Swiss Review 1/2020

Swiss Review / January 2020 / No.1 22 Literature thendisappears oncemore in a city like Bern, coming across to some as a saviour and to others as an annoyance. In the story “Flaschenpost”, published in 1977, a woman survives an atomic war with 300 others in a bunker and records in her notes, which are central for her author, that: “Although I have relinquished any personal hopes, I still hold out hope for my words, that they are radiation-proof and will sur- vive the destruction that lies outside the bunker doors.” In the face of death In 1977, GertrudWilker was diagnosedwith cancer, which she succumbed to after a long battle at the age of sixty on 25October 1984. However, shewrested two books fromthe disease, and in doing sowrote herself into the annals of the women’s movement: “Blick auf meinesgleichen. 28 Frau- engeschichten”, published in 1979, and “Nachleben”, the novel withwhich she so poignantly safeguarded the legacy of her deceased aunt. However, two titles already foretold her own legacy: the vol- ume of prose “Feststellungen für später” published in 1981 and the collection of songs entitled “Leute ich lebe”, published in 1983. And in the poem entitled “Briefentwurf”, “Lieber, dir bring ich / zur Kennt- nis”, “dass es leicht ging, mühelos, / durch die Luft zu fallen / in Vogel- gestalt.” (Dear, I would make you aware / that it was easy, effortless / to fall through the air / in the form of a bird) CHARLES LINSMAYER IS A LITERARY SCHOLAR AND JOURNALIST IN ZURICH CHARLES LINSMAYER “The best, the largest of everything is for sale, wrapped up in a hypnotic belief in the advertising superlative. You drown in offers, shampoo, petrol, razor blades, artificial fer- tiliser. Grinning, busty and leggy billboard girls turn the streets into a veritable gauntlet run between artificially construed, insatiable cravings.” This was the USA in 1962. A state “whose land is scored only with cities and streets, but which is by no means defeated”. A state “that remains the mortal enemy of its population, that you cannot fight fiercely, barbarically and ruthlessly enough, whose wild beautymay be afforded neither love normercy; only a fierce determination to exploit it”. Gertrud Wilker also expresses her admiration for America in her book “Collages USA”, published in 1968. However, of all the impressions that the Bernese secondary school teacher born in 1924 gained when she lived in the USA with her two children and her husband from 1962 to 1963, the critical-disparaging perspective took precedence and she eventually realised that she felt out of place in America andwanted to “step into a new future” in her “old world” rather than there. German in a foreign environment However, she was convinced that her time in America helped her tomake great strides as an author: “Imade a con- scious effort to learn German here once more, as a mirror image of my lifestyle, as a refuge for my identity. It gaveme my name, a linguistically tangible I; it contained the essence of me in this foreign world.” Ultimately, her American experience spurred Gertrud Wilker to write eleven books between 1970 and 1985, and become one of the most eminent Swiss female authors of her generation. “Radiation-proof words” Hermasterful use of German is evident in the 1970 volume “Einen Vater ausWörternmachen”, which containedmany of her best texts. The novel “Altläger bei kleinem Feuer”, published in 1971, then takes a critical look at a Swiss vil- lage in a time of economic prosperity. This is quite differ- ent to the legendary novel “Jota”, published in 1973, whose title character, a headstrong young woman, appears and She found her voice in German in America. Very few Swiss women viewed the USA through more critical eyes than Gertrud Wilker in 1962/63. “For two years, I remained conscious of the fact that I was out of place in America; every word was a translation; everything stood for something. You are not a member, not a contender; you exist, you walk alongside. You remain unaffected by the gradients of national annoyances; you live in the early form of a shocking freedom, but it is enjoyable”. (From “Collages USA”, 1968) BIBLIOGRAPHY: Available in bookstores: Gertrud Wilker: “Elergie auf die Zukunft. Ein Lesebuch”. Compiled by Beatrice Eichmann-Leutenegger and Charles Linsmayer. Reprinted by Huber No. 6. Verlag Th.Gut, Zurich.