics address the social standing of the figures; however, Rehkamp 20 they are also described as having diverse physical and mental characteristics that help to determine how they identify themselves.

The individual’s perception of self also plays a key role in forming and performing his or her own identity. This is true for both Schridaman and Nanda. They are parts of a whole, their differences complement each other in such a way that their relationship transcends that of brothers and of friends, so much so, that they are more like two sides of one coin. They both possess individual qualities that are complementary, one is physically abled (Nanda) the other places more emphasis upon mental strength (Schridaman). Their conceptions of self compliment the each other so well, that the men’s complimentary natures lead to a certain amount of codependency even before they undergo transposition. The figures are co-dependent upon one another from the beginning of the story and do not wish to be separated. Nanda asks Sita to be the bride of Schridaman and Nanda is the last to leave on the wedding night. A conversation between Nanda and Schridaman after Schridaman spies Sita for the first time and falls ill further demonstrates the depth of the dependency that exists between the protagonists:

Darum bist du mir so nötig, mein älterer Bruder, denn was ich nicht habe, hast du

und bist mein Freund, sodaß es beinahe ist, als ob ich selber es hätte. Denn als

dein Genoβ habe ich Teil an dir und bin auch etwas Schridaman, ohne dich aber

wär’ ich nur Nanda, und damit komm’ ich nicht aus. Offen sag’ ich es; Ich würde

die Trennung von dir keinen Augenblick überleben wollen, sondern würde

ersuchen, mir den Scheiterhaufen zu rüsten und mich zu verbrennen. (Mann 60-

61)

Here Nanda makes apparent his view of the relationship that exists between the two figures. He call Schridaman his friend, but more than that, he calls him his brother. The term brother, when Rehkamp 21 looked at through the concepts of family and biology takes on the meaning of denoting blood linked relationships. The relationship between the two is so close that Nanda says that he feels as if he has a piece of Schridaman within him, and that he would not want to survive the separation of the two. Even though the figures share a certain amount of codependency, they still exist as individuals. Therefore, the individual characteristics of the figures affect how they construct their individual identities.

Their views of their individuality differ in their skills and proclivities, as well as, affect the emphasis that they place upon the different parts of their bodies. After the transposition, their new forms disappoint neither of the men. His more aesthetically appealing form delights

Schridaman, and Nanda is pleased by his ability to experience a lithe figure. Nevertheless, they are at odds over who the rightful husband of Sita and father of the child is. Nanda makes the argument, “Mir ist mein Leib die Hauptsache, und darin denke ich nach dem Sinn der Ehe, in der auch der Leib die Hauptsache ist, den mit ihm warden Kinder gezeugt und nicht mit dem Köpf.”

(Mann 148). Schridaman, in contrast, places greater importance upon the head calling it the place where thinking and identity formation take place (Mann 144). Through the idea that one uses the head and the body to form and recognize one’s sense of self, the individuals address their Ich-

Meine Gefühle. Krüger-Fürhoff also addresses the Ich-Meine Gefühle and goes on to discuss the transposition of body, making a similar connection to the differing importance of the parts to

Schridaman (head) and Nanda (body) (Verpflanzungsgebiet 245-247). The construction of the

Ich-Meine Gefühle provides a way in which the characters perceive themselves and their own feelings in reference to their individual identity.

The dichotomy of the head versus the body takes on further importance in the propagation of the individual. Furthermore, even though neither is disappointed in the switch, the Rehkamp 22 fact is that they are still at odds regarding the husband of Sita and the father of her child. Nanda calls the child his “Erzeugnis” (Mann 148), showing that he considers his possessing

Schridaman’s body as also having fathered the child. This indicates just how important the areas where they conceptualize the importance of self are to their formations of self-identity. The individual’s own perception of self-identity is not the only conception of identity within the text.

Through looking at both Sita and the society’s perception of Schridaman and Nanda, the reader is able to work with outside views of identity.

As seen in the following quote from Sita, the outside perspective of Nanda and

Schridaman’s relationship is similar to the conceptions of the men themselves. “Wie sollte ich die Frage nach Nanda mir aus dem Fleisch und der Seele reißen, da er immer um uns war, und

Schridaman und er nicht nicht ohne einander sein könnten, ihrer Verschiedenheit wegen” (Mann

126)? Sita’s question regarding the relationship between the three individuals shows closeness between both Nanda and Schridaman. The perception of the individual by others is present in

Schridaman and Sita’s reception in the village following the transposition. The village having not witnessed the transposition or having heard the story focuses upon the head, or more aptly the face, to determine that Schridaman is Schridaman and not Nanda:

Man lasse doch nur einmal einen Bruder, Sohn oder Mitbürger durch die Türe

hereinkommen, seinen wohlbekannten Kopf auf dem Schultern, und fühle sich,

selbst wenn mit seiner übrigen Erscheinung nicht alles in der gewohnten Ordnung

wäre, des geringsten Zweifels fähig, daß dieses Einzelwesen etwa nicht der

betreffende Bruder, Sohn oder Mitbürger sein könnte. (Mann 186) Rehkamp 23

The above excerpt explains the importance that the face/head plays in identifying the individual to society. Here society does not look at the body as if it might belong to someone else; rather society assumes that Schridaman’s body has changed due to his maturation through marriage:

(...) seiner Veränderung, die mit der seines Freundes allerdings vielleicht

auffallend zusammengewirkt hätte, ward niemand gewahr, und nur Schridaman

bot sich den Blicken dar – in einer bräunlichen Kräftigung und Verschönerung

seiner Glieder, die man mit gelassenem Beifall einer männlichen Reifung durchs

Eheglück zuschreiben mochte, soweit sie überhaupt in die Augen fielen. (Mann

185)

The society that Sita and Schridaman re-enter does not identify any unusual changes in

Schridaman. Any that they do see they attribute to other explanations. The fact that Nanda is not seen helps to further dispel any suspicion. Furthermore, neither the behavior of either man, nor their mode of dress (the head control both of which) change:

Denn es versteht sich, daβ Sita’s Eheherr fortfuhr, sich nah den Gesitzen

seines Köpfes zu kleidenund nicht in Nanda’s Lendentuch, Armringen und

Steinperlenschmuck herumging, sondern nach wie vor in dem Bauschigen

Hosenschurz und dem baumwollened Hemdrock erschein, die immer seine Tracht

gewesen. (Mann 186)

The body is prone to and more easily changes than the face. This allows the head to take precedence in the identification of the individual by others.18 The changes in the men move in two directions: a) the head controls the body due to patterns of behavior established by the head, and b) the body changes the face. The two directions display the effect that both parts have upon

18 However, it may also be argued that modern identification relies primarily upon fingerprints for the unique identification of the individual. See: Sarat C. Dass "Fingerprint-Based Recognition." Rehkamp 24 the other.19 Through society’s reception of Schridaman upon his return, it may be inferred that the head plays more of a role in identifying the individual and the individual’s performance of identity than the body.

1.2: The Hybridization of Identity

When the transposition occurs, the protagonists Schridaman and Nanda undergo a process of hybridization. Through the process of physical hybridization, there is also an implied process of identity hybridization. The bodies/heads of the men switch, forcing the men to incorporate a foreign part into the familiar. The incorporation causes the need for changes in perception of the self and the perception of others of the individual. The hybridity undergone by the men brings the text into dialogue with the chimera. In his chapter “Embodying the Chimera: Biotechnology and Subjectivity”, Bernard Andrieu explains, “At the beginning of the twentieth century, the scientific model of the chimerical body showed the transplanted body as representation of the modern subject.

Through transplants, the subject was able to step into the technical possibility of building a body while giving it identity” (Andrieu, 61). In looking at the transplanted/chimeric body, the parts of the body become the individual subject, which can also come together as a greater subject (whole body). If one can understand the body as a chimera after transplantation, then the implantation of the part belonging to another must have some impact on identity. If so, then the individual is required to reform their own conception of self-identity.

The concepts of the chimera and physical hybridity brings questions of identity incorporation to the forefront: “The host must incorporate the Other into his own identity to live

19 This will be discussed later in the section on the breakdown of the hybrid body. Rehkamp 25 on” (Andrieu 62). The threat of incorporation by the “other” and how one might incorporate it into one’s conception of self are brought up by bio-artists, Oron Catts and Ionatt Zurr:

The sustenance and manipulation of parts seems to be more disturbing and

confronting because it puts into question rooted perception of the inseparable

whole living being. If we can sustain parts of the body alive, manipulate, modify,

and utilize them for different purposes, what does it say about our perception of

our bodies, our wholeness and ourselves. (232)

Catts and Zurr’s handling of the body breaks the whole being into individual parts. If the body as broken parts is applied to the concept of transplantation, then the individual must reconcile their own identity with the interloper that has entered their body. The failure of the body to adapt to the interloper may be seen in the field of science and medicine through the occurrence of organ rejection. Even with access to immunosuppressive medications, there are still a relatively high rates of transplant rejection, where the organ fails to perform and the physical body is unable to reconcile the organ with the greater whole.

