October 17 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Georg Büchner
The German poet and physician Georg Buchner lived more than a short life – he died of typhus at the age of 23. But he managed to compile a textbook of comparative anatomy, according to which, they say, future doctors were taught until the middle of the twentieth century, he tried himself in writing poetry and philosophical treatises, and most importantly, he wrote several plays, one of which is “Woyzeck”(1837) turned out to be incredibly in demand by the theater, though … almost a hundred years after it was written. The story of a former soldier, a downtrodden and impoverished Leipzig barber, who was executed for the murder of his mistress out of desperation and jealousy, turned out to be too merciless for its time and too avant-garde in its form. On the other hand, the audience of the XNUMXth century recognized in its expression and ragged rhythm, in the tragedy of a little man, plagued by harsh experiments, – themselves, their time.
If Woyzeck is staged all over the world with enviable regularity, then the story unfinished by Buchner “Lenz‘ is less known. It is based on the biography of the German writer Jacob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751-1792), a member of the Sturm und Drang literary movement, who at a certain point in his life felt a deep inner discord, he began to develop a mental disorder. Later, he managed to regain his lost composure, continued to write and teach, but it was precisely this dramatic, crisis period in Lenz’s life that Buchner found especially interesting and important.
In the story, he describes in detail the changes in Lenz’s state of mind. (And this text is somewhat reminiscent of a clinical case from therapeutic practice). Buchner shows how concepts and images interfere in the mind of the hero, how a feeling of despair is suddenly replaced by peace and tranquility, unbearable anxiety, fear of emptiness and loneliness gives way to short-term harmony and enlightenment. In general, the theme of the madness of poets and writers of the first half of the XNUMXth century attracted a lot, it’s enough to recall the works of Hölderlin, Gogol, Dostoevsky … But still, usually madness frightens a person: we are afraid of losing control over the situation or losing social ties, we are afraid of losing our personality, our intellect and instantly be left out of this orderly and high-speed modern world. And it is very difficult to empathize with such a hero as Lenz: our own fears prevent us from putting ourselves in his place, “trying on” feelings that are unbearable for us, feeling the chaos that reigns in his soul.
Read more:
- “Well, crazy, what will you take from him?”
But still, Buechner’s story is not only about madness. She raises topics that are important at certain moments in time for everyone – this is the loss of the meaning of life, and the doubt about the existence of a norm that is universal for everyone, and the need for a religious search – in general, in a strong experience that can pull us out of the routine of everyday life.
And Buechner, indeed, manages, if not to stop us, then at least to slow down for a while and pay attention to those deep fears and fantasies that still live in our unconscious.