Representations of Law and Justice in the Work of Reinhard Jirgl Juliane
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“Dasrecht & Gott sind immer beim=Stärksten, & der – Stärkste hat immer=Recht”: Representations of Law and Justice in the work of Reinhard Jirgl Juliane Horn UCL Doctoral Thesis 1 I, Juliane Horn, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract The dissertation analyses the themes of Law, justice and injustice in the work Reinhard Jirgl. Jirgl, who was born in 1953 in the GDR, has published many works of prose and essays since 1990. With the exception of one novel all novels examined in this thesis are set within the context of events in recent German history. Jirgl’s representations of injustice and violence are thus closely related to or associated with, concrete historical events. The evaluation of the textual material is methodologically grounded in relevant philosophical ideas of justice, some from antiquity and others which originate from more contemporary thinkers, such as Agamben or Derrida. At the height of the Greek civilization, two main traditions of justice develop in parallel: the first, which Alasdair Macintyre calls ‘justice of effectiveness’, is marked by the belief that ‘the strong would do without justice altogether if they could’, whilst the second, which he calls ‘justice of excellence’ values justice as a key virtue which serves the common good of the polis.1 The two traditions can be traced in theory and praxis up to the present. The textual analysis shows that most of Jirgl’s examples of social practices are adequately described by the philosophical tradition which Macintyre calls ‘justice of effectiveness’. The dissertation considers how far Jirgl’s work presents an understanding of justice based on the inevitability of ‘might is right’ and, consequently, whether social practice is marked by an unbridgeable gap between human aspirations and an unchanging modus operandi. It explores whether Jirgl’s texts offer glimpses of hope that transcend the prevailing cultural and historical pessimism that runs through them. 1 Alasdair MacIntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (London: Duckworth, 1988), p. 73. 3 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank Professor Mary Fulbrook for giving me the fantastic opportunity to join her already large group of doctoral students at the German department at University College London. Yet, I am most of all indebted to my supervisor, Professor Stephanie Bird, whose constant support, encouragement and constructive criticism have enabled me to complete this challenging project. Stephanie taught me to find a suitable style and a critical distance towards the subject matter: in the course of almost seven years both skills have developed beyond my own expectations. In Germany, I am grateful for the help of Dr Hilmar Frank, who went into one of Berlin’s archives for me, repeatedly sent texts which I could not easily find in London and who also located the exact Immanuel Kant references in the original German opus. Dr Karen Dannemann kindly let me use her collection of reviews about Reinhard Jirgl, gave me plenty of encouragement and has become a good friend. I thank my friend Paul for a number of fruitful discussions on ethics and religion; my son Stefan for putting up with years of commentaries on Jirgl’s texts and dystopian views; and, finally, my friend John for his great dedication to proof- read a bi-lingual text to a degree whereby he must know its content and development better than I do. 4 Table of Contents Title Page.............................................................................................................. 1 Signed Declaration .............................................................................................. 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. 4 Table of Contents ................................................................................................ 5 List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................... 7 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8 Notions of Justice ................................................................................................ 12 Carl Schmitt’s Theories and their Relevance ...................................................... 28 Style: The Use of the Alpha-numerical Code ..................................................... 36 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 41 1 War and International Law ........................................................................ 43 The Nature of War .............................................................................................. 44 War, Statistics and mathematical Models ....................................................... 47 Human Nature: Eros and Todestrieb ............................................................... 50 Perpetual Peace versus Permanent War .......................................................... 53 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... .63 Theory and Practice of Just War ........................................................................ 65 Jus ad bellum .................................................................................................. 67 Jus in bello ..................................................................................................... 68 Jus post bellum ............................................................................................... 81 Scepticism towards International Contract Law ............................................. 86 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 93 2 Injustice: A View from Nowhere? .............................................................. 96 The Upheaval of Fascism: Victims and Perpetrators .......................................... 97 The Role of Holocaust Tropes and other Historical Comparisons ............... 106 Victimhood .................................................................................................... 112 Erich and other Perpetrators .......................................................................... 121 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 129 Taking the Law into one’s own Hands ............................................................. 131 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 144 5 3 The Representation of Legal Problems and Legal Practices ................. 146 Court Cases ....................................................................................................... 146 Expropriations ................................................................................................... 168 East versus West – a Comparison of Legal Practices ....................................... 175 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 182 4 Might=Right: Our Relationship to Nonhuman Animals ........................ 184 Humans and other Animals in the Throes of Death .......................................... 186 Bodily Expressions of Todeskampf and Death ............................................. 189 Humans and Nonhumans who cannot die ..................................................... 196 ‘Jeder stirbt für sich allein’ ........................................................................... 199 The Mistreatment of Nonhuman Animals......................................................... 204 Camps and Abattoirs ......................................................................................... 214 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 236 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 238 Justice of Effectiveness or Justice of Excelence? ............................................. 239 Universal Injustice and its Consequences ......................................................... 242 Crime and Punishment ...................................................................................... 246 The Question of Cultural and Historical Pessimism ......................................... 247 Appendix: A Selection of Reinhard Jirgl’s Rules for his Usage of the Alpha- numerical Code ............................................................................................... 251 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 253 6 List of Abbreviations Works by Reinhard Jirgl: Fiction MutterVaterRoman (Aufbau, 1990) MVR Im offenen Meer (Luchterhand, 1991) IoM Das obszöne Gebet. Totenbuch (Jassmann, 1992) oG Abschied von den Feinden (Hanser, 1995) AF Hundsnächte (Hanser, 1997) H Die Atlantische Mauer (Hanser, 2000) AM Genealogie des Tötens. Trilogie (Hanser,