Book review #6
Charlott reads 'Gesammeltes Schweigen'

© Charlott Schönwetter Heinrich Böll’s short story, Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen [Murke’s Collected Silences] was first published in 1955. Bur-Malottke, an intellectual who converted to Catholicism in 1945, encounters Murke at a radio station, busy editing silences into a collection of audio snippets. Bur-Malottke urges the director to replace the word 'God' in a speech he recorded with the words: 'the higher being we worship' — a thankless and absurd task which is eventually appointed to Murke. The short story provides a satirical take on the continuities between National Socialist ideology and the culture of post-War Germany.

However, the book Gesammeltes Schweigen is not merely a reissue of the short story: Its dual authorship (Heinrich Böll / Sharon Dodua Otoo) instead opens a dialog. Böll’s story is printed in the first section of the book with an engaging, creative new take on the layout and design. For example, the audio 'snippets' appear as a reoccurring graphic element. Otoo then engages with both the short story as well as Böll himself as author in the second section of the book. Their encounter does not take the form of a classic essay—the kind of new contextualization one often encounters in reprints of works considered literary classics. Instead, Otoo utilizes various forms of approximation, contextualization, and discussion. The section contains communications, the beginnings of letters addressed to Böll (and then crossed out), diary entrees, the response to a listener’s comment from the short story, and numerous quotes.

In doing so, Otoo raises questions about silences and omissions, the role of the writer and the potential for less-discriminatory language. How can language become violent? How can speaking lead to silence[ing] (in which, for example, certain experiences are not addressed)? Schweigen is, after all, a difficult word to translate directly into English, as it means more than simply 'silence', and is also a verb for the act of being or remaining silent. Gesammeltes Schweigen demonstrates how a playful, creative, critical, and always interrogative encounter with a (classic educational-) canonical author can look. Böll is not placed on a pedestal here (even if Otoo does make clear that his work is important to her). Instead, this multiform encounter demonstrates how Böll’s work can still pose important questions today while drawing attention to its potential gaps, as well. Otoo not only shares her own thoughts on the short story, but also integrates these observations into wider discussions. She brings in important perspectives when she, for example, writes a response to the fictive listener acknowledging the ineffable Bundestag debates of the 1950s regarding Black 'Besatzungskinder' [war babies, ie: the children of Black American soldiers stationed in Germany with local German partners] or the middling debates about the use of the N-word (while simultaneously emphasizing that she doesn’t want to write about this topic at all).

Böll’s story, along with various quotes from his speeches are put into conversation with quotes from authors such as Audre Lorde, May Ayim, Olivia Wenzel, Philipp Khabo Köpsell, and RANDom WoMANtis, all of whom in their own way raise questions of language, silence, and the search for words. With this targeted selection of Black authors, Otoo demonstrates the enrichment a multiplicity of voices and perspectives can provide. Of course, Böll has already been put into conversation with the works of other authors in the past, for example, when read in the context of Gruppe 47. But with Gesammeltes Schweigen, Otoo creates a novel network of association through her selection of citations and approaches in which Böll can be reread entirely anew.