ABSTRACT
In one of his children’s short stories, Ein Tisch ist ein Tisch1, Swiss author Peter Bichsel writes about an old man who wanted to change his life by giving new names to familiar, ordinary things like tables, chairs and beds but also to specific activities. Henceforward, a table was no longer a table but a rug. A bed he called a painting, a cupboard turned into a newspaper and the old man himself was no longer a man but a foot, while the foot was a morn and the latter was called a man. ‘To skim through’ he called ‘to lie something down’ and ‘to lie’ was signified by ‘to ring’. This ‘new language’ changed the old man’s life completely because after a while, he was unable to understand the others. Worse, he began to fear speaking to other people, since it was not only he who could not understand them – they also could not understand what he was saying. Ultimately, the man ceased to speak. ‘He kept still, spoke only to himself and did not even greet others’ (Bichsel 1969: 25).