Mann includes visible representations of hybridization in the story that foreshadows the eventual transposition undergone by Schridaman and Nanda. One example of these representations are the chimera-like figures that line the walls of the temple of Kali: “(...) wo denn im fließend-allerfüllenden Gewirr des Menschlichen, Göttlichen, Tierischen ein

Elephantenrüssel den Arm eines Mannes abzugeben, Eberkopf aber an die Stelle zu treten schein von eines Weibes Haupt” (Mann 89). Here one sees descriptions of chimeras.20 The chimeras

20 The use of chimera references ancient legend and early ideas of magical aspects of transplantation underscoring the translation of the story from oral myth to written text. The chimera is a being of legend, wherein the two living beings have been combined to create a new hybrid being. This can either happen with two animals – pegasus, winged horse, or the Chimera, lion, serpent and goat mixture,– or between a human and an animal- the minotaur, bull and human, and the sphinx, human and lion. There is even a reference in Indian mythology to the creation of the chimera, through the case of Ganesha, the beheaded Indian god who gained the head of an elephant (Hamilton 2-3). Rehkamp 26 refer back to older traditions of transplantation thought and brings into question two ideas connected to hybridization, first, how the body may hybridize and second, what its potential for success in hybridization is.

After Nanda and Schridaman kill themselves in the temple and experience the head/body switch i.e. the switching of heads, they also undergo physiological changes that further amplify the status of the men as potentially hybridized beings. In the initial description of the transposition, Mann writes:

Der mit dem Nanda-Kopf betastete, indem er die ihm zugehörigen Glieder

untersuchte, den Leib, der einst dem edlen Haupt des Schridaman nebensächlich

angehört hatte; und dieser, Schridaman nämlich (dem Haupte nach) prüfte voller

Betroffenheit als seinen eigenen den Körper, der in Verbindung mit Nandas

nettem Kopf die Hauptsache gewesen war (Mann 140).

In this description, the narrator denotes not only the switch that has taken place, but also attaches self-perception to the body and body parts that switch. The narrator also orders the importance of the body and the head within the text. The narrator calls the head the Hauptsache (main part) and the body nebensӓchlich (secondary). By using the attributives of head as main and the body as secondary, the narrator already provides one potential interpretation of the duality. In the presented duality, the head takes precedence over the body. The use of language also works with the figures in an important way. It works not only in the narrator’s ordering of the text, but also with the shifting perspectives of the figures. The head of Schridaman sitting atop the body of

Nanda (Schridaman-on-Nanda) views the head as the Hauptsache, main thing [body part] and the body as nebensächlich, secondary. The Nanda head attached to the Schridaman body

(Nanda-on-Schridaman) has the opposite opinion: the body takes on increased importance and Rehkamp 27 the head falls into a secondary position. The opposite constellations of head-over-body and body- over-head are due to the importance placed upon parts by the protagonists.

The original parts of both Schridaman and Nanda exact changes upon the acquired parts in the post transposition hybridization. Both the heads of Schridaman and Nanda take on characteristics of the attached body. The head of Schridaman becomes coarser and resembles less his noble heritage, “Es war auf die Dauer ein Schridaman mit verfeinertem Nanda Leib und vergröbertem Schridaman Köpf (…)” (Mann 201). The head of the lower caste Nanda takes on some of the finer characteristics of the Brahmanic body of Schridaman; so much so, that his nose loses its described goat like appearance and takes on the finer lines of the body (Mann 212). The transformative aspect undergone through the merging of the figures leads to questions of whether the head controls self/outside perceived identity or if the body plays a role in identification.

The need of Schridaman and Nanda to acclimate to a new body indicates that the switch leads to a certain amount of foreignness. Due to the foreignness, the men no longer recognize their own bodies because they have been attached at the head to the body of another. Since the bodies and the heads have both been joined into a new, foreign part, then the choice of pronouns in describing the bodies post transposition supports the unfamiliar present in the new configuration,

(...) und Schridaman — wenn die Figur so bezeichnet werden darf, die mit seinem

milden Haupte versehen ist, steht vor dir auf Nandas wohlschaffenen Beinen, die

Locke Glückskalb im Rahmen der Steinperlenkette auf, “seiner” breiten und

bräunlichen Brust! (Mann 139)

Schridaman-on-Nanda dissociates the head from the body using the pronoun “seiner” encapsulated in quotations. The use of seiner implies that the head possesses the body, but Rehkamp 28 acknowledges the body as “other”. The body originally belonged to Nanda, however, to whom does it belong now that it is attached to Schridaman? Another interesting aspect within the quote is how it refers to Schridaman. In this constellation, it introduces the idea that the figure might need to be understood differently, “…wenn die Figur so bezeichnet werden darf…” (Mann 139).

If the figure might no longer be purely Schridaman, it introduces an issue that goes back to the

Cartesian idea of dualism. The idea of dualism creates the construction of body/soul. This separates the soul (mind) from the body and proposes the idea that the soul rather than the body is the center of self, but part of the self-understanding of the individual is in reference to the body. Therefore, through the possessive pronoun and the confusion of body, a separation between body and mind has developed.

In the divided construction, it then becomes necessary to construct a new concept of hybridized identity with which to evaluate the connection between soul (mind) and body. In the next part of this chapter, the failure to create hybridized identities develops. This results in the destruction of the hybridized bodies of Nanda and Schridaman. The destruction of the hybridity indicates that though the bodies/heads have transposed, that the combination of identities or the actualization of identities might not have the same success.

1.3: Problems in and the Breakdown of the Hybridized Form

The body and the head work together to make up the whole person and each work with the other to form the individual’s perception of self. However, does this work when the body has been matched to a different head and the head has been placed upon a different body? The novella handles this question partially through the outward reception of the individuals and partially through the central conflict of the work: the questions of marriage and paternity. In her Rehkamp 29 book, Verpflanzungsgebiet, Irmela Marei Krüger-Fürhoff argues that one difficulty in the reconciliation of the hybridization is the relationship between the men in connection to Sita (245-

246). 21 She characterizes Sita as:

eine junge Frau, die an ihrem Ehepartner Intellekt und Eros bzw. einen edlen

Kopf und einen sexuell befriedigen Körper genießen will und dabei (zumindest

unmittelbar nach der Kopfvertauschung) der Person mit dem attraktiven Körper

(und dem sozial akzeptableren Kopf) den Vorrang gibt gegenüber dem

nachweislich reproduktiven, aber erotisch enttäuschenden Mann. (Krüger-Fürhoff

Verpflanzungsgebiet 250)

Krüger-Fürhoff’s statement regarding the outward desires of Sita and her perception of her husband and his friend denotes the importance of the head/body connection that flows through the work. It also shows the duality represented by the two figures: one completes the physical desires of Sita (Nanda), while the other completes her social aspirations (Schridaman). The initial situation following the switch is viewed by Sita as an amalgamation of the two men into her ideal husband:

“(...)daß das Beste von Beiden, und was in der Einheit eines jeden die Hauptsache

gewesen war, sich zusammengefunden und eine neue, alle Wünsche erfüllende

Einheit gebildet hatte. Nächtlich, auf gesetzlichem Lager, schmiegte sie sich in

die wackeren Arme des Freundes und empfing seine Wonne, wie sie es sich

früher an des zarten Gatten Brust nur mit geschlossenen Augen erträumt hatte,

küßte jedoch zum Dank das Haupt des Brahmanenenkels – die begünstigste Frau

21 Though this chapter of Verpflanzungsgebiet mainly handles the Katja Pratchke’s film Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads, discussed in chapter II of this text, she also discusses Die Vertauschten Köpfe as the blueprint of the film. Rehkamp 30

der Welt, denn Sie war im Besitz eines Gemahls, der, wenn man so sagen darf,

aus lauter Hauptsachen bestand” (Mann 183-184).

