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Pavlyuk Khrystyna Bohdanivna, Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University, Mykolaiv, Ukraine Ph. D. in Philology, Associate Professor, Institute of Philology E-mail: christine.pavluk@gmail.com
Things that are saying: material world in lyrics of Ulla Hahn
Abstract: The article outlines the differences between female model picture of the world presented in the modern German poetry of the Ulla Khan. In particular, the features of the coexistence of I-identity and You-identity in the lyrical text through the prism of the world of things that appear by analyzing poems of William Hahn at lingo-poetry. It is noted in the following distinguishing features works of the poet as a bold game of ambiguity, the interpretation of traditional meanings and mental dominance over the flesh.
Keywords: female poetry, intertextuality, poetry 'new subjectivity', language of lyrical text, linguistic constructivism, artistic detail.
In view of engagement of insufficiently analyzed female names, among which Gisela Stock, Ulla Hahn, Friederike Mayröcker, Kerstin Hensel and others, modern theorists of literature consider revision of the so called canon an important task of the theory of German literature. In particular, the need of traditional presentation about literary practice is updated. The need of formation of parallel, non-marginalized history of female literature that is endued by its sense and aesthetic value, distinctive from the system of men's logic, is justified. The term Fräuleinwunder is a successful brand created in the USA, which is hardly considered.a literary category.
This article focuses on poetic heritage of contemporary German author — Ulla Hahn, who follows the tradition of Ingeborg Bachmann and considers love an especial manner of writing, an especial language of her own poems. The hidden aspects of I-identity in her lyrical texts create subconscious, individual and intimate subtexts which can be enlightened with the help of detailed linguo-poetic analysis.
Ullan Hahn was born in Sauerland, in 1946. She grew up in Mannheim in working environment where education was not highly estimated. Her university studies at the University of Cologne included philosophy, history and sociology. After finishing the graduate school she taught literature at the Universities of Hamburg, Bremen and Oldenburg. For several years, since 1979, Ulla had been working as the editor at the radio station in Bremen. The recognition of her creative activity was rather late as she published her first collection of poetry 'Herz über Kopf' at the age of 35. Altogether, her poetic heritage
consists of eleven lyrical collections and three novels, one of which is autobiographic. Nowadays the poetess lives in a picturesque nook of Hamburg on the bank of Oder, conducts an active social life and, of course, she is an essential guest of honor at various literary conferences. Ulla Hahn is an open-minded person, who has a good sense of humour and natural feminine charm.
Lyrical texts of the German poetess are being translated into European languages. In particular, translations of number of lyrical texts into Russian were made by Larysa Kerchina and Svitlana Valikova. The translated texts are being published in periodicals, anthologies and poetical collections. Ulla Hahn appeared in the literary life of Germany at the end of 1960s, and her first creative attempts were rather contradictive. Nevertheless, the discussions in literary circles did not prevent her from huge recognition among women of eastern Germany who queued in order to get her books. In terms of popularity Ulla Hahn of those days can be compared to Veronika Tushnova, a Russian poetess whose poems were being kept under pillows of the girls' generation of 1960s. V. Tushnova became popular after the poem 'Ne otrekayutsya, lyubya' (Ifyou love, don't deny it). Her poetic voice quickly gained strength and pushed the glorification of socialist accomplishments out to the second place.
Gunter Kunert highly evaluated the works of young poetess. He noticed originality and purity of her desen-timentalised poetic language. According to Hahn 'poems do not need language, they are the language' [2, 88]. Ulla Hahn sometimes uses rhyme and blank verse. She prefers
free verse and that is a peculiar feature of the Western European tradition of versification. Such stylistic pluralism allows us to consider Ulla Hahn's heritage an example of postmodern lyrics with its eclecticism, intertextuality and mounting technique. In particular, researchers Viki Reitinger and Wolfgang Mieder [4] stress on Hahn's active usage of proverbs, phrasal verbs, idioms, phraseological units, Biblical quotations and references. The title of the collection 'Herz über Kopf' and two thirds of its content contain proverbs, speech patterns and sayings. The intertextual style of Hahn's writing is not a new phenomenon in modern German lyrics. The poetess uses idiomatic style and follows the tradition of Bertold Brecht, Rose Ausländer, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Erich Fried, Mascha Kaleko, Gisela Steineckert. Formal language is a dominant feature of Ulla Hahn's poetry. It creates the effect of recollection: a reader imagines a proverb an old good fellow. Usage ofphrases from folk songs and children ones, and Biblical allusions only strengthens this effect. The author plays with ambiguity, interprets traditional meanings and moves from harmonic idyll to explicit irony and mental dominance over the flesh.
