Literarische Räume: Das (Kranken)Haus als Enklave in Alfred Döblins Alexanderplatz und Thomas Manns Der Zauberberg
Literary Spaces: The Ho(me)spital as Enclave in Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz and Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain)

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with the meanings of the political-social concept of “enclave”, which, by addressing the concept in the literary works of Thomas Mann and Alfred Döblin, can bring about a new perspective on the current pandemic context. Enclaves as fictional constructs reveal new aspects of self-regulation processes in the individual and in society. The conventional term is defined by the discourse-based opposition between own and foreign elements of identity, while the practice of isolating disease carriers opens a new perspective on the social conditions that lead to the organization of enclaves. Fictional enclaves of disease draw attention to the fact that isolation could come into existence as a result of individual initiative or as an authoritarian instrument of social order. The political and social phenomenon of the isolation of disease gains ethical and aesthetic nuances, which are emphasized by the fictional literature by considering the human psyche as central issue. Theoretical starting points are Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space and Michel Foucault’s discourse-based exclusion and the space narratology. The novels Berlin. Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin and Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg function as case studies.

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