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The Mimicry of Dialogue: Thomas Lehr’s September. Fata Morgana (2010)

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9/11 in European Literature

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Abstract

This new reading of the German 9/11 novel September. Fata Morgana (2010) by Thomas Lehr challenges its prevalent interpretation as an East-West dialogue of cultures. Unveiling the narrative’s hitherto neglected unreliability, the chapter argues that rather it displays a mimicry of dialogue which confronts the reader with their own Eurocentricism. Through the analysis of narrative, motivic and intertextual elements, the chapter demonstrates that the cultural approximation is not the result of dialogue but of a European appropriation of the Eastern Other. Giving a special emphasis to German 9/11 cultural responses, it then contextualises Lehr’s manifold conjunction of the September attacks and the theme of mimicry in the wider 9/11 discourse before consolidating the argument with a view of the novel’s historical pessimism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Page numbers henceforth quoted in brackets refer to Thomas Lehr, September. Fata Morgana (Munich: Carl Hanser, 2010). All English translations are taken from Mike Mitchell’s translation of the novel, September: Mirage (London: Seagull, 2013).

  2. 2.

    Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 127.

  3. 3.

    For the equal validity of victim perspectives, cf. also Zimmer, “Abschied von typischen 9/11- (Satz-)Zeichen,” 95.

  4. 4.

    Böttiger, “Zeitschmetterlinge.”

  5. 5.

    Butler , Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? Christoph Deupmann mentions September. Fata Morgana as one example of how literature can bring in the perspective of the Other widely excluded by the discourse of mass media, Deupmann, “Erzählweisen vom 11. September 2001”.

  6. 6.

    Nelson, “You Can’t Write a Social Novel After September 11,” 59.

  7. 7.

    Böttiger, “Zeitschmetterlinge,” 279 and also Thomas Lehr himself in an interview, Rohde et al., “In der Werkstatt der Gegenwart oder Über das Romaneschreiben. Carsten Rohde und Hansgeorg Schmidt-Bergmann im Gespräch mit Thomas Lehr, Sibylle Lewitscharoff und Peter Stamm,” 356.

  8. 8.

    This broken syntax and the juxtaposition of chronological succession are also typical of other works by Thomas Lehr, as Meike Herrmann has shown for the novella Frühling [Spring] (2001), with the backdrop of the Holocaust, “Erinnerungsliteratur ohne sich erinnernde Subjekte oder Wie die Zeitgeschichte in den Roman kommt. Zu Erzähltexten von Katharina Hacker, Thomas Lehr, Tanja Dückers und Marcel Beyer,” 254–259.

  9. 9.

    Appadurai, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,” 299.

  10. 10.

    Alexander Osang and Anja Reich also employ the image of “Fata Morgana” to describe the tower in Wo warst du? Ein Septembertag in New York, 127.

  11. 11.

    Schuster, “Luftspiegelungen,” and Krekeler, “Die Ilias aus dem Hinterhof”.

  12. 12.

    Krekeler, “Die Ilias aus dem Hinterhof”.

  13. 13.

    Reinhäckel, Traumatische Texturen, 223. Heike Reinhäckel analyses the German literary adaptations of 9/11 between 2001 and 2011 in her doctoral thesis and places Lehr’s novel in the third phase of the decade (2007–2010) which she claims is dominated by the political, international novel (ibid., 212).

  14. 14.

    König,“‘Alles wird anders’—Der 11. September in deutscher Literatur,” 830.

  15. 15.

    For the ambivalent negotiations of European identity between Americaphilia and anti-Americanism in 9/11 novels, cf. also Birte Christ’s Chapter “National Identity and Literary Culture after 9/11: Pro- and Anti-Americanism in Frédéric Beigbeder’s Windows on the World (2003) and Thomas Hettche’s Woraus wir gemacht sind (2006)” in this volume. The easily recognisable dichotomy between the US and Germany, in contrast to Anna Zimmer’s conclusion, is only a token approach to the Eastern Other, as will be argued here, cf. Zimmer, “Abschied von typischen 9/11- (Satz-)Zeichen,” 96f.

  16. 16.

    For a general account of this topos cf. Cvek, “Good Mourning, America: Genealogies of Loss in Against the Day,” here especially 50.

  17. 17.

