{"title":"Reforged or Deformed? Forced Labour, Human Instruments, and the Critique of the Gulag System in Herta Müller's Atemschaukel","authors":"N. Courtman","doi":"10.3138/SEMINAR.57.2.3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article proposes a new reading of Herta Müller's 2009 novel Atemschaukel as a critique of the notion of \"reform through labour\" that was used to legitimize the Soviet gulag system, drawing attention to the striking similarities between the critique articulated in the novel and Karl Marx's account of the qualitative transformation of the labour process in the course of its real subsumption under capital. I show how several elements of Marx's account are reflected in complexes of figuration that run throughout the novel, amounting to an immanent literary critique of the theoretical foundations of the gulag system.","PeriodicalId":44556,"journal":{"name":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","volume":"1 1","pages":"134 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"SEMINAR-A JOURNAL OF GERMANIC STUDIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3138/SEMINAR.57.2.3","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, GERMAN, DUTCH, SCANDINAVIAN","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This article proposes a new reading of Herta Müller's 2009 novel Atemschaukel as a critique of the notion of "reform through labour" that was used to legitimize the Soviet gulag system, drawing attention to the striking similarities between the critique articulated in the novel and Karl Marx's account of the qualitative transformation of the labour process in the course of its real subsumption under capital. I show how several elements of Marx's account are reflected in complexes of figuration that run throughout the novel, amounting to an immanent literary critique of the theoretical foundations of the gulag system.
摘要:本文对赫塔·梅勒(Herta m ller) 2009年的小说《Atemschaukel》进行了新的解读，将其视为对“通过劳动进行改革”这一概念的批判，这一概念被用来使苏联古拉格制度合法化，并注意到小说中所表达的批判与卡尔·马克思(Karl Marx)关于劳动过程在资本的实际包容过程中的质的转变的描述之间的惊人相似之处。我展示了马克思描述的几个要素是如何反映在贯穿整部小说的复杂形象中，构成了对古拉格制度理论基础的内在文学批评。
期刊介绍：
The first issue of Seminar appeared in the Spring of 1965, sponsored jointly by the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German (CAUTG) and the German Section of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA). This collaborative sponsorship has continued to the present day, with the Journal essentially a Canadian scholarly journal, its Editors all Canadian, likewise its publisher, and managerial and editorial decisions taken by the Editor and/or the Canadian Editorial Committee,the Australasian Associate Editor being responsible for the selection of articles submitted from that area.
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