STIMMENVIELFALT UND FIGURENGEFLECHT IN JOACHIM WITTSTOCKS ROMAN DAS ERFUHR ICH UNTER MENSCHEN (2024)
NARRATIVE VOICES AND CHARACTER CONSTELLATIONS IN JOACHIM WITTSTOCK’S NOVEL DAS ERFUHR ICH UNTER MENSCHEN (2024)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines narrative voices and character constellations in Joachim Wittstock’s novel “Das erfuhr ich unter Menschen” (2024). The study explores how Wittstock intertwines fact and fiction through the lens of narratological theory, particularly Gérard Genette’s concepts of focalisation and narrative modes. The novel’s structure is characterized by multiple storylines centered on a sanatorium in Brașov and the figures associated with it, unfolding across more than a century of Transylvanian history. By alternating between internal and zero focalisation, as well as between narrative and dramatic modes, Wittstock creates a polyphonic text that blurs the boundaries between documentation and fiction. The interplay of biography, collective memory, and historical-political contexts reveals a complex architecture of storytelling, where individual destinies are interwoven with communal experience. Far from being merely a key novel, “Das erfuhr ich unter Menschen” exemplifies a maximalist narrative that aspires to totality through fragmentation, polyphony, and mise en abîme effects.

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