In September 1947, Ruth Klüger and her mother set sail for America on the S.S. Ernie Pyle, arriving in New York after a two-week voyage. The moment they arrived, mother and daughter experienced freedoms previously unknown to them. When Alma asked where they were supposed to go, she and Ruth received the following reply: "Wherever you like, lady. It’s a free country."1 In her new home, a fresh opportunity instantly presented itself to Ruth and she began to study at Hunter College.
In contrast, however, she found herself living precariously. In her autobiography, the transfigured image of exile takes on more realistic aspects: vermin in their accommodation when they arrived, hard work for little income, and, as newcomers, they found themselves at the lowest level in immigrant hierarchy. The exiles mocked each other, not least for their poor English. Their own mother tongue, however, was a burden, "like a hump one wanted to get rid of. We wanted to assimilate and become Americans."2 This wish was fulfilled when they were naturalized on August 17, 1953. Throughout her first years in the United States, Ruth Klüger wrote poetry in English. The poem "A Post-War Sonnet" testifies to the terrible experiences during the years of war, but also to the promise of a new beginning. Under these circumstances, the deadly terror under the Nazi regime was transformed into "the deadly temptation of depression".
1 Landscapes of Memory. A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. Bloomsbury 2004, p. 209.
2 Literary estate of Ruth Klüger 466/W520 – Interview with Ruth Klüger. Original quote: "[...] wie ein Buckel, den man loswerden wollte. Wir wollten uns assimilieren und Amerikaner werden."
"Intrinsically, I am probably a depressed person. […] I have actually had suicidal thoughts throughout my whole adult life,"3 Ruth Klüger stated in retrospect in an interview published in “TAZ” in 2012. The necessary self-reliance in the face of death had accelerated her development, and her adulthood had begun prematurely. Whilst she dismissed the careless optimism of young adults in America as naïve and implausible, the 17-year-old roamed the dark streets of New York in the deep hours of the night, suffering from her emotional wounds. In an intensely edited poem that exists in several versions, Ruth Klüger picks up the depressive moods of her first months in her new homeland, as well as those of the previous and subsequent stages of her life, and weaves them into a work of art that is life-affirming in spite of all the misery she had to endure. "Colloquy with the Angel of Death" presents the dialogue between a woman and her angel of death, who patiently dwells by her side until she is finally prepared to make peace. Ruth Klüger drew the strength to continue living from familiar occupations: literary writing as a way of coping, and intimate friendships with kindred spirits as sources of inspiration and happiness. These passages from her autobiographical work tell of four different friends who decide to deal with life together.
3 Original quote: „An sich bin ich wohl ein depressiver Mensch. […] Selbstmordgedanken hatte ich eigentlich mein ganzes erwachsenes Leben.”
Before Ruth Klüger left Germany, she had taken an "emergency" high school diploma in Straubing and had continued to study at the University of Regensburg in the summer semester of 1947. In the America of the late 1940s, career opportunities for women were very limited. The school leaving certificate and student IDs from Germany ensured her a place at Hunter College in New York. As she had always been passionate about poetry, Klüger chose English literature as her major. In an interview many years later, she was asked about the eras and authors that she had been particularly interested in at the time, to which she answered: "In everything, absolutely everything […], from 'Beowulf' to Virginia Wolf [sic!]."4
Even as a student, her literary activity was noticed, earning her a number of prizes, including the “Blanche Lewy Joseph Memorial Prize”. After moving to the western United States, a decision that entailed putting a distance between her and her mother, she continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Because her degree in English was only sufficient "for typing out invoices for eyeglass frames"5, she decided to study library science a few years later. She enjoyed her work as a librarian, which involved driving a bus, the "Bookmobile", through suburbs and making individual book recommendations to various groups of readers.
4 Literary estate of Ruth Klüger 466/W517 – Interview between Beatrix Müller-Kampel and Ruth Klüger. Original quote: "Für alles, absolut alles […], von 'Beowulf' bis Virginia Wolf."
5 unterwegs verloren. Erinnerungen. dtv 2010, S. 76. Original quote: "zum Abtippen von Rechnungen für Brillenfassungen reicht".
Ruth Klüger met Tom Angress during her years as a student. The Berlin-born historian, who had lived in America since 1939 and fought alongside the Allies in World War II, made a powerful impression on the young woman. After living together for only a few months, the couple married in March 1953. The poem "Before a mirror on my wedding morning," in which Klüger asks "Is there an error?" already reveals doubts on her wedding day. Was it love or only pretense? In marriage, their roles were split in the traditional way. While Tom concentrated on his professional career, Ruth Klüger took care of their sons Percy and Dan Angress, born in 1954 and 1957, and contributed to the family’s income through her role as the "Bookmobile Lady." Emotionally, the couple became more and more distant from each other. The marriage survived its last few years only because of Tom’s request that she should not file for divorce before the publication of his book. Later, Klüger summed up: "This relationship was the biggest mistake I have ever made. I felt like I was in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. I was not made for marriage from the start. I’m not cut out to be a housewife. I wanted to have my own career."6
6 Literary estate of Ruth Klüger 466/W520 – Interview with Ruth Klüger. Original quote: "Diese Beziehung war der größte Fehler, den ich je gemacht habe. Ich fühlte mich wie im Gefrierfach eines Kühlschranks. Ich war von Anfang an nicht für die Ehe gemacht. Ich tauge nicht zur Hausfrau. Ich wollte meinen eigenen Beruf haben."
