“Dort, wo die Logik versagt”–The Role of Coincidence in Dimitré Dinev’s Engelszungen (2003)

Abstract

Dimitré Dinev’s novel Engelszungen presents a subversive variation of the traditional coincidence plot, which brings together characters with a prior connection seemingly by chance and under remarkable circumstances. Dinev functionalizes both the coincidence plot’s ability to generate suspense and its promise to offer insights into deeper systems underlying life. By linking his protagonists’ lives through a number of striking coincidences, the author keeps the readers wondering about the meaning and outcome of their impending encounter. However, he subverts the traditional coincidence plot’s assertion of causality as explanatory system. In Engelszungen’s narrative world, the coincidences are ultimately attributed to chance and randomness, undermining readers’ belief in causal explanations as well as challenging a deterministic world view that understands certain events as unavoidable. (HS)