The liberation of theme of love in the second half of the XX century led to infinite copying of repetitive situations and feelings in works of contemporaries. Their poems were deprived of real emotional tension. Ulla Hahn found her own way to the eternal theme: high sense and erotic motives, elements of philosophy exquisitely intertwine with highness, reality intertwines with irreality, irony intertwines with self-irony. It creates a macrocosm of emotions and feelings. The poetess says that question 'What's your theme?' causes confusion. The poems do not have any theme. They are the theme. Question about correlation of social and aesthetic in modern poetry also sounds improperly. It is like if to ask 'Do you want to breath or eat?' The poems are being written not about social life. They are the part of this life. A poem that was published once does not belong to the author any more. It belongs to its readers [2, 89]. According to Michael Brown, Ulla Hahn created a type of the poetry which is considered a rehabilitation ofperfectly closed form and completely new content. The eternal lyrical theme of love becomes a dominant one in her texts.
Er kommt
Einkaufen: Kirschsaft Spinat und
neue Kartoffel Spargel nicht der
ist noch zu teuer oder ach was
zwei Pfund Spargel bitte.
Oh mein Gott: dem Friseur ging
However, along with general change of social trends caused by student performances, the 1970s are notable for German lyric by paradigm change of hermetic verse. Conception defined as Alltagslyric gains popularity in the context of so called 'new subjectivity'. Representatives of this poetic movement consciously refuse from rhyme, metrics and division into stanzas that are peculiar for hermeneutic lyrics. Moreover, they completely change the lexical means. They move from fastidious esoteric and metaphoric language of hermeneutic poem to the usage of simplified vocabulary of everyday speech, jargon and even slang. Visual effects, smells and sounds are sensuous phenomena which acquire important connotations in the texts of 'new subjectivity'. At the same time a lyrical figure expands from isolated 'I' (as in G. Benn's works) to more objective interlocutory 'we'. The content of new lyrical texts does not represent estrangement of objective reality or attempts to create its own poetic reality. There are attempts of reproduction and fixation of unique moments of everyday life as opposition to narration in prose that offers reconstruction of fictional world. Simplicity and openness are the distinguishing features of the poetry of new subjectivism; they correspond to melancholic monologues in Holderlin's tradition.
According to Lin Terrell, 'language is a structure of meanings that controls our life. It contains and relays categories with the help of which we understand ourselves and each other; with the help of which we became who and what we are. Our language practice consists mainly ofjudgments, which determine or contribute to our perception of causal connection between things' [3, 179]. These logically deduced roles and models were norma-tively proposed. They bring order and meaning to the categories. As soon as it becomes evident that discursive practice is a normative one, language in poetry is considered an arena of I-identity and You-identity relations. The linguistic categories reflect social interaction. However, a clear understanding of how language works in lyrical text allows us to understand how a rabbit of normativity is being pulled out of a hat of articulation. Ulla Hahn makes an accent on the idea that 'language is a motherland of beauty and sense' [2, 93]. This particular idea can be illustrated with the help of Ulla Hahn's poetry:
He will come
Shopping: cherry juice spinach and new potato asparagus no it is still too expensive or what's two pounds of asparagus please. Oh my God: washed off the paint
die Farbe aus. Nehm ich statt Rot Mahagoni nur nicht vorne so kurz.
Wie angegossen das Kleid: aber Die jeans sitzt straffer blau liebt er und schwarz schön also schwarzblau.
Steht die Uhr: nein noch einmal das Beethoven Trio im zweiten Satz geht die Klingel ich öffne die Tür du schon da [2, 16]?_
It is obvious from the lines above that Ulla Hahn's language is a mean of description and expression. Its purpose is to transfer not only thoughts of I-identity, but also her ideas of what things really are. Probably the author follows the ideas of linguistic constructivism and engages in controversy with early Wittgenstein. He argued in 'Tractatus' that 'words are names of things and sentences are descriptions of how things are' [3, 182]. In the XX century most philosophers of language considered language either a mean of describing reality or utterance about it, but not its construction. At the same time linguistic constructivists insists on the idea that we see and imagine specific things because they gain certain significance for us, or we have some plans where they can be useful. Thus, the grocery list in the poem is not a tribute of I-identity's tastes; it is shopping for a romantic dinner. Therefore, there is some place for asparagus in the basket and the high price does not matter. Chang-
Was bleibt
Ist die Schweizer Uhr. Du hast dich nicht lumpen lassen. Was bleibt sind zwei Handtaschen. Schallplatten. Ringlein aus Gold. Viel flehentliches Papier. Zwei Mokkatassen. Bezahlte Doppelzimmer. Essen und Trinken. Ein neuer Satz Reifen. Ein Wettermantel für den Übergang [2, 28]._
The potential ofwords in poetry are multidimensional: they serve to values which are significant for culture and social life. Despite the enumeration ofhabitual things as clothes, food, dwelling, and accessories the language of Ulla Hahn's lyrical texts is by no means a neutral one. However, she uses language as a tool kit. By Wittgenstein definition, she uses it carefully and on the principle ,noth-ing extra' to play the language games of I-identity and You-
of hair. I'll take instead of
red mahogany but
not so smooth in front.
