2022: XXIV
Articoli

Von der Märchenfigur zum Schimpfnamen: Orca, Ogre, Oger und andere Menschenfresser*innen

Richard Brütting
formerly University of Siegen

Pubblicato 2022-11-08

Parole chiave

  • orca/orco,
  • ogre/ogresse,
  • psychogenesis of terrifying fantasies,
  • from fairytale figures to infamous anthroponyms,
  • ick-names of the protagonists of the Third Reich

Abstract

The Oger is a widely-known fascinosum tremendum. Many fairytales involve moronic monsters who crave to devour children, only to be overcome by quick-witted youths. – In Oskar Loerke’s novel Der Oger (1921), a whole family is terrorized by a frightening obsession. – Elias Canetti reveals only in his autobio­ graphy the infamous nickname Oger, given to his detested uncle Salomon. – In Veza Canetti’s posthumous drama Oger, the brutal businessman Iger, having humiliated his wife for many years, signs the divorce document with the name Oger. – Abel
Tiffauges, the protagonist of Michel Tournier’s novel Le roi des Aulnes (1970), is contaminated by a ‘Oger vocation’. As a war prisoner, he is under the command of Hermann Göring. Called the Oger de Kaltenborn, Abel recruits adolescents for a Nazi training school. Recognizing at last the perversity of the Oger de Rastenburg, Abel dies while attempting to rescue a Jewish boy.