    Cf. especially the analysis of Thomas Hettche’s Woraus wir gemacht sind [What We Are Made Of] in Birte Christ’s Chapter “National Identity and Literary Culture after 9/11: Pro- and Anti-Americanism in Frédéric Beigbeder’s Windows on the World (2003) and Thomas Hettche’s Woraus wir gemacht sind (2006)” in this volume.

  18. 18.

    Zimmer, “Abschied von typischen 9/11- (Satz-)Zeichen,” 93, for a reading as a dialogue between East and West, cf. Reinhäckel, Traumatische Texturen, 194f.

  19. 19.

    Zimmer, “Abschied von typischen- 9/11 (Satz-)Zeichen,” 94.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    My translations, cf. the review of September. Fata Morgana by Böttiger, “Das Geflecht zweier Kulturen,” for his reading of the novel as a utopian interrelation of Occident and Orient, cf. also Böttiger, “Zeitschmetterlinge,” 285, and along the same lines Reinhäckel, Traumatische Texturen, 195.

  22. 22.

    Cf. Beatrix Langner’s review of Thomas Lehr’s book, “Märchen gegen Bomben”.

  23. 23.

    Krekeler, “Die Ilias aus dem Hinterhof”.

  24. 24.

    Ibid. More concretely, Lehr also speaks of a dialogue between the fathers, Lehr, Rohde et al., “In der Werkstatt der Gegenwart,” 356.

  25. 25.

    Thomas Lehr in an interview with Jürgen König, “Ein doppelt kritischer Blick”.

  26. 26.

    For intertextual references to Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan and structural homologies between the two texts, cf. also Herrmann, “Die Wiederentdeckung des Kreises am Ende der Ironie,” especially 50–53.

  27. 27.

    Jürgen Habermas, together with his nominal co-author Jacques Derrida, mentions secularism, the welfare-state, anti-capitalist tendencies and a certain scepticism about unlimited technological progress in their definition of “core Europe,” cf. Habermas and Derrida, “February 15, Or, What Bind Europeans Together,” here especially 9.

  28. 28.

    Jennifer Clare theorises these various intratextual associations creating continuities of time and place beyond factual relations as a form of mythical narration, “‘Es ist die leichte Begehbarkeit von so vielen Epochen und Kulturräumen’ ‘9/11’ als vielstimmige mythische Episode in Thomas Lehrs Roman September. Fata Morgana,” 109–132.

  29. 29.

    Cf. the review of September. Fata Morgana by Krekeler, “Die Ilias aus dem Hinterhof,” similarly Schuster claims that they enter into dialogue with one another, cf. “Luftspiegelungen,” the dialogical structure in itself of the novel, however, is undoubted, cf. also Graf, “Es gibt keinen Sieger außer Gott. Goethe und der 11. September,” 130.

  30. 30.

    As Tarik’s, possibly addressing Martin, for instance (cf. 382).

  31. 31.

    Stühring, “Unreliable Narration, Deception, and Fictional Facts”.

  32. 32.

    He presumably is a doctor (457) from Baghdad, speaks French, his younger daughter is likely to be pregnant, her lover Nabil killed by militia, and his only son has gone underground (476f.) while his wife and older daughter possibly have been killed in a terror attack. Even the minutiae about a climbing frame for children, a red elephant on a pedestal next to the Roman theatre in Amman and the favourite animal of his daughter, who baptised it “Hannibal” when a child (476), agrees with an earlier account of Tarik’s daughter Muna.

  33. 33.

    Possible alternative interpretations such as Martin’s incorrect recollection (“Fatima und Machmud / glaube ich” (477); “Fatima and Mahmud / I think” (S, 418)) or the adoption of new names in the face of death threats (477) are unlikely as the name “Fatima” (476) is also used in the Iraqi father’s internal focalization.

  34. 34.

    Cf. Horstkotte, “Transcending Trauma,” 44.

  35. 35.

    Haas, “Es ist gut, wenn starke Symbole fallen. Ein Gespräch mit dem Schriftsteller Thomas Lehr”.

  36. 36.

    Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 18.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 21.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 32.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., 13.

  40. 40.

    That Martin should be this author figure (Graf, “Es gibt keinen Sieger außer Gott,” 124, Horstkotte, “Transcending Trauma,” 43f.) might be possible even if it has not been argued in an entirely satisfactory way and probably cannot be narratologically justified through the epilogue alone.

  41. 41.