Though Sita views her husband’s new form as positive, it brings confusion into her perception of the two men. Her point of view of Nanda’s body as the “husband body” and her child Samadhi as “...das Früchtchen”, sagte sie, “Das du mir schenktest in erster heiliger Ehenacht, als du noch nicht Nanda warst” (Mann 204) makes evident her confusion and the fact that she views the men as possessing parts of the other. Here it is apparent that though one body still has the head of her husband, she does not perceive the body as the same that she first married. The paternity of

Samadhi and the new relationships developed in relation to one another cause the three figures to question the importance of the body in reference to the importance of the head even though both are identifiable as individual parts:

den Kopf des Nanda dem Schridaman – wenn man dessen Rumpf ohne die

Hauptsache eben noch als Schridaman bezeichnen konnte – und das Haupt des

Schridaman dem Nanda, wenn der kopflose Nanda noch Nanda war” (Mann 138-

139).

The text emphasizes the difficulty in identifying the fused bodies, as well as whether the body still belongs to the original head or to the new one.

The problems of the fused body further develop as the text continues. Though there is initial merging of the bodies, the success does not continue. The lack of success is indicative of the breakdown of the hybridization. As the text develops, the bodies of the men slowly change due to lifestyle choices made by the central figures. The body of Nanda degrades losing its muscle mass and appeal due to Schridaman’s the sedentary and scholastic lifestyle (Mann 192-

196). A change in body occurs for Nanda-on-Schridaman when he goes into the forest to live the Rehkamp 31 life of an ascetic and the harsh lifestyle redevelops his body. When the trio reunites’ the bodies of both men resemble those that the individual heads originally possessed.

The issue of paternity plays a key role in the text. The relationship with each other

(between Schridaman and Nanda) in reference to Sita (who is the husband, who is the friend) and by extension the child is what must be navigated (Krüger-Fürhoff Verpflanzungsgebiet 255-256).

This necessitates evaluating the importance of the head vs the body the configuration of identity.

The tension between the head and the body emerges in the text from the roles that the body and the head play in the creation of the child. The head makes the decision to engage in the act that produces the child; however, the genetic material that creates the child comes from the body. The constellation mirrors the question of where the identity of the individual is controlled. At the temple of Kali, the narrator through Sita discloses to the goddess (Kali) and by extension the reader, that she is pregnant. The child adds further importance to the debate as to whether the head or the body manifests identity through the question of paternity. As stated above

Schridaman is of the opinion that the head is central in the formation of the self, whereas Nanda places emphasis upon the body. When discussing the child, Nanda states that, “der Leib die

Hauptsache ist, denn mit ihm werden Kinder gezeugt und nicht mit dem Kopf” (Mann 148)

Here, Nanda’s words serve to present one side of the argument on the importance of the body vs. the mind. From the point of view of Nanda, the body is what produces the child. His new body, the husband body (in reference to Sita), as it is called by Mann, is the husband of Sita and the father of the life that lies inside of her. This is from Nanda’s point of view because his new

(Schridaman’s) body fathered the baby. Therefore, his body gives him, over Schridaman, who now has the friend body (Nanda’s), a greater claim the child and Sita. The different centers of identity form an impasse, where the paternity cannot be resolved. Both men represent different Rehkamp 32 conceptualizations through which the creation of self and function of paternity may be read. One reading is a body focused approach (Nanda-on-Schridaman), whereas the other is a head focused approach (Schridaman-on-Nanda). Even though the trio attempts to solve the problem through their own understandings of identity, they must seek an outside perspective for a final solution.

The inability of both men and Sita’s refusal the resolve the situation is what leads them to consult a wise man:

[Nanda] Zu diesem Weisen, der das Leben kennt und es überwunden hat, wollen

wir reisen, wollen ihm unsere Geschichte erzählen und ihn zum Richter einsetzen

über Sitas Glück. Er soll entscheiden, wenn ihr’s zufrieden seid, wer von uns

beiden ihr Gatte ist, und sein Spruch soll gelten” (…) [Schridaman],, Da ich

einsehe”, sagte Schridaman, ,,daß hier ein sachliches Problem vorliegt, das nicht

aus unserer Mitte, sondern nur durch äußeren Spruch gelöst werden kann, so

stimme auch ich dem Vorschlag und bin bereit, mich dem Urteil des Weisen zu

unterwerfen. (Mann 156)

It is, in this instance that the importance that the understanding of self plays in the construction of identity fails. Due to the men’s inability to reconcile their own self-identity with their new circumstances, they must seek the help of an outsider. Through the outside judgement, one sees that identity stems not just from within, but is also formed through the opinions of society. The wise man does not only provide different interpretations of the situation, but also allows for engagement with the reasoning behind the given interpretations.

When first asked the question the wise man responds, that since the hand is given in marriage the body is what decides the question of husband and paternity (Mann 176). This interpretation implies that the friend head (Nanda) with the husband body (Schridaman) is the Rehkamp 33 deciding factor upon which both the questions of marriage and paternity hang, though these questions exist separately from one another they are connected through both the story and the cultural context in which they exist. Though the use of tradition provides one solution, the wise man looks back to a poem for a secondary interpretation of the problem:

Gemahl ist, der da trägt des Gatten Haupt.

Kein Zweifel ist an diesem Spruch erlaubt.

Denn wie das Weib der Wonnen höchste ist und Born der Lieder,

So ist das Haupt das höchste aller Glieder. (Mann 176)

In his second declaration, the wise man declares the husband head with the friend body is the natural husband and father. If, as the poem states, the head is the deciding factor, then

Sita belongs to the husband head with the friend body, Schridaman-on-Nanda. Though the final decision of the wise man positions the head as the deciding factor, Sita brings confusion into the situation. This occurs when she calls Nanda-on-Schridaman the father of the child within her before they part ways, “(...) das Früchtchen unter meinem Herz ist doch von dir”(Mann 180).

Sita’s parting words allow for the breakdown of the hybridized potential of both

Schridaman and Nanda. The birth of the child is the first prominent instance in the novella, where the potential for the two figures to form separate identities rather than hybridized forms of themselves is fully denied. This denial is formed both linguistically and textually. Naming the child Samadhi, a name, which translates into Sammlung (collection) (Mann 204) marks him as not belonging to one father, nor the other, rather the child is a mixture of the three individuals.

The lack of individual paternity is reinforced through the child’s similarities to his mother.

Samadhi resembles neither father – be it in body, or head, rather he takes after his mother Rehkamp 34 marking her as the set parent.22 It is due to this, as well as, the child’s second name Andhaka

(little blind one), referring to his nearsightedness, that Krüger-Fürhoff states that the child represents all three parents and that his nearsightedness is symbolic of his tri-parentage, representing how he is separate from those around him (Verpflanzungsgebiet 250). Krüger-

Fürhoff’s statement brings to mind the hybridity of men within the text; the child is unable to see clearly the parents and the world around him. Due to this, his nearsightedness is symbolic of the unresolvable paternity caused by the transposition of heads. Samadhi cannot clearly see; therefore, he cannot clearly be seen.

Schridaman further reflects upon the confusion of identity and the identity of the true husband after Sita leaves with the child:

(…) daβ es sein eigener ehemaliger Leib war, mit dem Sita die Ehe wieder

aufgenommen hatte, was man ebenso wohl einen Akt der Treue wie einen solchen

des Verrates nennen konnte; die Wesenserkenntnis lehrte ihn, daβ es im Grunde

ganz gleichgültig war, mit wem Sita schlief, mit dem Freunde oder mit ihm, das

sie es, mochte auch der eine weiter nichts davon haben, immer mit ihnen beide

tat. (Mann 216- 217)

Here it is evident that, though Sita has gone to be with Nanda, Schridaman cannot consider her as unfaithful. This is because she chose to be with the body that she had married, furthermore,

Schridaman cannot be upset as if she was with another man (Nanda) because she is with the husband body. Both men call Sita wife, and due to the blending of the figures she is truly the wife of both. She is the wife of Schridaman-on-Nanda due to the husband head and the wife of

Nanda-on-Schridaman due to the husband body.

22 The similarity to the mother mirrors the perception of society of parentage of the child. The mother usually is identified easily; however, in questions of parentage paternity is usually what is questioned after the conception of the child. Rehkamp 35

It is within the triangle of the three that Schridaman’s and Nanda’s identities have become so mixed that no single pairing can be truly happy or faithful without the third (Mann

219-220). In this constellation the breakdown of the hybrid identity and the destruction of potential for resolution occurs. The potential of living together is further destroyed through Sita’s refusal to live in polyandry. She will not live with both men and sees death as the only honorable option.23 This leaves the only alternative as for the men to kill one another and Sita to commit sati upon their funeral pyre. 24 If they do this, it will prevent the son (Samadhi) from receiving the fate of a child of a widow. In this the foreshadowing undertaken by Mann at the beginning of the text, when Nanda stated he would rather die than live without his brother/friend, is actualized. The two men can neither live without one another, nor can they live if they are joined together.

