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46 Focus on L iteratur BookBook ReviewReviewss 47 Lit erattuurverzeichnis GUNTERGÜNTER KUNERUNER T. BaumBaum' . Stein'Stein' Beton. ReisenR eisen Anz, Thomas. Franz Kafka.Ka/ka. Munchen:München: Beck, 1989. zwischenzwischen Obeer-r- und UntUnterwelt.erwelt. Munich:Munich: H anser, 1994. Beicken)cken, Perer.Peter. Franz KaJka.Kafka. Leben und Werk. Stuttgart:Srurrgart: Klett,Klerr, 1986. 207207 pp. DM 36.00. Corngold, Stanley. FrFraanznz KKafka:aJka: The NeNeccessityessity 0/of Form. Ithaca: Co rnell UP)UP, ---. Schatten entziffern.entziJfern. L yrik, ProsaProsa 1950-1944. Ed. Jocochen 1988 . Franz Kafka.Kafka. Gesammelte Werke in aachtcht BändenBdnden . H g. von Max Brod. 8 Bde.Bde. Richtehter. Leieipzig:pzig: Reclam, 199 5.24. 2477 pp.pp. DM 19.00 . FraFrankfurt:nkfurt: Fischer, 1992. ----.--. "B rief anan den Vater." Hochzeitsvo rbe reiturzgenreitungen auf dem Lanandede und anderea~dere The travevellogue, or ReisebeReisebescschreibung,hreibung, has lonlongg enjoyoyeded genre sstatatuSs in Prosa aus dem Nachlaß.chlafl. Bd. 6 dederr Gesammeltelte Werke in aachchtt BäBdnden.nden. 8 German-languageGerman-Ianguage literature, and amoamongng contemporarycontemporary writers GünterGunter Bde. 1992.992 . Kunert has long been one of the most prprolificolific praccttitionersitioners of that ---. Der PProzefl.rozeß. Bd. 2 der Gesammelte WeWerkerke in ach t BändenBdnden.. 8 Bde. 1992. formform.. H e has chronicled his travels in volumes like Der andere PlanePlanett ---. "Ein Bericht furfür eineine Akademie." Erzähludhlungen. Bd. 5 der Gesammeeltelte (Aufbau, 1974), an account of his one-semester sstinttint as guest profes Werke in acht Bänden.Bdnden. 8 Bde. 1992. sosorr at the University of TeTexasxas in 1972, and Ein englisches Tagebuch ----.-. Tagebüchebiicher 1910·19231910-1923.. Bd. 7 der GesammeltmeLtee WWerkeerke iinn acht BäBdnden. 8 Ein englisches Tagebuch Bde.Bde. 1992. (Aufbau, 1978), which describes his 1975 stay as writer-in-reiter-in-ressidence Koelb, C llaaytonyton.. Ka/ka'sKafka's RhetoRhetoric:ric: Thene PassioPassionn 0/of ReadinReading.g. It haca: Cornell at the UniversityUniversity of Warwick in Engglaland. ThThesesee worksworks,, which are UP, 1989. half diary and half travelogue, are predated by a number of shshorortt Kraus, Wolfgang. "Sch"Schuld-uld- und SinnfraSinnfragege in KafkasKafkas ProzeßProzefl." Franz Ka/ka:Kafka: Ortsbeschreibungen in a 19701970 Aufbau collection entidentitled Ortsangaben. SymposSymposiumium 1983. HrHrsg.sg. Wilhelm Emrich and Bernd Goldmann.Goldmann. Mainz:Mainz: In the lead text of that volumelume,, "Exkursion in die Geschichte," v. Hase & Koehler, 1985.201-214.1985.201-214. Kunert's fascinafascinationtion with and utilization of ththee genre is explained: he M ill, Joohnhn Stuart.Smart. On Liberty. Classics of Moral and Political Theory. Ed.Ed. observes that alm ost withoutithout excepexceptition pepeopleople regard the presentpresent as MichaelMichael L.L Morgan. Indianapolis: H ackett, 11992.992. 10441044-111-111 5. unhiunhistorical.storical. Only afterafter some 50 or 60 years have passepassedd dodo events RiRiees,s, W iebrecht. Transzendenz als Terror. Einrzee reLigireligionsphonsphilosophischeiLosophische Studie assurneassume an historihistorical dimension, as though only that with which one tiber FraFranznz Ka/ka.Kafka. H eideidelbelberg: SchneSchneiderder, 1977. WagenWagenbac bach,h, Klaus. Franz Ka/kaKafka in SeSelbstzeugnissenlbstzeugnissen und BiLddokumenten.Bilddokumenten. n o longer has a direct, personal connection may bebe cconsonsididerereded "His ReinbekReinbek bei H amburamburg:g: Rowohlt, 196496 4.. tory." WeWeltsch,ltsch, Felix.x. Religion und HumorHumor in Leben und WWerkerk Franz Kafkas.KaJkas. BerBer Yet ththereree is a phenomphenomeenon associated with travelingtraveling that makes a lin-Grunelin-Grunewaldwald:: H erbig, 1195957.7. foreiigngn setting seem less boundbound up with the present than one's hornehome territory-territory-perhapperhapss because the travelerler has no subjective relatrelationshipionship with the unfamiliar surroundingundings,s, or because the geographical disdis tancetance lends an oobjectivitybjectivity akin to that afforded byby the passage of time. Whateverver the cause, the result iiss evident to KunertKunert:: "Wer ins Ausland reist, lanlanggt immeimmerr in der VergangenheitVergangenheit an." This iiss the keykey to underunder standing Kunertert's's propropensitypensity for the travelogue. Indeed, it aalsolso pro vides a key to an understanding of his workwork in general:general: Kunert has dedevotedvoted much ofof hishis wriwritingting to exposingexposing the dangers of forgettingforgetting the lessons of the past, and has developed a number of formal andand stylis tic devidevices