    Horstkotte, “Transcending Trauma,” 44.

  42. 42.

    Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 127.

  43. 43.

    Contrary to Herrmann’s claim, Muna’s lover does not leave her because she is a Shiite, the couple fall victim to her brother’s murderous intrigue, cf. Herrmann, “Die Wiederentdeckung des Kreises am Ende der Ironie,” 47.

  44. 44.

    Eke, “‘Es gibt keinen Sieger außer Gott’. Dialog im Raum der Schrift: Thomas Lehrs Roman September. Fata Morgana,” 212.

  45. 45.

    Bosse, “Magische Präsenz. Zur Funktion von Schrift und Ornament in Goethes ‘West-östlichem Divan,’” 317.

  46. 46.

    For an explicit statement cf. 90.

  47. 47.

    There are several references to this violent ritual, cf. 462.

  48. 48.

    Ott, Tausendundeine Nacht.

  49. 49.

    Cf. Martin’s implied adultery with the nurse as well as his new partner Luisa’s affair with a historian in Amherst and Jasmin’s, Muna’s sister (367).

  50. 50.

    This association has been explored by cultural studies from the beginning and forms a prominent part of 9/11 imagery. The World Trade Center alternatively appears as the double phallus or as the female body being penetrated by the phallic airliners, cf. Elisabeth Bronfen, quoting Klaus Theweleit, Der Knall: 11. September, das Verschwinden der Realität und ein Kriegsmodell, 142.

  51. 51.

    For some of the repeated linking of chess and the towers of the World Trade Center, cf. 189, 201, 305. The double meaning of “rook,” linking it back to an act of betrayal is only implied by the English translation and might overstretch the argument in relation to the German original. A more likely association, however, can be found in the shared etymological origin of “betrayal” and “trade” in the Latin “tradere” (i.e. “to hand over,” betrayal as one form of a deal) as the English word would be used for the World Trade Center. For references to chess, cf. 189, 201, 305.

  52. 52.

    Cf. 189. The comparison to the chess game is possibly inspired by the repeated stress on the black-and-white colour contrast in the original, cf. Ott, Tausendundeine Nacht, 12.

  53. 53.

    Cf. also Beigbeder’s protagonist Yorsten’s reflection in the burning North Tower on the changed world picture after the end of the Cold War when Russia was lost as an Other against which the US could clearly define itself and instead the enemy now is within “L’Amérique est devenue son propre ennemi.” Beigbeder, Windows on the World, 151––note the ambivalence of “propre,” meaning as in English that the major enemy comes from within.

  54. 54.

    Enzensberger, “Die Wiederkehr des Menschenopfers”.

  55. 55.

    Cf. Žižek’s rhetorical questions: “[…] are not ‘international terrorist organizations’ the obscene double of the big multinational corporations—the ultimate rhizomatic machine, omnipresent, albeit with no clear territorial base? Are they not the form in which nationalist and/or religious ‘fundamentalism’ accommodated itself to global capitalism? Do they not embody the ultimate contradiction, with their particular exclusive content and their global dynamic functioning?,” “Welcome to the Desert of the Real,” 38.

  56. 56.

    Baudrillard, “Hypotheses on Terrorism,” 55.

  57. 57.

    Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism,” 19.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 5; cf. also Baudrillard, “Hypotheses,” 61f.

  59. 59.

    Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism,” 5. To him, the Twin Towers were the most powerful symbol of hegemonic power because of their double nature. Whereas all other Manhattan skyscrapers competed in height and with their individual façades, the two identical monoliths were an architectural manifestation of a power that has risen above competition. According to Baudrillard’s interpretation, the collapse of the towers was not primarily a consequence of the plane’s actual impact, but also a symbolic reaction to the total order that wishes for its own destruction, a suicide, responding to and mirroring that of the suicide terrorists, ibid., 7.

  60. 60.

    After all, despite the different context and mechanisms, Bhabha is heavily indebted to Kristeva’s reading of Freud, according to which individual identity is always already split within and integrates the Other within themselves, cf. Kristeva, Etrangers à nous-mêmes (1988).

  61. 61.

    This does not mean that the sleeper figure is limited to the German context, as John Le Carré’s espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man (2008) demonstrates, as well as the film adaptation of the same name (2014).

  62. 62.

