Woyzeck's Head

Hugh Oliver is Editor-in-Chief, OISE Press.

This is a peculiar novel, but not, as is the case with many modern
novels, because it is difficult to understand. Rather it is because of
its form—that of a literary research project: one is never quite sure
where truth ends and fiction begins.

The story opens with literary researcher Hans Martens crossing into
Switzerland to escape Nazi persecution. He carries with him “the
Woyzeck papers,” which have been passed into his custody by a friend.
It is these papers that constitute the novel’s main substance.

Woyzeck is an itinerant barber who gets caught up in the Napoleonic
campaigns and who is found guilty of murdering his mistress. Dr. Bergk,
one of the first-ever psychiatrists (it’s unclear whether he’s a
factual or fictitious character), is trying to save Woyzeck from
execution on grounds of insanity. He corresponds with Schopenhauer about
Woyzeck; Goethe, too, has a brief role in the story.

The underlying thesis of the novel (certainly that of the researcher
and possibly that of the author) seems to be that Schopenhauer and, to a
lesser extent, Goethe were precursors of Hitler’s National Socialist
doctrines. But that message aside, the medium through which Woyzeck’s
story is presented is interesting in its own right.

The writing is articulate, but the style—albeit appropriate to the
story—is rather stilted and old-fashioned. The text is interspersed
with fragments of Latin, German, French, and Italian, all of which are
translated in the footnotes and many of which are extremely
coarse—Woyzeck was no angel. Perhaps the novel is best summed up by
its own last line: “The entire book reads much like a document from a
far distant time and world.”