„UND DIE SCHEIBE WAR WIE EIN DISTANZSIGNAL.“ ZUM FENSTER-MOTIV IN AUSGEWÄHLTEN AUTOBIOGRAFISCHEN WERKEN VON HANNS-JOSEF ORTHEIL
“AND THE WINDOW WAS LIKE A DISTANCE SIGNAL.” ON THE WINDOW MOTIF IN SELECTED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WORKS BY HANNS-JOSEF ORTHEIL

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to analyze Hanns-Josef Ortheil’s selected autobiographicalworks and determine the function of the window motif featured in them. Special importance isattached to the bay window in the Cologne apartment of Ortheil’s parents. The window marked aboundary in his child’s perception of the outside world: between here and there, between the safezone of the domestic space and the uncertainty of the threatening space outside. But on the otherhand the window opened the space of the parents’ apartment. The window made it possible toovercome the isolation and become familiar with the extra-familial reality. While the author’s pre-vious publications often focus on the closed window, perceived from the perspective of the room,the autobiographical novel Ombra (2021) also refers to the open window and the window seenfrom the outside. Thus, the boundary marked by the window is crossed not only in the act of itsopening, but also through a changed perspective.

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