Identity Construction and Computers in Thomas Hettche's novel Nox

Abstract

The question of the essence of human identity has been asked and answered in many different ways, in many different discussions, with an untold variety of results. By focusing on the examination of identity constructions within a recent text by the contemporary German writer Thomas Hettche, I will trace the process of establishing and representing a fictive German identity The main thrust of this article will be to discuss how narration and identity construction are being influenced and altered by the introduction of the computer into the literary text, in particular the use of a computer/human voice functioning as disembodied language. Thomas Hettche, born in 1964 near Giel3en, then West Germany, studied German literature and philosophy at the University in Frankfurt. Roughly said, Hettche's themes center on issues of identity (Ich and NichtIch), body and mirror image, as well as different forms of ecstasy Hettche's first book Ludwig muss sterben1--in which the depicted figure of a girl in an anatomy atlas comes to life--and his second work Inkubation2-a textual mixture of postmodern body parts and body talk--were well received by literary critics. He was awarded several prestigious literary prizes--for example the Robert-Walser Prize and the Ingeborg Bachmann stipend. Nevertheless, after the publication of Nox in 1995, critical voices could be heard. For example, Volker Hage regards Hettche's latest novel as die Bankrotterklarung eines Talents3 and Jorg Lau talks about hysterische(n) Schwulst.4 Nox tells a story about the famous night in 1989 when the Berlin wall came down. With the fall of the Berlin wall, the Cold War officially had come to an end. Nevertheless, the Cold War left traces: in the landscape, and in people's minds, hearts, and bodies. It resulted in enormous consequences for the German people and for Europe, for the literature of East and West Germany, as well as for the narration of a story. Whoever wishes to write about the so-called Jetztzeit (the now-time)5-to borrow one of Walter Benjamin's terms--should do it in a another language, and with another style. The style of the future will be the style of the robot-Montagekunst6 said the writer Gottfried Benn at the beginning of this century. In Nox, Germany is simultaneously portrayed both as the site of a constant struggle and as a Utopian space. Along these lines, questions are posed regarding the infiltration of the computer voice into the flow ofthe narrative voice by the usage of a computer/ human voice functioning as disembodied language in the text--a voice that is seemingly disconnected from any body (at least from any living body). I will come back to this notion of a computer voice/virtual reality because this is the very platform, I will argue, that allows the Utopian aspect in Hettche's text to take on shape. The literary critic Kenneth Roemer has developed the following definition of Utopia: A literary Utopia is a fairly detailed description of an imaginary community, society, or world--a 'fiction' that encourages readers to experience vicariously a culture that represents a prescriptive normative alternative to their own culture.7 Roemer's utopia definition works for several literary examples, but it does not easily apply to the utopia that is portrayed in Nox. Hettche's text does not present a traditional literary representation of Utopia, at least not one according to Roemer's model, but rather captures a Utopian potential that was created by the fall of the Berlin wall-during a brief moment when the old rules no longer held true and the previously established borders began to dissolve. In addition to being a story about the night of the fall of the Berlin wall, Nox (the Latin word for Night) is also a story about a murder. Hettche's text begins like a somewhat typical description of a one-night-stand: a man (who happens to be a writer and the narrator ofthe story) meets a woman (an audience member at one ofhis readings). …