W. O. von Horn’un ve Karl May’ın Öykülerine İlişkin Halkbilimi ve Edebiyat Bilimi ile Bakış
Heiko UllrichKarl May’ın seyahatnamelerinin popülerliği ve Karl-May Derneği’nin oluşturduğu forum 19. yüzyılın bu belki de en çok okunan Alman yazarının metinlerine ilişkin geniş bir yelpazede bilimsel olanların yanında profesyonel olmayanların da bulunduğu bilimsel incelemelerin ortaya çıkmasını sağlarken W. O. von Horn’un (diğer adıyla Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel, 1798-1867) niceliksel bakımdan olağanüstü olan eserine ilişkin incelemeler metinlerinin yazınsal tekniğinden çok ağırlıklı olarak tarihsel ve kültürel arka planına yoğunlaştı. Fakat yazar ile okur kitlesinin arka planının, halkbilimin olanaklı kıldığı gibi, derinlemesine analizinin kombinasyonu ve asıl edebiyat biliminin ortaya koyduğu filolojik derinlikle bu metinlerin gerçekten anlaşılması sağlanabilir. İkinci hususun vurgulanması ayrıca trivial edebiyatın belli yazınsal söylemlerde payı olmadığına ve bunun yerine yalnızca öğretici ve eğlendirici amaçlarının gerçekleştirmeye çalıştığına ilişkin önyargının ortadan kaldırılmasına yardımcı olacaktır. Bu makale 1830’lu yıllarda Güney Afrika’da geçen ve Britanyalılarla Burlar arasında hakim olan çatışmayı konu alan öykülere yoğunlaşmaktadır. Bu çatışmayı W. O. von Horn ve Karl May temelden farklı biçimlerde yorumluyor: Hunsrück’te bir kasaba rahibi okurlarına insanlık ve hoşgörü konularında bir ders vermeye çalışırken ve bunun için öyküsünün ana figürlerine bu istenilmeyen süreci yaşatırken, bir burjuva dergisinin redaktörü okurlarına evlerindeki koltuklarında oturarak yeni kurulan imparatorluğun kolonyal macerasında bakıma bir paylarının olmasını mümkün kılmaya çalışıyor.
Volkskundliche und literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Erzählungen von W. O. von Horn und Karl May
Heiko UllrichWährend die Popularität der Reiseerzählungen Karl Mays und das Forum der Karl-May-Gesellschaft eine große Bandbreite an wissenschaftlichen und dilettierenden Untersuchungen zu den Texten dieses vielleicht meistgelesenen deutschsprachigen Autors des 19. Jahrhunderts hervorgebracht haben, haben sich Forschungsansätze zum quantitativ enormen Werk W. O. von Horns (d. i. Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel, 1798-1867) hauptsächlich auf den historischen und kulturellen Hintergrund und weniger auf die literarische Technik seines Schreibens konzentriert. Aber nur durch die Kombination einer gründlichen Analyse der Hintergründe von Autor und Publikum, wie sie von den Methoden der Volkskunde ermöglicht wird, und die philologische Tiefenschärfe, die von der eigentlichen Literaturwissenschaft bereitgestellt wird, kann ein wirkliches Verständnis dieser Texte erreicht werden. Die Betonung des zweiten Aspekts wird außerdem dabei helfen, mit dem Vorurteil aufzuräumen, dass die sogenannte Trivalliteratur nicht an spezifisch literarischen Diskurse teilhabe und stattdessen lediglich ihren didaktischen oder unterhaltenden Intentionen folgt. Der folgende Artikel konzentriert sich auf Erzählungen, deren Schauplatz das Südafrika der 1830er Jahre mit dem alles beherrschenden Konflikt zwischen Briten und Buren ist. Diesen Konflikt deuten W. O. von Horn und Karl May in grundlegend verschiedener Weise aus: Während der Pfarrer einer Kleinstadt im Hunsrück seinen Lesern eine Lektion in Menschlichkeit und Toleranz erteilen will, indem er die Protagonisten seiner Erzählung eben diese erwünschte Entwicklung durchmachen lässt, will der Redakteur einer bürgerlichen Zeitschrift eine Art Teilnahme am kolonialen Abenteuer des neugegründeten Kaiserreichs vom heimischen Lesesessel aus ermöglichen.