Their fate denies the potential for the formation of a new self out of two parts and the potential for a truly hybridized figure cannot be realized. This comes in part due to societal expectations – i.e. polyandry is not allowed in that part of India at that point in time, nor is it acceptable within monogamous 1940’s society. There it represents a dangerous other. It also occurs because the figures of Schridaman and Nanda, having undergone fusion are unable to reformulate new mixed identities. Through this, the text serves as a way to question how formulations of the self occur, and how events such as transpositions/transplantations of body- parts affect the formulation of self and the outside perspective of the performed self.

Part I of this thesis focused upon the Thomas Mann novella, Die Vertauschten Köpfe, and on how the novella might be read in conjugation with a focus on the formulation of the self and

23 Krüger-Fürhoff associates this refusal with norms of the 20th century and the impossibility to form a complete family unit with this option (“Body-Memory/Memory of the Body” 63). 24 Sati is a form of ritualistic suicide practiced in India, where the widow will through herself onto her husband’s funeral pyre out of grief at his death. Rehkamp 36 how this formulation is affected by the transposition of components of the self (head-body). Part

II: Multimodal Representations in Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos’s

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads will look at how the film translates the Indian myth into film,

German culture and into the early 21st century. As well as, focus further upon representations of the self and perception of the individual as it can be read through different modes of representation.

Part II: Multimodal Representations in Katja Pratschke’s and Gusztáv Hámos’s Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads (2002)

Katja Pratschke and Gusztáv Hámos’s 2002 film Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads takes

Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe into a more recent time and works with the concept of the switched heads from a medical perspective. Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads also uses the

Indian myth of the switched heads and adapts the tale to the global north. To accomplish this

Pratschke uses the characters Jan, Jon and Marie in place of Schridaman, Nanda and Sita. She then places the events in Germany. Pratschke tells the story through a film that uses elements of photomontage, mixed with moving images and narrated through voice-over. Each of these modes of representation emphasize portions of the story that underline areas that present key questions associated with identity and transplantation. The film, like the Mann novella, reflects similar questions of how personal identity and what constructs personal identity affect the individual in conjunction with identity connected to transplantation. In Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads, the questions of identity and the body/mind extend beyond philosophical theory and take on scientific connotations that connect with identity formation in the transplanted body.

The plot of Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads follows Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten

Köpfe and brings the events into a different period. Jan and Jon love and are loved by the same Rehkamp 37 woman. From the beginning of the story, the film presents the two as best friends who complement each other’s capabilities. When Jan sees Marie, he becomes physically ill and Jon identifies the cause, love. Jon then facilitates the solution to Jan’s problem by introducing him to

Marie. The first conflict of the story emerges when Marie, while satisfied with Jan’s brain, desires the physicality of Jon, driving a wedge between herself and Jan while Jon begins to love

Marie. Upon a trip to Marie’s parents, the group experiences a near fatal collision with a train.

Both men lose their heads and Marie confuses the two men causing the attachment of the heads to the wrong bodies. This choice leads to confusion of the parentage of her child, however, in the end Jan’s head on Jon’s body (Jan-on-Jon) is determined as the father. The decision drives Jon’s head on Jan’s body (Jon-on-Jan) away. At first, Marie and Jan are pleased, but over time, both men experience a merging of features that affect both head and body. The action creates two hybrid individuals. The film concludes with Marie running to Jon-on-Jan while Jan-on-Jon follows. The fate of the characters is resolved when they leave the child with Marie’s parents and the three commit suicide by train, which mimics the events that had brought about the original confusion.

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads is represented in different forms: as a photobook, as a film and as an exhibition. Each representation communicates the story in a different way and allows the viewer to interact with the subject in a different manner. The differences in communication stem from a variety of factors connected with the form that the work takes. If the story is a photobook then elements of motion and sound are lost; however, the viewer is encouraged to focus more upon the images in the story. As explored later in the chapter, this leads to different implications communicated by the images and tells the story through a different focus. It also gives the viewer/reader increased control over the speed and way in which the Rehkamp 38 images are seen. This changes if one views the story as a film. In a film, the modes of representation broaden and allow the producer (Pratschke) to work with different elements such as sound and movement. The story relies upon not only order of the images and what is seen, but also what one hears in the film. Finally, the work was exhibited in 2001. The Ludwig Muzeúm in

Budapest presented the work as an installation, where it featured the photos from the film/Fotoroman, surgical implements and filmed interviews with an expert discussing the Mann text Die Vertauschten Köpfe and neurosurgeon (Ludwig Muzeúm).25 In an exhibition such as this the viewer enters and engages with the work on a different level. However, the viewer also has the freedom to walk away leading to a potentially fragmented experience. If the viewer may walk away at any time or move however they want, this could cause a distortion of the creators’ intent.

The incorporation of other elements into this installation also puts further emphasis upon the medical side of the work. Due to the multiple forms of the work, it undergoes its own transplantation and translation as it moves across mediums.

Pratschke and Hámos’ film not only exists in multiple formats, but also works through three different modes of representation within the film itself. The film first works through the images present within the film. The images, when in isolation from sound, tell one story.

Without auditory input, the story becomes not so much one concerned with transplantation and the interaction of the three figures. Instead, it becomes a story of reproduction and propagation of the self into future generations. The emphasis on reproduction and propagation of self is seen in the photos and through instances of medical imaging and motion. The second mode is sound. If one hears the story without graphic context then the focus is upon the

25 The neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White discussed not only the science of the text but also an experiment conducted on monkeys in the 80’s where the procedure of head transplantation was attempted. The experiments had limited success and even after improved immunosuppressive treatments, the subjects only survived between 6 - 36 hours (Lamba et al 2242). Rehkamp 39 transplantation/transposition of heads. The final mode that the film operates through is a combination of modalities in which sound and visual images coordinate and share in the telling of the story. In this mode, the two components, sound and image, work in tandem to convey a story that focuses on the story of a family, family history and the overall effect of events upon the identity of the individual. Though these modes of representation communicate different stories within the greater story, they still address aspects of identity, formation of self and perception of the individual by others.

2.1: Reading the Film through Image

The first mode of representation is the use of image, and the way in which the photos, movement and medical imaging work together throughout the film. Medical science and representation of science through image connect throughout the history of medicine.26 Lisa

Cartwright connects science and image to film/cinema in her book, Screening the Body, where she proposes:

(...) That the cinematic apparatus can be considered as a cultural technology for

the discipline and management of the human body, and the long history of bodily

analysis and surveillance in medicine and science is critically tied to the history of

the development of cinema as a popular cultural institution and a technological

apparatus. (Cartwright 3)

Cartwright traces this claim back to physiological motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge and

Étienne Marey in the mid to late 1800’s (Cartwright 3). In these studies, the men used

26 Throughout history, medical knowledge has been disseminated through images. Illustrations of procedures, vivisection, dissection and others served and still serve to influence and educate practitioners and learners of medicine. Medical texts and their use of medical images in connection to the human body took off with the development of the photograph and the x-ray ‒ one can find examples of these early forms of imaging in medical journals and archival works. Rehkamp 40 photography to capture movement. Cartwright’s observations on the connections between cinematography and the scientific representation of the body connects well with

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. In the film, the creators, Pratschke and Hámos, use medical images to present the human body. The use of these medical illustrations and images play a key role in Pratschke’s Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. They help to define the way in which the images work with one another as a hybrid of photography and medical imaging.

Not only does the film construe Jan and Jon as potential hybrids, but the work is also an example of hybridity and transposition in and of itself. Hybridity is most often associated with science and cultural studies, but occurs in the film as well. This is in part due to the three foci that communicate the plot within the film. The story portrayed by the images has one focus, the auditory another and by combining the two there is a different mixed story being portrayed.27

This is important for the understanding of Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads because of the way in which the modes of representation interact and work with one another, as well as the fact that the film’s audience has viewed the project through multiple forms of representation

(book/film/exhibition). The different modalities within the film are important to understanding the work due to the mix of images within the film. In the film, Pratschke uses a combination of photography and medical images to communicate the story. The attempt to define images in connection with medicine and medical imaging challenges the individual’s perception of him-

/herself and how he or she relates to the internal body; furthermore, medical imaging attempts to make the inside body “knowable” (Kuppers 33). The use of biomedical images in art may help

27 “In the pre-modern period artists tended to incorporate these influences into a singular model and develop a unifying perspective. Since the period of early modernism, artists have thematized the processes of juxtaposition, collage, montage, bricolage and displacement (Papastergiadis 40)”. As seen in the quote from Papastergiadis, hybridization in the media tends to result in what many theorists would consider as multimodal or works that incorporate multiple modalities. This quote applies to art; however, film has also followed the trend of using multiple modalities. Rehkamp 41 with representing and knowing the internal body. The presence of the body as a medical image in film might work in a similar manner in trying to construct a relationship with identity. By including the medical images, the film not only brings the body into the film, but also makes its role in understanding identity construction visible.

