Zur Erzählsituation in Die Strudlhofstiege

Tobias Klauk and Tilmann Köppe

Abstract

The narrative agent in Heimito von Doderer’s novel The Strudlhof Steps or Melzer and the Depth of the Years (Die Strudlhofstiege, 1951) poses an intricate problem for interpretations of the novel: The text contains ample evidence for a figural narrator who is part of the world he (or she) talks about. But the text also contains evidence for a narrator who cannot be part of this very world. We analyze this contradictory evidence and, by drawing inter alia on Doderer’s remarks in Foundations and Function of the Novel (Grundlagen und Funktion des Romans, 1959) we try to reconcile the apparent contradiction. Finally, we argue for interpretations of the narrative agent which emphasize the aesthetic merits of the novel. (T. Klauk/T. Köppe; in German)

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