Reklame-Uhr, Klingel, Knöpfe, Glaskugel : zu den Gegenständen in Robert Walsers Roman Der Gehülfe

The advertising clock, a door bell, buttons, a glass ball. On objects in Robert Walser’s novel The Assistant Although for many years Robert Walser has been considered first and foremost as a fanciful idealist and as a naturalist poet somewhat removed from the world, many of his texts are richly peppered with objects. In the novel The Assistant material objects exert particular influence, as can be seen for example in the case of ambitious inventions and their role in the decline of the Tobler family. The description of the garden surrounding the Villa Tobler draws attention to this world of objects, for example the mysterious “pretty multicoloured glass ball” at the front door of the Villa and the line-by-line listing of the small cheap things which make up Joseph’s belongings. Drawing on theories by Michael Foucault, by Hartmut Böhme and by Bruno Latour, this essay aims to explore the ‘sex appeal of the inorganic’ (Mario Perniola), linking Tobler’s fascination with his inventions and with the material world more generally to the technological, future-oriented dimension of the heterotopia of the Villa where the novel is set. By exploring these juxtapositions and unpicking the linguistic complexity through which Tobler’s sophisticated inventions are described (e.g. ‘Reklame-Uhr’ or advertising clock, ‘Tiefbohrmaschine’, ‘Krankenstuhl’), fresh insights into the work are highlighted.