to expressexpress thisthis theme. In ththee 1970s the travelogue was oonene oft-utilizutilizeded aappprproachoach.. FoeusFocus on LiteraturLiteratur Vol. 3, No.No.1 1 (1996) 48 FoFocuscus on Literatur Book Reviews 49 Baum .' SteinStein'' Beton marks Kunert's return to the genre in ques in Baum'Baum . Stein' Beton, the sense of urgencyurgency gives way to open reresigsig tion. Throughout these 22 Reise-Rezse- and Ortsbeschreibungen he reaffirmsreaHirms nation, making fforor a dark reading experienceexperience dedespitespite frequent injec the sentiments expressed over two decades earlier in Ortsangaben, tions of Kunert's dry wwit.it. but the contecontemporarymporary texts are marked by a greater sense of urgency Appproximately half the texts in BaumBaum' . Stein' Beton have foreign and foreboding. N owhere is this more evident than in "Vorwarts"Vorwärts in settings ranging from Finland to Italy to California, but Kunert's real die Vergangenheit," a text describing a visit to M orocco. "Wer es lleideid genius lies in his ability to cast the same ccriticalritical eye on his homehorne ist, der Vergangenheit nur in Muuseenseen zu begegnen," begins Kunert, territoryterritory as he does on less familiar locationtionss.. He opens the volume "der kkaufeaufe sich ein Ticket nnaacch MarokkoMarokko und begebe sich auf Zeitreise" with "Fensterblicke," a description of the world(s) he sees through (112). W hile urban cecenntersters liklikee TangierT~ngier and Casablanca threaten to the nineteen windows of his country homehorne in Schleswig-Holstein. In become as uniform and paved-over as any modern city , the 20th cen "Schies"Schleswig-Hoistig-Holstein im Konj uunktiv,"nktiv," the phrase "'" Waas wäreware gt:wee\-ve sen,en, tury seems likelik "ein obskurer Traum" when one ventures into more w enn ..... " is the pointpoint of departure for an exploration of ho\-ho\vv our rurruralal areas. Kunert describes the hard, bare existence played out in Heimat determindetermines who we are. Kunert thenthen ties the determining the less developed areas of Moroccoorocco andand marvels at the primacy of influence of geography with that of history to call aattentttention to how the life those people scrape out ooff the desert. IInn the MoroccanMoroccan ba much ourour liveslives our shaped by the times in which we live-again dem zaars he sees a marketplace much as it must have been in medieval oonsnstratingtrating his cocommitmentmmitment to revealingrevealing thethe historicalityhistoricality of the present. Europe. This in turn triggerstriggers memomemories ries of a more rerecentcent past: the Other regionally oriented ttextsexts oHeroffer Kunert's insights on the immediate ppostwarostwar years in Germany, which Kunert experienced as LüneburgerLlineburger Heide, the Sachsenwald, H amburgburg'S's Sr.St. Pauli district, a teenager in Berlin.Berlin. In this manner, the apparreentnt timelessness of ru and of coursecourse Berlin,Berlin, the Cilcity y that Kunert consideredconsidered home untilumil 1979, ralral1-'1 tv'lorocco becbecomesomes symbolic for Kunert, representing both wherewhere when at the age of 50 he lehleft the GDR and resettled in Schleswig western ccivilizationivilization came from and where it is headed: H olstein.olstein. From Goethe's Italy to Kafka's PraguePrague to Kunert's Berlin, the Insofern mag einem solche "Vergangenheirsreise" wie das R eisebeschreibungen in Baum . Stein . Beton are nnOtot just an ersatz SchließenSchlie{3,en einer Kreisbahn vorkommen: die uralr BaedekerBaedeker for the especially literate; rather, they aarere opportunities for erscheinende ÖdnisOdnis und Menschenarmur als Ausgangspunkt reflectionreflection on whwhat at was and what might be.be. If a didacticdid,lctic function may unserer EnrwicklungEnrwicklung und zugleich als ihre Endstarion.Endsrarion. Als be assigned ttoo these travelogues, it is to prprovideovide a model for how we bliebe uns nachnach dem zu erwartenerwarrendenden ökologischeni::ikologischen DesasrerDesaster can transfer thethe ccririticaltica l viewviewwe we have in foreignforeign settings to our own nichrsnichts anderes mehr übrig,ubrig, alsals mühseligmuhselig die unfruchtbare Erde im SchweißeSchwei{3,e unseres Angesichrs aufzukrarzen,aufzukratzen, um ihr Heimaeimat.t. Kunert's texts areare devices through whwhichich we can learn to kärglichekargliche Nahrung abzugewinnen; als frierend morgens die strip the veneer of familiarity from our own surroundings and regard Sonne zu begrüßen;begru{3,en; als mit einem BündelchenBundelchen the historical implicationsimplications of the presentpresent.. Brennmarerial zwischen abweisendabweisendenen Felsen unseren Weg zu suchen, zu einer srockfinsteren Behausung, in der all Kunert'sKunen's vast oeuvre includes so many firstfirst-rate-rate texts that it would