    Cf. also Birte Christ’s Chapter “National Identity and Literary Culture after 9/11: Pro- and Anti-Americanism in Frédéric Beigbeder’s Windows on the World (2003) and Thomas Hettche’s Woraus wir gemacht sind (2006)” in this volume.

  63. 63.

    Cf. Kristof Magnusson’s new economy novel Das war ich nicht [It Wasn’t Me] (2010) or Thomas Pletzinger’s Bestattung eines Hundes (2008, trans. by Ross Benjamin, Funeral for a Dog, 2011).

  64. 64.

    Cf. Herrmann, “Die Wiederentdeckung des Kreises am Ende der Ironie” and Horstkotte, “Transcending Trauma”.

  65. 65.

    Graf, “Es gibt keinen Sieger außer Gott,” 120f., Herrmann, similarly calls it dystopian, “Die Wiederentdeckung des Kreises am Ende der Ironie,” 54.

  66. 66.

    Cf. also Frédéric Beigbeder’s 9/11 novel Windows on the World where the narrator compares Kubrick’s monolith block to the Parisian skyscraper Tour Montparnasse, the place where he tries to imagine how the victims felt during the attacks on the Twin Towers; ibid. 44.

  67. 67.

    That Lehr sees war and its literary representations in a great historical continuity is also demonstrated in his article on Alfred Döblin’s Wallenstein-novel which was published at the time of writing September. Fata Morgana, and where in the Introduction he draws a direct comparison from the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) to the War on Terror in Afghanistan, Lehr, “‘In Tod und Trümmern—finde’ Alfred Döblins Wallenstein-Roman als Glanzpunkt der literarischen Kriegsberichterstattung,” 112.

  68. 68.

    Cf. “Es ist die ganze Kirchengeschichte / Mischmasch von Irrtum und von Gewalt” (The entire church history is a mishmash of error and violence, my translation), Goethe, Berliner Ausgabe, 381.

  69. 69.

    Though Leonhard Herrmann notes that Granada is the location of the Reconquista and thus the violent conflict between East and West, he interprets the architecture solely as the “hoffungsvolles Zeichen der Möglichkeit friedlicher Koexistenz,” (hopeful sign of possible peaceful coexistence, my translation), Herrmann, “Die Wiederentdeckung des Kreises am Ende der Ironie,” 48, and does not mention the final images. Neither does Eke but sees in it a hopeful ending, see Eke, “‘Es gibt keinen Sieger außer Gott,’” 219.

  70. 70.

    Cf. Henningfeld, “Zäsur oder Wiederkehr des Immergleichen,” 179, with reference to Reinares, Terrorismus Global. Aktionsfeld Europa. For the populist agitation of Spain’s former Prime Minister José María Aznar of the conservative party Partido Popular (PP), the Madrid train bombings insinuating their understanding within the context of the Reconquista by Islamic radicals, cf. also Tremlett, “Foreword. ‘Welcome to Moorishland’,” especially xvii–xviii.

  71. 71.

    Cf. 372.

  72. 72.

    It becomes clear, for example, that he allows his daughters a largely emancipated lifestyle, they both study and travel and it is said explicitly of Jasmin that she never wears the abaya and her wedding followed a Western style, cf. 136.

  73. 73.

    Eagleton, After Theory, 160.

  74. 74.

    Cf. Chapter “Europe and Its Discontents: Intra-European Violence in Dutch Literature after 9/11 ” in this volume by Maria Boletsi as well as her article “Cannibalism and Literary Indigestibility”.

  75. 75.

    With the example of the violence against migrants in particular, cf. Maria Boletsi’s analysis of Bart Koubaa’s novel De leraar and the Dutch context, “Cannibalism and Literary Indigestibility,” here especially 40 and her Chapter “Europe and Its Discontents: Intra-European Violence in Dutch Literature after 9/11” in this volume.

  76. 76.

    Boletsi, “Cannibalism,” 53.

  77. 77.

    Schneider, “The Day of the Know-it-Alls,” first published in Der Spiegel, 23 June 2003.

  78. 78.

    Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order.

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  1. Göttingen University, Göttingen, Germany

    Svenja Frank

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  1. Svenja Frank
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  1. Promotionsprogramm Textwissenschaften, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Svenja Frank

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Frank, S. (2017). The Mimicry of Dialogue: Thomas Lehr’s September. Fata Morgana (2010). In: Frank, S. (eds) 9/11 in European Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64209-3_10

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