German
FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 69
The Poetics of Deniable Plausibility in Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Die Turnstunde”
DARREN ILETT ie Turnstunde”1 opens abruptly: “In der Militärschule zu
Sankt Severin. Turnsaal” (W 435).2 Provided with only these two terse phrases of orientation — which replicate the harsh, clipped commands of the military3 — the reader is already located in the space of action. The narrative begins immediately and relates Cadet Karl Gruber’s atypical athletic performance and consequent death. The brevity, scarcity, and seeming objectivity one finds in these introductory words also characterize the story generally, for it comprises only a few pages and seems to have remained a fragment. In addition, one might describe the narrative voice in terms of limitation or constraint, for the narrator reports only visual and auditory information, those concrete details that one might perceive if present at the narrated events. Yet this apparent objectivity makes for an inscrutable text resistant to interpretation and in which we have no unambiguous access to characters’ thoughts or motivations. The tension inherent in this ostensibly and self-consciously objective narrative that nonetheless evades a univocal interpretation is the result, at least partially, of anxiety regarding the possibility of homosexuality, which was often depicted by literary and professional discourses as a constant danger in same-sex institutions like the military boarding school. This tension finds expression in the narrative peculiarities of Rilke’s text.
The events of “Die Turnstunde” are easily recounted. After the curt introductory phrases, the gym teacher commands the cadets to go to various pieces of gymnastics equipment. Cadet Karl Gruber, the worst athlete, goes uncharacteristically quickly to the climbing pole and is already partway up when the others arrive. The teacher orders him either to come down or to finish the climb. He continues, eventually
The Poetics of Deniable Plausibility in Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Die Turnstunde”
DARREN ILETT ie Turnstunde”1 opens abruptly: “In der Militärschule zu
Sankt Severin. Turnsaal” (W 435).2 Provided with only these two terse phrases of orientation — which replicate the harsh, clipped commands of the military3 — the reader is already located in the space of action. The narrative begins immediately and relates Cadet Karl Gruber’s atypical athletic performance and consequent death. The brevity, scarcity, and seeming objectivity one finds in these introductory words also characterize the story generally, for it comprises only a few pages and seems to have remained a fragment. In addition, one might describe the narrative voice in terms of limitation or constraint, for the narrator reports only visual and auditory information, those concrete details that one might perceive if present at the narrated events. Yet this apparent objectivity makes for an inscrutable text resistant to interpretation and in which we have no unambiguous access to characters’ thoughts or motivations. The tension inherent in this ostensibly and self-consciously objective narrative that nonetheless evades a univocal interpretation is the result, at least partially, of anxiety regarding the possibility of homosexuality, which was often depicted by literary and professional discourses as a constant danger in same-sex institutions like the military boarding school. This tension finds expression in the narrative peculiarities of Rilke’s text.
The events of “Die Turnstunde” are easily recounted. After the curt introductory phrases, the gym teacher commands the cadets to go to various pieces of gymnastics equipment. Cadet Karl Gruber, the worst athlete, goes uncharacteristically quickly to the climbing pole and is already partway up when the others arrive. The teacher orders him either to come down or to finish the climb. He continues, eventually
Cited: Butler, E. M. Rainer Maria Rilke. New York: Macmillan, 1941. Demetz, Peter. René Rilkes Prager Jahre. Düsseldorf: Diederichs, 1953. Dethlefsen, Dirk. “Die Turnstunde. Rilkes Beitrag zu einer neuen Schule des Sehens.” Seminar 18 (1982): 235-60. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2000. Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse. An Essay in Method. 1972. Trans. Jane E. Lewin. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1980. Kayser, Hans-Christoph. “Rainer Maria Rilke. Die Turnstunde. Zum Verhältnis von Dichter und Schule.” Modern Language Studies 2 (1972): 44-52. Kim, Byong-Ock. Rilkes Militärschulerlebnis und das Problem des verlorenen Sohnes. Bonn: Bouvier, 1973. Literatur 897. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1986. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1962. 72-93. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1995. Mineola: Dover, 2003. 85-93. ——. Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Ernst Zinn. Vol. 4. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1961. ——. Tagebücher aus der Frühzeit. Eds. Ruth Sieber-Rilke and Carl Sieber. Leipzig: Insel, 1942. ——. Werke. Ed. August Stahl, et al. Vol. 3. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1996. Erika A. Metzger and Michael M. Metzger. Rochester: Camden House, 2001. 67-89. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia UP, 1985. ——. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: U of California P, 1990. Otthein Rammstedt. Vol. 8. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993. 317-23.