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Ideology and Literature Ii ature: AS of ociet and Id,eoI and ref erence to the I er criticism with al ts. Í on of einrich II l_ rhe I97O Thesis presented bY Erika Martens for t.he degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Adelaide. Erika Martens B.A. Hons, (Adelaide, L977 I Adel-aide, JulY, 19BB SYNOPSIS: IdeoIo and ].iterature A stud. of societ and s reference to the I terar c riticism with cia]. ts. rec on of He nrictr Bö]-I durr the 1970 This thesis is an attempt to analyse the role the practice of titerary criticism plays in the political processes. After an analysis of the social histolry of German literary criticism from the Enlightenment to the 197OtS, I anafyse the reception of three major works by Heinrich BölI publ-ished during the l-970ts. In my analysis I pay particul-ar attention to the manner in which titerary criticism, both aS media-based and as acad'emy- based practice, functions po}itically. From the reception analysis I have distil-Ied certain typical forms of criticism which I describe as being characterized by sub jectivity hidd.en under a l-ayer of mectra¡risms giving the impression of objectivity. This subjectivity enabl-es the institutions in which criticism functions (i.e' the media and. academy-based literary criticism) an unproblematic access to continuity of concepts and practices. It aISo aIlows for a continuing monopoly on the definition of these concepts and practices by the way the institutions select and approach the texts' The evidence indicateS that the practi-ce of literary criticism in ne\^/SpaperS and academic journals selects certain texts and approaches to texts and disempowers others. This is achieved simultaneously by: fÍrst, the monopol-y on the def ining of the category t l-iterature t which l-iterary criticism is able to maintain, second, bY the processes of reproduction of the institution titerary criticism and third, bY Lhe tsignifyingt effects of the selection of texts and approaches to texts. AII this treJ-ps to prove that literary criticism is ideological in nature. This ideol-ogical nature of literary criticism aS practiced in the FRG d.uring the 1970ts on Heinrich BölIts novels is finally demonstrated more firmly in my concluding chapters. Here, I reiterate t'he positions which the novels are al-Iocated by the critj-cat reception (i.e. the criticat classifications they receive) and aSSeSs these in terms of the meanings they tend' to mobi Lize and the significance these meanings have to the prevaiJ_ing potitical power structure. The need for the institution to reproduce itself dr j-ves it to assign values to these J-iterary works which strip them of their capacity for , and. purpose to, change social values and poliLicaI structures. My conctusion, tflerefore, iS that the reception of BötI'S v¡ork during the 1970'S can be described as being constraj-ned' by the ideological nature of the reception. The evidence l-eads to the conclusion that the practice of Iiterary criticism mobilizes rmeanings t v¡hich aid the continued as]ryrmetrical di-stribution of Power. IDEOLOGY AND LITERÀTURE: BOLL DURI NG THE I97O'S. I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: ApprOaCh and definitions of terms CHAPTER TI¡ùO: Historical- and political background- 3S II. A. SOCIETY AND LITERÄRY CRITICISM sì CHAPTER THREE: AnaLysis of the history and social base of literary criticism in the FRG II.B. RECEPTION ANALYSIS CHAPTER FOUR: Gruppenbild mit Dame t2L CHAPTER FIVE: Die verLorenen Ehre der Katharina llo Blum 2 t.+ CHAPTER SIX: Fürsotgliche Belagerung III. TDEOLOGY AT\ID CRITICISM 2.55- CHAPTER SEVEN: Characteristic forms of criticism CHAPTER EIGHT: Society, ideology and Iiterary L10 criticism S,b lio3rqfll45 21s PREFACE NotlravinglivedintheFRGsincelgT0,Itravebeen abletoacquireadifferentperspectiveonculturaland politicaldevelopmentsth'ere'Asaforeigner'Inoticed mycontradictoryfeelingsaboutGermanybeingmirroredby an equival-ent reaction of my surroundings to my nationali-ty. During my studies, I often tried to search which I and my f or ans\^Iers to the many questions generationhaveabouttherecenthistoryofGermany.The answers which l^Iere avai lable f rom political evaluations economics of suchr as studies of the poritics, history or which Germany \^/ere never suf f icient, nor l¡/ere those concentrated on the cultural aspects' Whenever the opportunity presented itself to devote my time to academicwork,Ichoseprojectswhichcombinedtv¡o disciplines and inquired into the connections between the cultural and politicaL fields of experience' Heinrich BöI1, irl my view' had expressed the reluctanceofpartsoftheGermanpopuJ.ationtoaccept the sil-ence under which the volatile questions of responsibilityandguilthadbeenburiedafterthel¡Iar. Hisquietinsistence,thatforgettingl¡/asimpossibteand