A Nonconformist “Aesthetics of the Human”: On the Relevance of Reading Heinrich Böll´s Satiric Tales Today

Abstract

In my attempt at revisiting Heinrich Böll´s oeuvre, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, on the centennial of his birth, this essay foregrounds the importance of reading, nowadays, Böll’s tales and Kurgeschichten of the 50s of the twentieth-century – the literary genre in which he was most prolific. Within these post-war tales, three recurrent themes emerge, which also feature throughout the entire body of his work: i) a critique of a conformist, indifferent, and consumeristic bourgeoisie, intent on restoring the old social order that nurtured the national-socialist regime; ii) a critique of the media and of a number of intellectuals who always bowed down to the régime by way of endorsing opportunistic and politically correct programs and other works; iii) and a critique of the Catholic Church as a sumptuous institution unmindful of its humanizing mission. “Engagement” (Gebundenheit) and “involvement” (Einmischung) were the catchwords of the “aesthetics of the human”, which characterizes Böll’s literary output, and that keeps on speaking to us today.