Fragmentarische Subversion Zu Christian Geisslers kamalatta

Abstract

Christian Geisslers novel kamalatta, published in 1988, deals with the politics of the fundamentalist left opposition from a sympathetic point of view. Geissler wrote the text during the breakdown process experienced by the socialist governments in the eastern hemisphere, which reached its symbolic peak with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He reacts to the loss of the utopian perspective of revolutionary change. Kamalatta is characterized by a dual structure of political enthusiasm on one hand and the threat of failure on the other. The article verifies this thesis by examining three features of the book: firstly, the many-voiced constellation of the characters. Secondly, the genuine language that Geissler develops and in which he integrates esoteric and exoteric parts. Thirdly, the fragmented form of the novel. Geissler's highly artificial text has more to offer than left-wing agitation. In his chef d'oeuvre politics and aesthetics deconstruct each other and form a genuine textual movement that may be called the subversion of literature. This term includes two antithetical ideas: that literature should be overcome in order to act politically, and that literature itself offers a means to work subversively.