The use of medical imaging techniques adds complexity to any work, but also brings in new concerns, “... a new technology, theoretical perspective, or scientific initiative may make material phenomena visible in ways that are exciting, useful, or more humane. Yet visibility is not transparency... visibility itself is a claim that must be carefully examined” (Treichler et al. 3).

The assertion that visibility is not transparent hits on the confusion present within the film. This visibility must be examined because when the viewer interprets an image the viewer uses their own experiences and memory to give meaning to the image (Treichler et al. 3). Though the medical images add to the story, the images often contradict the given story. For example, the moving medical images show a story of reproduction, whereas the narrator, who is the child of the relationship between Jan and Marie, tells a story of transplantation.

The moving film shows medical images featuring reproduction. Through Pratschke’s framing of the story, the best quality and centered images tend not to appear when the photos are of the individuals, rather, when the scientific images come to the forefront: the severed heads and the moving images of the dividing cells and DNA models. The film opens with the figures of an egg and sperm. As the credits progress, the egg moves across the screen in a movement reminiscent of stop motion technique. The egg and sperm create the potential for the formation of life and set up the overarching theme of reproduction present when reading the film through what one sees. The egg and sperm precede a blue tinted medical image, wherein the viewer sees the slight movements and changes undergone by cells in the zygote after initial fertilization. The Rehkamp 42 film then cuts to an internal view of the womb where a fetus moves, suspended in amniotic fluid.

The first image seen of the fetus is its hand blocking the camera – perhaps implying that the use of the medical image might be intrusive. The image is dark; darkness surrounds the child and the child is illuminated as if from within. This highlights the importance of the child within the image and in the formation of the story. It is understood that the child exists within something; however, that something is a murky concept that is almost unidentifiable. As the scene fades into a new image, the viewer sees the mother sitting in a hospital room having just given birth.

The images then remain as still photographs for a period until the scene shifts to the next instance of movement/color.

The second instance of movement occurs at minute 3:15. Here the image turns bright blue and there is an instance where the image underscores the text while the narrator speaks of the tests undergone by Jan to measure his brain activity. At minute 4:00, the boys, Jan and Jon, solidify the level of their friendship through the exchanging of blood. An instance of transposition occurs and the scene cuts to shots of blood flowing through vessels and the body.

The white platelets flow into a sea of red and mix together to become indistinguishable from the mass surrounding them. When paired with the prior still image and the dialogue, this scene focuses on the exchange of blood and the formation of relationships. However, when read alongside the other moving images, it can also be read in the story of the development of the child prior to birth and part of the exchange between mother and child.

The process of reproduction repeats at minute 9:46 and the viewer now observes the process of fertilization. At the beginning of the film, the viewer sees the ovum surrounded by the sperm. In the sequence at minute 9:46, the color shifts to blue and the audience watches the sperm and ovum combine to create the fertilized zygote, emphasizing the completion of the Rehkamp 43 action as if the viewer is watching a documentary. This impression is made through the appearance of a white circle marking the sperm on the ovum denoting the instance of fertilization. The film then returns to the division of cells as the child begins to form – mirroring the process at the beginning of the film. The film repeats itself again when at minute 16:00 the sequence of the growing fetus appears. Like before, the child is the sole source of light and color surrounded by the impenetrable darkness of the mother’s womb. Through the mirroring of images, alongside the births of both Jan and the narrator, the reproduction and transgenerational nature of the tale comes back into play. The audience might infer through this mirroring that since the first child is Jan, the second is the son. This already shows the passage of time and flow of the story. When reading the story through the moving images, identity and reproduction become the center of interpretation as shown in the creation of a child. The film repeats this understanding at minute 18:00 when the screen features a bright red X-chromosome connecting the process of reproduction again back to the transference of genetic information.

The family narrative and transference could also be supported through the photographs present in the film. The photos are predominately black/white and underscore the main narrative.

Oftentimes these images are unfocused or grainy, in some of the photos the figures seem to be out of center. One interpretation of this could be an attempt to date the work to a certain period and use the idea of dating to increase the reader's perception of the film as telling a story of a memory. This could be an attempt to create the photographs in the film in reference to the perception of the film’s narrator, who is not a child but the child of the relationship between

Marie and Jan before Jan became Jan-on-Jon/Jon-on-Jan, Rehkamp 44

(…)the technique of the photo film can be understood as formally corresponding

with a story that does not lead the child’s search for ancestry to a harmonic

conclusion (…)(Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-Memory/ Memory of the Body” 64)

The above quote from Krüger-Fürhoff supports the idea not only that the story can be understood as a child’s search for a family history, but also that this search happens mostly through the still images of the film. They work beyond the level of family as well and address the specific figures within the film.

The photographs further serve to differentiate between the two men by physically highlighting their individual traits,

Together they embody (from childhood on or even ab utero) almost clichéd

extremes of the poles of intellect versus the corporal – or even to use the

categories of the film – head versus body. (Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-

Memory/Memory of Body” 61)

The constellation of the two individuals as polar opposite through images appears throughout the film starting from childhood. Pratschke shows images of Jan at the piano and Jon at the dojo as small children. Through perception of self-identity as being imposed upon the individual from the outside, Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads also brings up questions of how the figures perceive their internal identity.

Even before the transposition of heads, Jan and Jon arguably functioned as two distinctive characters, with overly exaggerated traits. Jan is extremely intellectual, whereas Jon is extremely physical; however both balance the other and create a functional balance between themselves. Marie also notes this difference in personality and abilities in her desire for both men. Jan’s parents focused upon the intellectual development of their child, whereas Jon’s Rehkamp 45 parents focus more upon the physical. The upbringing of the children brings into play questions from psychology of nature vs. nurture – are these men the way they are because it is written in their genetic makeup or is it because of the way in which they are raised? Ideas of nature vs. nurture are underscored by the stationary images at the beginning of the film. At the beginning the viewer sees the childhood of the narrator’s fathers, one is shown attached to monitors, playing piano and generally a subject of his father’s desire to cultivate an extraordinarily intelligent child; the other flourishes physically under the attention lavished by his father on his diet and exercise. These comparisons continue photographically throughout their development.

Jon continues martial arts and works as a butcher, whereas Jan is a book reader attending the university. In creating the duality of the men’s personalities through images, Pratschke creates the same contrasting identities that are present in the two men in Mann’s text. This also creates space for the closeness of the relationship present between the men (Jan and Jon) and creates Jan and Jon’s codependency on one another.

Their codependency continues into adulthood, where they are shown dating together, with Jon finding the date, but Jan losing interest. Jon also introduces Marie to Jan. In her first appearance she is swimming, in the second she is, “at the Pergamon museum gazing at antique torsos and bodiless heads” (Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-Memory/Memory of Body 62), it is here where she first meets Jon. 28 It is also at the Pergamon Museum (Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads

7:51-7:53) that there is an instance of foreshadowing through the photograph of a statue resembling the Janus head. This figure is that of the two-faced Greek god who looks to the future and to the past. Though this has little to do with the topic at hand, it could also be interpreted as

Jan and Jon representing two parts of a whole identity, and when in a relationship with Marie,

28 This point mirrors the text from Mann and transplants the Indian text into not only a European context but into a more contemporary time. Rehkamp 46 they would be most appreciated as a combination of the two personalities rather than two separate individuals.

Images from Top Left to Bottom Right:

A: F/TH 8:32|B: F/TH 8:33|C F/TH 8:37 D: F/TH 8:4129

In the subsequent scene (Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads 8:28) there is an instance of doubling, wherein Marie enters the restaurant/bar and the viewer sees not only Marie, but her reflection in the mirror.30 As seen in photograph A, when Marie enters the bar she walks down the entranceway with a mirror running parallel, this causes her image to double as though she exists

29 F/TH is an abbreviation here for Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. 30 Irmela Marie Krüger-Fürhoff also references the mirror scene in her article “Body-Memory/Memory of the Body: On the Visual Politics of Transplantation Surgery in Contemporary Film: Face/Off, (USA 1997) and Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads, (Germany, 2002)”, as the dual image of Marie as the partner for both men (62). Rehkamp 47 as two people. 31 This implies that Marie would suit either of the men, as they are both present in the first meeting. The scenes in the restaurant/bar are shot at a variety of at different angles that display different possible constellations of the relationships. In photograph B, Marie is shown introducing herself to Jan, however if the viewer looks at the mirror behind the heads of the men, her reflection is introducing herself to Jon in the same moment. One could interpret this as both men having equal status at this moment within her affections and as her being equally attracted to both men. The potential for developing relationships between Jan and Marie/ Jon and Marie occurs in photographs C and D. In photograph C, Marie appears as a partner to Jan; however, at a different angle (photograph D) she appears to be having the same type of interaction with Jon.

