Heinrich Boll's Context and Lost Honour
Long Essay- The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
Authors often use characters within their novels to show the consequences of challenging cultural boundaries and, in turn, display their own personal concerns. It is not uncommon for characters to reflect an author’s ideology regarding social groups in their contemporary time periods. It is clear that this is certainly the case with the 1975 novel The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, (also referred to as How Violence Develops and Where it Can Lead), written by the German Author, Heinrich Boll. The Lost Honour is, on the surface, an attack on yellow journalism and the damage it causes to the lives of the people reported on. However, with a more in depth analysis of the novel we are able to see that Boll is in fact using his characters to reflect his own personal views on the stereotypical social groups in contemporary Germany. Boll himself has described The Lost Honour as “a pamphlet disguised as a novel”. Through the use of the seemingly ‘objective’ third person limited narrator, we are shown the consequences of challenging and conforming to the expected gender requirements. On one hand we are presented with Katharina Blum, a woman who rejects the majority of expected stereotypically feminine traits that are place upon women and the resulting slander upon her name in doing so. In contrast however, Boll also demonstrates the consequences of abusing power, which is stemmed from being a male, through the character of Totges, an example of a yellow journalist. It is Totges’ own assumptions of Blum and his vulgarly masculine ways which ultimately leads to his murder. It is important to remember that these narrative developments reflect Bolls own personal views formed from his own context. There are many significant occurrences in Bolls life, such as his time in Hitler’s army, which would suggest that he despises the inequality of power among all German citizens as is reflected by the contrast between Blum and Totges. Bolls
Authors often use characters within their novels to show the consequences of challenging cultural boundaries and, in turn, display their own personal concerns. It is not uncommon for characters to reflect an author’s ideology regarding social groups in their contemporary time periods. It is clear that this is certainly the case with the 1975 novel The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, (also referred to as How Violence Develops and Where it Can Lead), written by the German Author, Heinrich Boll. The Lost Honour is, on the surface, an attack on yellow journalism and the damage it causes to the lives of the people reported on. However, with a more in depth analysis of the novel we are able to see that Boll is in fact using his characters to reflect his own personal views on the stereotypical social groups in contemporary Germany. Boll himself has described The Lost Honour as “a pamphlet disguised as a novel”. Through the use of the seemingly ‘objective’ third person limited narrator, we are shown the consequences of challenging and conforming to the expected gender requirements. On one hand we are presented with Katharina Blum, a woman who rejects the majority of expected stereotypically feminine traits that are place upon women and the resulting slander upon her name in doing so. In contrast however, Boll also demonstrates the consequences of abusing power, which is stemmed from being a male, through the character of Totges, an example of a yellow journalist. It is Totges’ own assumptions of Blum and his vulgarly masculine ways which ultimately leads to his murder. It is important to remember that these narrative developments reflect Bolls own personal views formed from his own context. There are many significant occurrences in Bolls life, such as his time in Hitler’s army, which would suggest that he despises the inequality of power among all German citizens as is reflected by the contrast between Blum and Totges. Bolls