thatGermanyhadsquanderedthechancetoconstructa dif ferent political and social system after the I¡Iar, correspond.ed to my oYhln wishes f or a neI¡I and open assessment of the German past witfr a view to social change. ûrlhen I found that Böll-ts reception in Germany had been contradictory, I became very interested to find out \^rhy this ü/aS so. This interest l-ed me not only to Study reception patterns but also the connections between the areas of literary criticism and other fietds more often accommodated in the disciptines of politics. I found that the whole gamut of politicaJ- positions active in the FRG during the I970tS were represented in the reactions to Böl-1tS nOveIS. HOwever, this \^IaS nOt a demoCratiC Or open communication, wttere aII points of view had equal weight. The complete dominance, in terms of numbers and Status, of those positions which dismissed and marginalized the Social relevance of BöIIts novels raised questions about the structural, political- a¡rd social reasons for this imbalance. My project therefore became an analysis of the relationship between id.eology and Iiterature, po\^Ier and Iiterary criticism I INTRODUCTION +l"e- ' This is an investigation into process of crr'ticar reception of three novels of Heinrich BöIl , GruppenbiLd mit Dame, Die verforene Ehre d.er Katharina Blun and Fürsorg].icheBelagerunginthe].970's.Thisisnota studyofHeinrj-chBö]-Iassuc}randcouldhavebeen written about any contemporary author' It makes no assumptions about the quality of Heinrich Bö1Ì's work and isneutra]-aboutthequalityofliteraryevaluation.I chose Heinrich BöI1 because his work effectively opens up afieldofenquiryintotherelationshipsofcriticism a¡rdsociety.Hisworknotonlycontainsmultifaceted references to political and historical events of high contemporary relevance, but it also challenges the preconceptions of criticism. often the boundaries between acceptedgenresandconventionsofstyte-andlanguage_ use are challenged. Sincetheinceptionofapubticdebateabout Iiterature in the IBth century up to the debates during the early nineteen seventies, the rel-ationship between literature and potitics has been , explì-c itf y or impJ-icitfy, part of the f ormulation of the concept titerature and its role in society. The argument which bases the concept t l-iterature t on some exclusively non- political premis has, in theory, been ousted during the early seventies. The manner in which Iiterary criticism 2 continuestofunctioninstitutionallySuggests,houlever, thatthisrelationshiphasnotbeeninternalized.The discoursehasnotchangeditspoliticalimplicationand significations.Thisthesisisanattemptatpointing their social to\^rards these political implications and' consequences. Thisthesisattemptstoestablishthatliterary helps to criticism is id'eological , in the sense that it mobiLízemeaningsandconceptswhichsupportthe which dominance of those assumptions and expectations r maintain and, rene\^¡ an aslTnmetricar power structure ' the will describe this process by an anaJ-ysis of to reception of three novels by Heinrich BöI1' I intend establishthepoliticalandstructuralsituationinwhich thereceptiontakesplaceaSlinstitutional'.ASsuchit Selectsandpromotescertainpracticeswhichreproduce the institution. The potential for a debate about necessarysocialclrangewhichthenovelsbyBöIlcontain by parts and which is recognized and sometimes emphrasized of the reception' is weakened by certain methods and in the approaches which .t1 cflaracteristic and' dominant reception. This dominance of a crraracteristic approach andmethodistraditionalandcanbetracedbac]<though thesocialhistoryofliterarycriticism.Therelevant characteristictraitsofliterarycriticismcouldbe called'thephilosophyofcriticism.Theanalysisofthe sociar history of criticism unveils the phirosophicat and sociar roots of the practice in the attempts of ruring 3 intell-ectual, el-ites to maintain i-ntellectual dominance and.superiorityas\^rellaSsocialisotationfromthe widermassofthepopulation.Apartfromtheaimsofsome oftheEnlightenmentcriticsand'thoseofthetheories of Benjamin and Brech.t, trrere rras not been a phirosophy of criticism which \^Ias disinterested in the maintenance of the separation between a small group and the much rarger norÐ(." witn the smarr rknowredgeabre ' group / rmeaninglt process def ining, f lxing and dominating ' Thi's of mobilizing meaning which tends to support the only maintenance of the social- status QUo ' is always partl-y successful at any one time' In the actual case of reception in the FRG during theIgTo's,onemustseethesocialupheavaland poJ-itical. power shifts as the background in rel-ation to which the reception o""u{"u. The poriticar processes on an internationar scale, the intended internar potiticat reforms of the sPD and the intense debate on internal securityforcedonthecountrybytheterrorístthreat
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