Körper und Intertextualität. Strategien des kulturellen Gedächtnisses in der Gegenwartsliteratur by Anthonya Visser (review)

Anthonya Visser’s contribution to Böhlau’s Literatur—Kultur—Geschlecht series (edited by Anne-Kathrin Reulecke and Ulrike Vedder in conjunction with Inge Stephan and Sigrid Weigel) is an interesting and well-written investigation into the myriad ways in which intertextuality is intimately connected to corporeality in the manifestation of female subjectivity in contemporary German works. More specifically, the media analyzed here, ranging from poetry, prose, and drama to film and tattoo, employ various forms of intertextuality to create aesthetic reflections of protagonists whose stories are expressed through/on the female body. By means of their intertextuality, that is to say, their relationships to pieces of literature ranging from The Odyssey to the Koran, unique expressions of cultural memory are created in which new interpretations and understandings are possible.

Framed by an introductory discussion of intertextuality and a short conclusion addressing the overall connections among the works, the body of the book is comprised of four main chapters, entitled “Barbara Köhlers Text-Körper,” “Botho Strauß’ Ithaka,” “Marlene Streeruwitz’ Lisa’s Liebe,” and “Beschriftungen.” As evinced by the chapter titles, Visser chooses the literary works of authors ranging from East German poet Köhler to conservative West German Strauß to the Austrian feminist Steeruwitz, as well as expanding her study to include analyses of a short film and tattoo. Visser’s focus on the female body as the slate upon which one’s psycho-socio-cultural experience is written convincingly ties these seemingly divergent works together. The author successfully connects each chapter with the one preceding it, ultimately presenting an intriguing progression of corporeality from its literary references to physical inscriptions on human flesh.

The chapter on intertextuality begins by addressing the popularity of the topic established by theorists such as Kristeva and Bakhtin in the 1960s, but does not dwell on the scholarship of the last forty years. Although it is clear that Visser is well acquainted with this literature, she instead focuses primarily on the paradigm with which she aligns her study: a detailed hierarchical model (Nullstufe, Reduktionsstufe, Vollstufe, Potenzierungsstufe) of intertextuality developed by Jörg Helbig (Inter-textualität und Markierung, 1996). The author’s visual representation of Helbig’s model provides a useful reference point, as his analytical system serves as the foundation of her analyses.

In the chapters on Barbara Köhler and Botho Strauß, references to the literary pretexts at first seem conventional, but Visser’s readings approach these works from another perspective: that of female corporeality. Köhler’s poems “Jemand geht” and “Verkörperung: Eurydike” are analyzed to show how referential and self-referential female narratives create new meaning through the manipulation and use of language found in the works which inspire them. The poetry’s references to an audio-visual installation by the artist Anja Wiese or the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice allow for entirely new expressions of female perception and subjectivity. For Strauß, Visser argues that the meaning of his drama Ithaka is constructed from the very intertextual concept of the work itself. In his version of Homer’s Odyssey, the tale of Odysseus’s return is transformed into the story of the woman who waits for him; Penelope provides the frame for this self-reflective stage drama in which she is defined through her physical body.

The third main chapter, focusing on Marlene Streeruwitz’s Lisa’s Liebe, examines a story of female desire ostensibly told through the genre of a penny novel. In reality, Steeruwitz has created a nuanced reference to and play on Trivialliteratur. The novel contains photos with captions written by the protagonist, inscriptions which ironically not only reflect the woman’s absence in the photographs, but also the general emptiness of her life. As Visser points out, this emptiness is the result of a life constructed of waiting; Lisa is always waiting for the man of her dreams. The author...