Perspectives of Cultural Anthropology and Literary Studies on Novellas by W. O. von Horn and Karl May
Heiko UllrichWhile the popularity of Karl May’s adventure novels and the forum of the KarlMay-Gesellschaft have inspired a wide range of professional and non-professional research on the narratives of this probably most read German writer of the 19th century, scientific approaches to the vaste œuvre of W. O. von Horn (i.e. Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp Oertel, 1798-1867) have mainly focused on the historical and cultural background, less on the literary technique of his writing. But it is only by combining a thorough analysis of an author’s (and readership’s) setting as undertaken by the methods of Cultural Anthropology and the philological sharpness provided by genuine Literary Studies practice that a real understanding of these texts can be achieved. To strengthen the latter aspect will also help to overcome the prejudice claiming that so-called trivial literature does not participate in specific literary discourses and just follows its didactic or entertaining intentions. The following article focuses on novellas whose setting is the South Africa of the 1830s with its prevailing conflict between the British and the Boers. It is this conflict that W. O. von Horn and Karl May exploit in a totally different way: While the vicar of a small Hunsrück town wants to teach his readers a lesson in humanity and tolerance by letting his protagonists undergo exactly the required development, the managing editor of a bourgoise magazine wants to provide kind of an armchair participation in the colonial adventure of the newly founded Kaiserreich.
Writing on South Africa is not a popular theme in German literature, yet the Realism of the 19th century as reflected in the writings both of W. O. von Horn and Karl May tends to the remote by finding its setting in the province and overseas. Neither has been to the Cape, W. O. von Horn depending heavily on Eduard Kretzschmarʼs Südafrikanische Skizzen (1853), whereas his own Die Boorenfamilie von Klaarfontein (1855) provides the role model for both Karl Mayʼs short narration Der Africander (published 1878 under the name of his bethrothed Emma Pollmer) and the enlarged version Der Boer van het Roer (1879). All three texts tend to demonize the British as new rulers of the Cape and to idealize the Boers: To W. O. von Horns readers the agricultural Afrikaner life seems so much like their own, Karl May stresses the allegedly strong cultural ties between Germans, Dutch and Boers. By teaching his readers a lesson in humanity and tolerance W. O. von Horn not only follows didactic aims that are a characteristic of the popular enlightenment of early 19th century, but also bases his plot on the romance elements of the literary scheme established by Homerʼs Odyssey to present an enduring hero of a love story. On the other hand Karl May uses the adventure plot of the ancient epic to depict the protagonist (in Der Africander) and especially his first-person narrator (in Der Boer van het Roer) as a trickster whom his readers can admire. In Die Boorenfamilie von Klaarfontein Jan van Daanen does not revolt against his father who does not allow his loving for Mietje to develope into marriage and the founding of an interracial family, but by suffering and enduring he finally overcomes all obstacles: Piet van Daanen learns to accept the Amakosa princess as his daughter-in-law, who brings her tribe christendom and her new Boer family peace with their native neighbours. The Piet van Holmen of Der Africander is not the patient endurer but the active fighter: When British rogues kidnap his beloved, he chases them down and finally kills them; the first-person narrator of Der Boer van het Roer adds to this heroism the intellectual skills of superior warefare; more importantly May distinguishes him from the Boer characters by attributing to the latter a rude and inhuman colonialism which the former does not share and does not approve. But it is he who benefits most from his adventure by bringing home some precious Cape diamonds – and the vision of a future German colonialism that will yield wealth even beyond the exspectations of German Gründerzeit society for those who dare to simply act – not ruthless, but resolutely – in the complex interlacing of a colonial world. Both W. O. von Horn and Karl May follow the aims of their time and surroundings, and both use literary tradition descending from Homer to do so.