This leads to the conclusion that the meeting could be either a date between the three of them or two separate dates occurring concurrently.

The constellations present within the first meeting of the three individuals imply that there is a potential for two relationships rather than just one developing. Krüger-Fürhoff explores the possibility of success in the above potential relationships and discusses the problematic nature of homosocial bonding as the reason for failure of these relationships. She does this by looking at Marie’s desire for the ideal in a lover and her confusion after the accident – which led to the transposition of heads – as what brings the destructive element into the relationship

(“Body-Memory/Memory of the Body” 63). The potential for failures partially realizes itself in the increased separation of the two close friends through the establishment of Jan’s relationship with Marie. In joining with Marie, Jan pulls away from his codependency with Jon. Furthermore, he is able to create a child with Marie, which allows him to reproduce his own characteristics.

31 This is not the only instance of doubling that Krüger-Fürhoff identifies. She also cites a later instance when both men are in the hospital bed following the surgery where the viewer first sees the head of Jan on both bodies then a second later the head of Jon adding yet more confusion to the transposition (Krüger-Fürhoff “Body- Memory/Memory of the Body” 62). Rehkamp 48

This reproduction connects back to the purpose of the medical images within the film. The images relate a story of family and reproduction of the family, but when one analyzes the images with the other elements in the work, one could read it differently.

2.2 Reading the Film as an Auditory Work:

One mode that the film acts on is the mode of the image. The second mode, through which one can read the film, is the film’s soundtrack. The grown child of the union of Marie and

Jan narrates the story. Though the images used work more with the development of relationships and how reproduction of identity occur within the film, the narrated version of events tell the story of transposition within the film. If listening to the narration, without the influence of the images, the prevailing tale centers on the transposition undergone by the characters.

On the level of sound, there is as Krüger-Fürhoff states, “... a pronounced power of suggestion in the soundtrack that features a ‘bodily’ pulsing or bubbling noise” (“Body-

Memory/Memory of the Body” 64). She goes on to discuss how the soundtrack influences the film not as “authentication of the transplantation” (Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-Memory/Memory of the Body” 64), but rather as a way to engage with the procedures of transplantation and an opportunity to look at the potential fallout this medical procedure. The way in which the background noise works within the narration underscores the medical elements of the film in such a way as to give the impression that the medical procedure supports the plot of the film. The occurrence of the bodily thumping opens the film, where it sounds like a fetal heartbeat, the music gently swells and the narrator begins to speak, “Meine Geschichte beginnt hier. Es ist die

Geschichte meiner beiden Väter” (1:00-1:06). The fetal heartbeat brings new meaning to the opening sentence, it gives the understanding that the story is not just beginning at an event, rather at the beginning of potential life at the moment of conception. The author uses the word die Rehkamp 49

Geschichte here. This is interesting, because there are other words he could have chosen, however, he chose die Geschichte a word that means both history and story. This implies that the narrator is not sharing merely a story; rather the personal history of the narrator and his two fathers.

As Jan and Jon grow up, the narrator differentiates them and their abilities through discussion of their capabilities. The narrator discusses the differences in how the boys were raised, as if relaying a psychological inquiry. He then branches into the effects that this has on the individual proclivities of the children as they grow and develop two disparate personalities that support one another. At minute 3:38, the narrator directly connects for the first time the film with Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe, “Dort wo Jan ist, ist auch Jon und umgekehrt” (3:38). He describes the children as being inseparable and life without one another as being unimaginable. It is in these lines that a direct connection to the conversation between Nanda and Schridaman in

Die Vertauschten Köpfe forms. Like Jan and Jon, the two characters from Mann’s text also found separation unimaginable. It is through the form of a blood bond that the first instance of bodily exchange occurs. The narrator describes Jan as thinking of his little red blood cells traveling through his friend’s body. Though transfusion is not a form of transplantation, this instance forms the precedent for later events in the film: the transplantation.

It is after the surgery to reattach both heads that terms associated with transplantation emerge. At minute 15:05, the narrator describes the surgeons’ observations of strong signs of rejection between the heads and the bodies and in the next sentence he uses the term, der

Eindringling; this term in English translates to intruder. Moreover, the French term L’intrus was used by Nancy in his text on how transplantation medicine affects individual identity. In his text, he discusses the transplanted part as a foreign element within the body. The film mirrors this idea Rehkamp 50 and the viewer can see that the body is an intruder that the heads try to reject, bringing further concepts of rejection and transplantation into the film. The narrator then explains that the situation is puzzling, because normally one sees rejection through allografting not autografting.

After the attachment of heads, the son as the narrator states the question “Wer bist du denn? Jon oder Jan?” (Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads 17:36). To answer this question

Pratschke introduces three branches of science, each of which place different values on the different parts of the body using paternity as a filter for questions of identity. Paternity in this instance functions as a form of identification, because it brings into question concepts of identity and how the individual controls their actions. Does the body control reproductive facilities or the brain, or could it be a combination of both? When asked the question of paternity the surgeon places emphasis upon the head. It is in the head where the decision to procreate is made because the brain controls the body. It is also here that the pituitary gland and thalamus reside, these glands are essential to reproductive function as they create and relegate the hormones essential for sexual intercourse. Based on this reasoning, the surgeon decides that Jan-on-Jon is the parent of the child. The second individual, the geneticist, names Jon-on-Jan as the father because the head only makes up a small portion of the body and the sperm comes from the body. Pratschke introduces the final branch of science through the psychologist, who names both men as the fathers – a decision that the narrator seemingly agrees when he says, “...die Geschichte von meinen zwei Vätern.” However, in the end it is not science that decides the father but chance.

The trio flips a coin to decide paternity and the coin decides that Jan-on-Jon is the father. When chance is the deciding factor it shows that, the individual cannot isolate what factors make up their personal self-identification. It further implies that though the heads may be transplanted in the reality presented by the film, contemporary theoretical and philosophical thought did not Rehkamp 51 address this reality. Through this gap, the film gains the ability to ask key questions about identity as though the procedure was physically possible.

The narration further explores these questions of identity and identity formation when the viewer learns of quasi-hybridization undergone by both men after the period following the transposition. Like in Die Vertauschten Köpfe both Jan and Jon undergo mild transformation after the transposition. The bodies of both men revert to their original states due to lifestyle choices. However, again like Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe, the faces and behaviors of both individuals change to better fit the body. According to Marie, transmitted by the narrator, she noticed the face of Jan-on-Jon taking on elements of Jon’s face and she observes some of his behaviors changing due to his new body. Towards the end of the film, other instances of outside recognition emerge. When the narrator meets Jon-on-Jan for the first time he describe himself as to have been found screaming, but when picked up by Jon-on-Jan he states, “Ich lasse es zu, als ob ich ihn kenne” (22:48). In this phrasing, the narrator states that he let him (Jon-on-Jan) hold him as if it he knew him. Using the conditional the author implies that he acted as though he knew the figure, it could therefore be read that even though the body was familiar the head was not.

It is through the verbal telling that the viewer receives the clearest idea of the story as a story focused on transplantation and the impact that transplantation has on identity. By combining the two modes of representation, one is able to combine elements of family, self and the formation of identity in the film.

2.3: Reading the Film as a Multimodal Object

Aspects of identity and conception of self are addressed through the mixing of photographic image, sound and medical imaging technology. Through the working of the Rehkamp 52 different modalities upon one another, the film, like other films, is a work reliant upon multimodal representation. Further meaning is added through the film’s narration by the son of the protagonists, his narration tells a story that runs parallel to the images and both adds meaning to and contradicts the story presented by these images. 32 By interpreting the film as a multimodal representation, the viewer is able to concentrate upon the family and transgenerational themes present within the film.33 “Die Transplantation eines Kopfes wird nicht nur zum Stolperstein für die Zeitgenossen, sondern zum transgenerationalen Problem (Krüger-Fürhoff “Body-

Memory/Memory of the Body” 251)” The combined elements of the work address not so much the scientific elements of the story – i.e. reproduction and transplantation – but instead focus more on the story as a family history and on the understanding of identity.

