PATOLOGINIŲ BŪSENŲ SKLAIDA VOKIEČIŲ EKSPRESIONIZMO PROZOJE
THE SPREAD OF PATHOLOGICAL STATES IN THE PROSE OF GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Summary/Abstract: German expressionism (1910-1920/25) is one of the most conspicuous German literature trends of the 20th century. Thus, it has been analysed interdisciplinary taking into consideration different contexts of philosophy, theology, anthropology, sociology, medicine (psychiatry in particular) and natural sciences. The literature of expressionism focuses on the analysis of people’s states. The expressionist writers (differently than, for instance, romanticists or realists) do not convey the feelings, moods or psychology of a character; however, they reveal the states aroused by intense fear, tension or shock and record their climax point. An exclusive feature of the expressionist literature is its attention to pathological phenomena and the relation between poetic and medical discourses. The article is aimed at discussing one of the prevailing themes in the prose of German expressionism, i. e. the depiction of pathological states and their aesthetic expression in the prose by Alfred Döblin (1878-1957), George Heym (1887-1912), Gottfried Benn (1886-1956), Walter Rheiner (1895- 1925) and Oskar Loerkes (1884-1941). The group of chosen texts gives a possibility to show the diversity of this theme spread, its development as well as the characteristics of a human being’s conception in the prose of German expressionism alongside with putting emphasis on the dominants and typology features of a short story. This problem has not been discussed in the Lithuanian literary science yet.

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