The dress fits like a second skin: but
jeans sit tighter blue
he likes and black also fits
then black and blue.
The clock is stopped: no once more
Beethoven's Trio from the second part
someone is calling I open the door
are you already here?
ing bright hair colour to darker shade, as well as sober 'blue' and 'black' in heroine's clothes, indicate the desire of stable relationships. It seems that in Ulla Hahn's poetry we visualize the things, but according to Monique Wittig 'what we believe to be a physical and direct perception is only a sophisticated and mythic construction, an imaginary formation which reinterprets physical features (in themselves as neutral as any others but marked by social system) through the network of relationships in which they are perceived' [3, 184]. Thus, omission of punctuation marks, multidimensional interpretation of lyrical text, hypnotic rhythmic and intonation construction of the verse, with clear accented chord in the final line, rend the recipient away from reality plunging him/her into a kind of meditation.
Considering the normative bias of language terms, in names ofbrands in particular, another Ulla Hahn's poem deserves attention:
What remains
is a Swiss watch. You
couldn't refuse.
What remains are two purses.
Records. Golden ring.
A lot of pleading paper. Two cups of mocha.
Paid up hotel room for couple. Food and bever ages.
A new stage of adulthood.
A demi-season coat.
identity on the same level. The power of naming is not just in finding words or invention of words for expression of what should be expressed; it is also presence of certain circumstances and environment within which such utterance has its meaning. According to Hahn, 'communication industry makes the subject look outside, and poetry allows us deepen into heart of hearts. Therefore, poetry is a native language of a soul' [2, 94].
Bildlich gesprochen Figuratively saying
Wär ich ein Baum ich wüchse if I were a tree I would grow
dir in die hohle Hand und wärst du das Meer ich baute dir weiße Burgen aus Sand. Wärst du eine Blume ich grübe dich mit allen Wurzeln aus wär ich ein Feuer ich legte in sanfte Asche dein Haus. Wär ich eine Nixe ich saugte dich auf den Grund hinab und wärst du ein Stern ich knallte dich vom Himmel ab [2, 25].
on your palm
and if you were a sea I would build
white sand towers for you.
If you were a flower I would dig
you out with roots
if I were the fire I would turn
your home to thin ash.
If I were a mermaid I would drag
you to the bottom
and if you were a star I would steal
you from the sky.
The poem 'Figuratively saying' was written in 1981. It consists of three quatrains with a fickle iamb. The artistic details get special aesthetic importance here; in the above mentioned poetry they rise to the level of symbols — subjectified images of objective reality which are factors of concentration of many ideas and associations. We see not the ordinary things but traditionally informative and many-sided images-archetypes of the European culture: a tree, a sea, a home, a star, a mermaid, fire etc. It is worthy of note that Ulla Hahn changes accents of majority of androgynous symbols on her own, (e. g. despite the traditional identification of fire with male identity she compares it with female I-identity; unexpected parallels: man is a flower/star/water). Her lyrical heroine frankly ignores the principles of stereotype moral. Her declaration sounds rather as threatening warning. The essence of female self-presentation in the poem is to gain power over man and to break boundaries between 'I' and 'You'. Thus, the image and symbolic system of Hahn's
poetry denotes alliance of philosophical conceptions embodied in concise poetical utterance, and andro-philosophical principles of the author's mindset. Such conceptual features as vigour, courage and aspiration for power obtain powerful aesthetic potential through repetition (usage of 'if' at the beginning and at the end of the stanza) and rhythm of lines. The inner world of the lyrical heroine is considered a combination of four basic elements. Water is embodied in images of sea and mermaid, earth is identified with roots and tree, fire and ash as its constant companion appear in the second stanza, air is presented as the sky covered with stars.
Thus, concentration of images and their gradation, thrift of semantic means add dynamism and tension to this particular text and to many other Hahn's poetries. According to the poetess 'poetry is like a score. Only a musician produces music. Declamation is like to play music and listen to it at the same time. Read out loud!' [2, 96].
References:
1. Binneberg, K. (2011). Deutsche Lyrik 1945-1989. Leipzig: Ernst Klett Schulbuchverlag.
2. Hahn, U. (2003). Süßapfel rot. Gedichte. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam.
3. Jagger, A., & Young, I. M. (2000). A companion to feminist philosophy. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
4. Reithinger, V. (2007). ,Wenn wir uns wieder in den Haaren liegen': sprichwörtliche Ambiguitäten in Ulla Hahns Lyrikband 'Herz über Kopf'. Proverbium, 9. P. 319-334.
5. Stephan, G. (1989). Naturlyrik. Gattungs- und epochenspezifische Aspekte. (Klett Lektürehilfen). Stuttgart: Klett Verlag.
