Gehirne (1916)

Gottfried Benn

Gottfried Benn (1886-1956)

Biography

• Born in Brandenburg 1886

• Died Berlin 1956

• Only German writer on course

Biography

• 1903-1904: studied theology and philology in Marburg and Berlin

• 1905-1910: studied medicine in Berlin

• 1911: “Unterarzt” (army doctor in medical corps) at the Charité hospital, Berlin

Medical career

• 1912: qualifies as doctor (dissertation: Über die Häufigkeit des Diabetes mellitus im Heer)

• Works initially as military doctor

• Assistant doctor at Charlottenburg-Westend hospital, Berlin

On medicine

“Rückblickend scheint mir meine Existenz ohne

diese Wendung zur Medizin und Biologie völlig

undenkbar.” (Lebensweg eines Intellektualisten,

1934)

Medicine as literary inspiration?

• At Charlottenburg-Westend Benn carries out nearly 300 post mortems in 1912

• 1912: publication of breakthrough collection of poetry, Morgue und andere Gedichte

• Reception was mixed: scandalous

Morgue: reception

• “Pervers und zynisch”

• “von wildem Ekel und geilem Grauen erfüllt”

• Lack of understanding for new aesthetic

New aesthetic: Expressionism

• Cultural movement of early 20th century (literature, film, drama, poetry, painting)

• Known for shock tactics in representation

• Challenge to aesthetic tradition

• Focus on subjective “expression”, “Gefühl”

Edvard Munch, The Scream (1893-1910)

Benn as Expressionist poet

• Shock tactic: one of the first to bring empirical sciences to poetry

• New aesthetic: “objective”, “cold”, “scientific” view of human subject

• Shift from concept of soul to reality of body

Schöne Jugend / A Fine ChildhoodDer Mund eines Mädchens, das lange im Schilf gelegen hatte,sah so angeknabbert aus.Als man die Brust aufbrach, war die Speiseröhre so löcherig.Schließlich in einer Laube unter dem Zwerchfellfand man ein Nest von jungen Ratten.Ein kleines Schwesterchen lag tot.Die andern lebten von Leber und Niere,tranken das kalte Blut und hattenhier eine schöne Jugend verlebt.Und schön und schnell kam auch ihr Tod:Man warf sie allesamt ins Wasser.Ach, wie die kleinen Schnauzen quietschten!

The mouth of a girl who had long lain in the reedslooked so chewed up.When we broke open the torso, the esophagus was so full of holes.Finally in a bower under the diaphragmwe found a nest of young rats.One little sister rat lay dead.The others were living off liver and kidney,drinking the cold blood and enjoyinga fine childhood.And fine and fast was their death too:we threw the whole bunch into water.Oh, how those little snouts squeaked!

• Poet holds a scalpel, not a pen

• Dissects reality and human subject as he would a corpse

• Benn describes this form of writing as “suspendierter Tod”

Form and content

• Content: corpse, dissected human body

• Form / aesthetic: recording details of the body as would a doctor

• Absence of reflection / contemplation

• Writing as act of destruction?

Biography

• 1914-1917: Sanitätsarzt / army doctor, seconded to Antwerp and Brussels

• Gehirne (1916)

• Autobiographical connection to Rönne

„Ich war Arzt an einem Prostituiertenkrankenhaus, ein ganz isolierter Posten, lebte in einem konfiszierten Haus, elf Zimmer, allein mit meinem Burschen, hatte wenig Dienst, durfte in Zivil gehen, war mit nichts behaftet, hing an keinem, verstand die Sprache kaum; strich durch die Straßen, fremdes Volk; eigentümlicher

Frühling, drei Monate ganz ohne Vergleich.” (Epilog, 1921)

Science of the brain

• What comprises the human?

• Influenced by French scientist, Théodule Ribot – founder of scientific psychology

• Ribot: Les maladies de la personnalité (1894)

• “personality” of the individual has no essential substance of its own

• Personality is the result of the brain’s coordination of memories, feelings, physical sensations etc.

• Human: a psycho-physical complex

Gehirne

• Rönne as psycho-physical complex?

• Decentered subjectivity (modernist theme)

• Existence as a form of suffering (expressionist theme)

• Crisis of language / expression; crisis of self