Die Erarbeitung des Anderen. Handwerk und Medien in Uwe Timms «Morenga»

The Elaboration of the Other. Craftsmanship and Media in Timm’s "Morenga". In "Morenga" (1978) Uwe Timm records the atrocities of the Germans in “South-West Africa”, as Namibia was once called. The novel relates of veterinary Gottschalk’s three-year stay (1904-1907) in that conflict-ravaged land, as he gradually adopts an anti-colonial position in the face of colonizer’s brutality against Nama’s uprising. This paper describes the elaboration techniques of the Other, how in "Morenga" the image of the Other is entangled and subsequently shaped in a matrix of data, fictional and archival documents. Therefore, I shall focus on the category of labour, especially as craftsmanship, in thematic and narratological terms; as a result of my analysis I will show that Gottschalk’s veterinary activity, through its potential for transformation and communication, makes possible a non-violent contact with the Other. Gottschalk’s attempt to decode the Other’s world beyond the patterns of hegemonic thinking is an example of ‘enlightenment’ literature of the late 70s, between documentary and fiction. By repeatedly interrupting of narration, the assemblage techniques, the distance-creating gesture of reflecting and the medialization of the Other Timm avoids any exoticism and aims to deconstruct German colonialism. His narrative procedures, which are partly due to the ethnographic practice, also reflect the crisis of representation which characterizes the ethnographic discourse of those years.