STYLE AND MEANING IN GUENTER EICH\u27S MAULWURFE

In 1968 and 1970 Gunter Eich published two volumes of prose texts entitled respectively Maulwurfe: Prosa and Ein Tibeter in meinem Buro: 49 Maulwurfe. The Maulwurfe soon achieved a level of popularity rivaling that of his most widely known radio play Traume, published in 1950. Among literary critics reaction ranged from shocked outrage to profound praise. Reflecting the socio-political milieu prevailing in Germany in the late 1960\u27s, some hailed den neuen Eich, the engaged poet. Others viewed the Maulwurfe as the culmination in literary form of thematic and stylistic tendencies in Eich\u27s works which had evolved gradually over a number of years. The first chapter of the study examines the linguistic and stylistic features of the Maulwurfe. Although the texts in general preserve prose syntax, some stylistic devices employed by Eich in the Maulwurfe establish a high degree of linguistic cohesion usually associated with poetry. The second chapter takes up the problem of classifying the Maulwurfe according to genre and illustrates the extent to which these texts conform to the category Prosagedicht. Various connotations of the term Maulwurf drawn from Eich\u27s poetry and radio plays written prior to the Maulwurfe illuminate Eich\u27s motivation in selecting this unusual generic designation for these works. Since an understanding of language in its existential and ontological function is crucial in coming to terms with the underlying meaning of the Maulwurfe, the third chapter outlines the evolution of Eich\u27s conviction that the essential function of language is political, that the formal aspects of language provide a vehicle for opposing the manifestations of order and authority which Eich termed Macht. The final chapter illustrates that the Maulwurfe reflect in practice ideas Eich had previously expressed in various theoretical pronouncements on the function of language and literature. The Maulwurfe express the estrangement of Eich the poet from reality, as represented by nature, and his sense of isolation and frustration in his search for poetic truth. In accord with his conception of the political function of language, the Maulwurfe embody as well Eich\u27s criticism of political, social, and cultural institutions which represented for him the various faces of Macht. Throughout the study correspondences are drawn between the Maulwurfe and Eich\u27s earlier works to illustrate that these prose texts were in many respects anticipated by Eich\u27s previous literary production