The Transformation of Failure - A critical analysis of character presentation in the novels of Wolfgang Koeppen

This study of Wolfgang Koeppen's two pre-war and three post-war novels demonstrates a continuity both in Koeppen's thematic concerns and in the underlying development of his characters throughout the five novels. Often the novels have been treated as works of pessi- mistic social and political criticism: by contrast, this detailed analysis of the unique creative inner lives and the corresponding spiritual development of the characters - with the exception of Johannes von Süde in Die Mauer schwankt - demonstrates the narrator's positive assessment of the characters and the increa- singly optimistic tendency of the novels.

List of contents

Contents: Narrator's standpoint in relation to the characters - Dis- cussion and re-evaluation of the characters' so-called «problems of communication» - Re-assessment of their spiritual achieve- ments - Bibliography.

Product details

• Authors: Carole Hanbidge
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.1983
• EAN: 9780820400471
• ISBN: 978-0-8204-0047-1
• No. of pages: 283
• Weight: 450 g
• Series: American University Studies; American University Studies Series 1: Germanic Languages and Literature; American University Studies - Series I: Germanic Languages and Literature; American University Studies Series 1: Germanic Languages and Literature; American University Studies
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > German linguistics / literary studies