Sound and image work together from the beginning of the film, where only sound input heard is similar that of the opening and closing ventricles of a beating heart. The sound combined with the magnified image of the sperm and the egg prompts the reader to associate the input with an ultrasound. Through this Pratschke starts to signify and build context around the central questions of the story: identity and its communication. She also uses the images to set up what the importance of science in the story is and how medicine and technology interact with the human body. The science, sound and image collide again at minute 15:10 following the decapitation and reformation of the men. Here the image of blood flowing through the body reappears. The yellow cells pulse with life and mirror the initial transference of blood that cemented the relationship of the Jan and Jon as children. It takes on additional meaning as it implies that the transference of more than blood has occurred between the protagonists. The

32 Here I refer to Jan, Jon and Marie. I will discuss the complexity of parentage later in my analysis and my reasoning for my interpretation; however, I will not be making that distinction at this point in time in my argument. 33 Through the use of the term reading in this section I refer not to the physical concept of reading but to the analytical concept, wherein, I not only view the film but work with it to extract further meaning from the film. Rehkamp 53 voice over provided by the narrator gives context to the surgical scene and tells the reader that what has occurred is the transposition of heads. It further elaborates that due to the transposition one of the protagonists, Jan, now suffers from rejection stemming from the implantation of the foreign part. Without the voiceover, the viewer would be unable to understand that what had occurred was a transposition rather than re-attaching of the heads to the same bodies. Moreover, without the images a great deal of foreshadowing and depth would be lost in the narrative. It is through the cooperation of these different modalities that the story is so capable of addressing the issues of identity brought to light by the film.

The layered modalities of the story allow it to address multiple areas of identity as experience by Jan and Jon. In her chapter “The Nature of People” Amy Kind explores what traits endow people with personhood. In doing this, she not only explores legal and social definitions, but also expands into the metaphysical level and branches into the level of self-awareness and self-reflection necessary to build personhood. The factors that play into the formation of personhood also influence the identity formation undergone by the individual. She goes on to discuss the importance that memory plays in the formation and continuation of identity (Kind

2F). Later in the same chapter, Kind discusses transplantation in two different examples. In the first, she constructs the example of Brian and Bodie who both are irreparably injured in an accident, one of the body, the other the brain (Kind 2h). The latter example focuses on the 2012 film Avatar, in this example Kind relies upon the transfer of consciousness.

Though both examples are not exactly the same as those of the transplantation/switching that occur in Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads, similar questions of identity and the role that both the self and the body play in the creation of a self-image and an outward identity are explored. In

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads Jan and Jon experience their own transposition of identity. Rehkamp 54

When the heads were switched, the bodies eventually took on characteristics of the figures’ original bodies due to the habits of the men; likewise, the men’s faces took on the characteristics of the body upon which it was transposed. Jan’s face became coarser like Jon’s and Jon’s face took on some of the characteristics of Jan’s. Not only do the physical features change, but also the mode of dress changes, “The film images show ‘Jan’ dressing increasingly like his sporty, more casual friend (…) ‘Jon’, however, begins to prefer more formal clothing (…)” (Krüger-

Fürhoff “Body-Memory/Memory of Body” 62). Due to the meshing of features the figures are seen as undergoing a process of hybridization, this necessitates the reconfiguration of identity.

Both Jan and Jon must reform the associations that they have in connection to their bodies.

Through the switching of heads the two have partially switched identities. This leads to a potential but ultimately unsuccessful meshing of personalities through the mixing of bodies.

Jacques Lacan echoes the importance of the outward self in the formation of identity in his lecture on the mirror stage, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function”. Lacan discusses the child’s ability to see him-/herself in a mirror. The self-recognition performed by the child indicates a critical step in the child’s mental development, the child becomes cognizant of its own physical self and their self represents the identity that they possess. If as stated by Kind, self-awareness and self-reflection are prerequisites of personhood, the role of the self in the creation of personal identity gains greater importance. The individual relies upon the outward appearance and societal recognition as discussed in Part I: Formulations of Identity in Thomas

Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe (1940) for the creation of identity. The face and the body are the key elements in how the individual is both seen and recognized by others. They form the building blocks for the perception of the individual by society and affect the relationships that are able to be built between the individual and others within society. This causes the physical Rehkamp 55 image and the individual’s definition of self to take on additional meaning in the development of the personality. Meaning, that through the way in which the individual expresses him-/herself, he/she is able to control the perception of themselves to a certain extent and the way in which others might interact with them.

The effect of the outward image upon the personality development of the individual can be seen in Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. At the beginning of the film both men possess bodies the match their individual interests and self-images. Mid-way through the film, due to mistakes made by both the physicians and Marie, the men switch bodies. From this event, their head/brain/consciousness no longer possesses a key element of what forms their personal identity. This causes changes first in the outward appearance of the men and afterwards in their behavior. Marie remarks that Jan begins to exhibit actions that before she had only seen in Jon.

Upon re-uniting with Jon the son (narrator) echoes her thoughts thereby mirroring the process of character overlay of Jan onto Jon. By use of the mirroring of physical behaviors, Pratschke introduces the idea that the body possesses its own memory, signifying an attempt of the body and mind of both Jan and Jon to hybridize following the surgery. This hybridization eventually fails as seen through the suicide of all three at the end of the film. Nonetheless, it introduces interesting questions in reference to the importance that the combined elements of body and face play in the performance and perception of identity.

In her book, Representations of Organ Transplantations, Sita Maria Frey frames one of the identity concerns as a question of mind-body dualism (Frey 47). The components of mind and body in connection to identity reflect the tension present from the transposition of heads and reflect upon key questions of how transplantation affects individual identity. The normative organ recipient/organ donor usually either has to grapple with the loss or addition of a new body Rehkamp 56 part with their whole body identity. However, what happens in a work such as

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads where both parties experience the transposition from both the donor and recipient perspectives. Since the men essentially trade bodies, they both experience a critical change in form. To understand what happens in such a startling shift it might be useful to look at another dramatic transplant procedure. In the article discussing the potential for facial allografts the author begins to argue that the face plays a key role in identity formation, due in part to the expressionality of the face, and that the body plays just as important of a roll

(Swindell 2).34

The body and internal thought play important roles in self-identification, the face plays a, perhaps more visible, role in the identification of someone by another. The distortion of the face/body in the film requires the men to rebuild their identity in relation to foreign parts that are initially unrecognizable. The presence of a different face also affects the reception of the individual. Though not explicitly stated in the film, the face controls the perception of the individual and even though the bodies make up the larger (physical) portion of the individual, society often relies on the face for identification.35 When the individual undergoes a confusion of identity, such as the one experienced Jon and Jan, it confuses his/her perception of self and his/her creation of self-identity. The confusion is addressed in the last scenes of the film where

34 In his article, “Facial Allograft Transplantation, Personal Identity and Subjectivity”, J.S. Swindell explores the psychological and personal identity issues that might occur due to facial allografts. In this Swindell states the difference of recipient experience being, “... because a facial allograft transplant is externally visible and implicates continuation of the deceased person in a way that internal organs do not. (Swindell 3).” He goes on to describes the rebuilding of the face as giving access to the ability to rebuild personal identity and a social identity through communication and access to expression (Swindell 4). 35 Krüger-Fürhoff explores the possibility of how the face works and how facial allografts could affect the perception of identity in her book Verpflanzungsgebiet, wherein she discusses the importance of the face in the Hollywood film Face/Off (1997). Krüger-Fürhoff argues: “Mit der Präsentation des Gesichts als austauschbare Maske, als im sozialen oder theatralen Sinne als persona, scheint Face/Off zu verdeutlichen, dass jede Identität zwar auf materielle Grundlagen angewiesen bleibt, aber nicht an einen spezifischer Körper verbunden ist” (239). Here Krüger-Fürhoff states that since the face is presented like a mask, the face possesses the ability to perform parts of identity when seen in conjunction with the body. Through this, the face holds importance because of how it communicates the identity of the individual to society. It also expresses how the individual understands him-/herself in relation to society. Rehkamp 57 the friends reunite and the narrator addresses the perception of the figures. Here he says, “Jon hält mich fest im Armen” (23:07). However, the picture shows the head of Jan as the one holding the baby. The confusion of names leads one to interpret that the son emphasizes the body here, so as to further incorporate how the individual might be perceived and to underline the failure to reform identity experienced by both men.