"Children are a substitute for cats. Once they have grown up, you return to your first love." 7 Ruth Klüger’s passionate love for cats, as she even admitted to herself, occasionally took on neurotic features. In her memoirs, she dedicated adoring passages to Lolita, Golda Miau, and all the other four-legged friends she kept in her apartments, most of them without permission. She inextricably linked them to the process of watching her two grown-up sons live their own lives. Klüger’s vigorous independence as a woman and as a single and working mother encouraged Percy and Dan Angress to become self-sufficient at an early age. Although she approved of her maturing sons’ life choices and later was pleased at their stable marriages and her grandchildren, Klüger felt excluded and lonely. She projected her reserved relationship with her children, her unfulfilled expectations of being a mother and her guilty conscience at underperforming with regard to the care she provided, onto the behavioral patterns of the pets.
She identified with cats and their solid will to live and be free. In the poem "Cats," written in 1958, which was published in a magazine of the same name and later in an anthology for cat lovers, she reflects on their anthropomorphic projections. With self-irony and genuine devotion to these animals, she portrayed herself as a peculiar "Cat lady."
7 unterwegs verloren. Erinnerungen. dtv 2010, S. 26. Original quote: "Kinder sind ein Ersatz für Katzen. Wenn sie erwachsen sind, kehrt man zu seiner ersten Liebe zurück."
Once the craving for literature that she had felt since childhood had been satisfied by finishing her degree in English studies, and her livelihood had been secured by her degree in library science, Ruth Klüger confronted a fear which resulted in serious "nightmare poems"8: the fear of her mother tongue, the sound of which triggered unease. At the advice of a professor of her acquaintance, she enrolled at the University of Berkeley’s department of German studies, paving the way for her successful academic career. The impartial scientific approach to the emotionally charged language was no less intense, however. She referred to German studies as her drug. For just as much as it evoked fear, it also introduced the possibility of coming to terms with the past. After quickly completing her master’s degree, she plunged into her doctoral dissertation. As if in a frenzy, she wrote a fundamental study on the epigram in German baroque poetry. She purposefully focused on a period that maintained a historical distance from the more recent German literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. She presented her dissertation to her expert colleagues prior to the submission deadline. The criticism of some imprecisions in handling research literature did not diminish its success, and the study received considerable recognition and positive reviews. By making a detour to German studies, Ruth Klüger found her way back to German and Austrian literature and thus back to her mother tongue.
8 unterwegs verloren. Erinnerungen. dtv 2010, S. 112. Original: "Albtraumgedichte."
Ruth Klüger Ruth Klüger talks about Vienna as her “linguistic home”
Source: Literaturepochen.at
In her second autobiographical book, "unterwegs verloren. Erinnerungen," Ruth Klüger mainly traces her academic career and her moves across the country that accompanied it. Significantly, she writes about her "wonderful profession" and the "incomparable highlights"9 of her everyday life. Even more than the secluded hours of writing, she enjoyed teaching at the universities and the moments of insight established together as a group. Diverse collections of materials account for Klüger’s dedicated work with students and young scholars. In thoroughly researched and meticulously prepared seminars on practically every period of German-language literary history, she taught the dreaded Middle High German, recited Baroque vanitas-poems or fiercely discussed the “good” as well as "evil" aspects in both ancient and contemporary literature. Klüger was generally a popular lecturer, as reflected in the annual evaluations: just as her warmth in dealing with people was impressive, her unerring rigor as a scholar was mesmerizing. Her role model effect was thus not limited to her expertise in her field, but manifested itself in her tenacity as a woman in the field of German studies abroad, a field dominated by men. She was the first woman to chair the German department at Princeton, and the first woman to take over the editorship of the traditional and influential journal "German Quarterly."
9 unterwegs. Erinnerungen. dtv 2010, S. 143. Original quote: "wunderbaren Beruf" and "unvergleichlichen Höhepunkte."
Ruth Klüger's extraordinary sense for literature is particularly evident in her literary essays and reviews. With the aim of appealing to the widest possible audience and of passing on her personal enthusiasm for literary subject matters, she composed her academic analyses with suspense and wit. In sharp conclusions and points she dismantled the male-centered canon of world literature and exposed subtle but implicit stereotypes and clichés. By thoroughly looking for marginal female characters incapable of action, or Jewish villains, she revealed the social circumstances in which literary works were created. Klüger’s essays thus functioned as mirrors, which she held up to society and her readers. Her reviews for various newspapers and magazines covered a wide range of works: from youth and cult books such as "Harry Potter" to crime novels by John Le Carré and poems by Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller. She paid special attention to female realities and works written by women, which she published in her series "Ruth Klüger has read books by women"10 in the newspaper "Die Welt" or in her reviews of poetry for the "Frankfurter Anthologie." In her elaborations, Ruth Klüger liked to take readers by the hand and guide them through the genre of poetry, which gave rise to uncertainty for many people. For her work as a reviewer, she was honored with the Austrian State Award for Literary Criticism and the Prize of the Frankfurter Anthologie, amongst others.
10 Original title: „Ruth Klüger hat Bücher von Frauen gelesen.“
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