All three ways of viewing the text emphasize different views on the formation of identity and how it is affected by the process undergone by the protagonists within the film. Though in the film, the images center more on reproduction and family and the sound more on transplantation and hybridization, they both might be read together to better understand the processes undergone by the individual during and after a transplantation.

Part III: Texts as Reflections of their Time and Divergences:

Thomas Mann’s novella Die Vertauschten Köpfe provides a basis for Katja Pratschke and

Gusztáv Hámos’s 2002 multimodal work Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. The two works adapt an Indian legend and through it work with conceptualizations of self, perception of performance of self and the impact of transplantation of the self. In creating these works, Thomas Mann and

Katja Pratschke create space for the handling of the above concepts. This works first through their choice of mediums that affect how the story is communicated, the narrator and the positioning of different resolutions to the central identity problem caused by the transposition.

Even so, the different periods and cultures affect the interpretations and understanding of what effects the transplantation/transpositions have on Schridaman/Nanda and Jan/Jon’s sense of self.

One way in which the authors handle the stories in a similar manner is in the unfolding of events and in the story's eventual resolutions. Both stories center on three protagonists, two men Rehkamp 58 and a woman. The whole bodies of the two men are separated at the neck due to injury and result in the accidental rejoining of the wrong heads to the wrong body. This leads to confusion of the identity of the men and the question of the paternity of the child stands in for the identity confusion. The wise man (Mann) and chance (Pratschke) decide that paternity lies with the head rather than the body. The story then reaches its final resolution when two (Sita/Marie and

Schridaman/Jan) are unable to live without the third, but also unable to live with the third, they choose to die rather than exist as an incomplete unit. One way to interpret the ending of at least the film and through the film Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe is to look at an argument made by

Krüger-Fürhoff in Verpflanzungsgebiet. Krüger-Fürhoff discusses in her chapter on

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads that the tension between the men comes due to a potential nontraditional relationship that provides part of the reasoning for the eventual deaths of all three

(Verpflanzungsgebiet 255). She further argues that part of the ending can be attributed to a need to maintain a bourgeoisie nuclear family structure alongside the competition for the affections of

Marie (Verpflanzungsgebiet 255-256). By ending the film in this manner, Pratschke excludes the potential for a non-nuclear family construction where the child could have two fathers, as the narrator proposes at the beginning of the film, “Es ist die Geschichte meiner beiden Väter” (1:00-

1:06). If, considering Krüger-Fürhoff’s argument, the short film has been constrained by the formation of the nuclear family and the men are unable to reconcile their emotions for one another, then Krüger-Fürhoff’s view that the non-traditional relationship and dissolution of the nuclear family structure causes the breakdown of the figures. Thereby connecting her interpretation of the story with Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe. In both examples, the female

(Sita/Marie) does not see herself as entering a triad relationship with the male figures

(Schridaman/Jan and Nanda/Jon), this excludes a potential resolution to the situation. Though the Rehkamp 59 broad strokes of the story are similar, the construction of the story, the story’s focus and the narrator differs depending upon the author.

In Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe, the child has a less notable role. Though the child serves as a catalyst for the later decisions and events in the novella, he exists as just another character who promotes the flow of the story. The position of the child in relation to the plot changes in Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads. In the film, the child is the fully-grown narrator and he tells the story. This changes the overall feel of the story. Through the involvement of the child as narrator, Krüger-Fürhoff argues that the problem head transplantation does not end with the death of the trio, rather a problem becomes transgenerational (Krüger-Fürhoff

Verpflanzungsgebiet 251). The child though nameless takes on the power of the narrator and through this takes ownership of his own history. The change narration places emphasis on the identity as it is passed on and re-adapted by the next generation and the questions that arise from a confused personal history.

The differences between the two works affect the foci that are communicated through them. Due to the narrator, structure, composition and choices made by the authors, the works draw attention to different ideas expressed by the works. In Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe, more attention is paid to the societal impact of the transposition, or lack thereof. Whereas, the

Pratschke/Hamos film pays more attention to the medical problems and rejection than the novel.

Here the social implications of the transposition take a step back and allow the medical and identity concerns to come forward. This is seen through the lack of attention paid to the outward perception of the men. In the Mann text, the plot discusses how the village receives Schridaman when he returns to his village, showing that the community helps to decide identity. In the film the science and the perception of self overcomes the importance of society’s perception of Jan Rehkamp 60 and Jon. Little is said in reference to the outside perception of the individual. This could also be due the medial difference between the two works, Thomas Mann’s Die Vertauschten Köpfe represents a textual interpretation of the story; consequently, the form of novella serves as a method to more deeply explore the characterizations, motivations and experiences of the figures and the passage of events. The length of the work allows Mann to go in depth characterizing each character. In this work, Mann writes the background of each character and assigns names to the figures, this leads to more interactions and instances where the mind and body differ from and work with one another.

The most critical divergences between the two stories stems not from form, but from the differences and the ways in which the works look at formulations of identity. Both texts can be read through transplantation and identity theory; however, they focus on different types of identity building. In Die Vertauschten Köpfe, it makes sense to use theory and philosophy more closely related to the Cartesian philosophy of dualism and the ideas of mind/body, which connect well with the more contemporary ideas proposed by Jean-Luc Nancy in his work “L'intrus/ The

Intruder”. Pratschke takes a different approach to their telling of the story. In her version, through use of image and sound, she works more directly with medical imaging and these images the areas of reproductive and transplantation are more apparent. Do to this shift in focus,

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads can be read through more scientific/medical interpretations of identity such as psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s thoughts on the mirror stage and pragmatic texts about the implications of facial allografts. Even so, concepts of identity flow between the two works and allow the works to be read in relation to one another through the way in which they address identity. Furthermore, conceptions of identity, particularly the impact of mind versus body on identity, are strongly represented in the plot of both works. The impact of the different Rehkamp 61 discourses surrounding identity connect to the resolution/potential resolution of questions of conceptions and representations of identity present in both works.

In the Mann text, two possible choices are given as potential resolutions to the hybridized form. One resolution posed is body centered and is favored by the more physical of the two

Nanda, because as he stated in the story, “Mir ist mein Leib die Hauptsache (…)” (Mann 148).

The second potential resolution favors the head (mind). This resolution forms because the mind controls the body and is favored by Schridaman. Furthermore, it is the eventual solution provided by the wise man as a figure of authority, who states, “So ist das Haupt das höchste aller Glieder”

(Mann 176). In a close reading of the Mann text with these potential interpretations in mind the figures, Schridaman and Nanda, can be viewed as representing different aspects of the mind and body. Through thid interpretations of the wise man represent the confusion that occurs when the parts are switched. Jean-Luc Nancy in his essay L’Intrus looks at the impact of implantation of a foreign element, which connects the major switch experienced by Nanda and Schridaman.

Because the switch confuses what the original part actually is (head/body), it adds further difficulty to the process of reconciliation. In the end, the failure to rebuild identity and reconnect the mind (head) with the body results in the destruction of all three protagonists

(Schridaman/Nanda/Sita).

Fremdkörper/Transposed Heads incorporates the head/body question and the impact of hybridization on identity through the concept of dualism into the overall plot as well. However, the connection with science and medicine is more obvious in the Pratschke and Hámos film. In the film, Pratschke works with medical images and photographs that feature both banal scenes of daily life and images connected to science. These images, though they go more in the direction of reproduction, also point to constellations of identity (personal perceptions/outside perceptions) Rehkamp 62 in relation the hybridized identity. Both works deal with constellations of identity, however,

Pratschke and Hamós work with different potential resolutions of identity post-hybridization.

The film also proposes a possible dualistic view of identity through the interpretation of paternity by the surgeon (head) and the geneticist (body), however through the introduction of the psychologist the dichotomy of mind (head)/body is broken. The psychologist provides an alternative solution to the crisis of identity experienced by the men. He proposes that both men are the father of the child. This alternative solution is based on the idea that the perception of self and formation of identity does not come solely from the head nor from the body, but is created through a combination of the two.

Ideas of hybridization and intrusion of a foreign part in conceptions of identity are taken to an extreme level in both works through the exchange of heads/bodies. It is due to this extreme that the works can be used to explore how identity affects and is affected by the transplantation of a part that does not stem from the self and is therefore an intruder in the body. Through this both works create, explore and finally destroy the potential for hybridization. If analyzing these works through the lens of transplantation medicine, then the works demonstrate that individual’s identity faces after the imposition of extreme transplantation – i.e. the transposition of major body parts –a variety of challenges, not in the least the acceptance of the foreign element and its incorporation into the individuals sense of self.

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