A Lesson Learned? The Image of Poland during World War I. Presented by Recent German Literature and Its Perception in Public Discourses
A Lesson Learned? The Image of Poland during World War I. Presented by Recent German Literature and Its Perception in Public Discourses

Summary/Abstract: Based on Wolf Schmid’s Narratology, this article depicts the influence of the so-called abstract dimension on the reception of Kevin Vennemann’s Nahe Jedenew (Close to Jedenew, 2005) and Matthias Nawrat’s Die vielen Tode unseres Opas Jurek (Numerous Deaths of Grandpa Jurek, 2015). The abstract dimension – being, among others, the result of personal beliefs and individual “literary experiences” – helps to understand contradictory opinions about the same work and depends often (but not exclusively) on different historical knowledge and awareness. The reception in the media and academic discourse reveals schemata that cannot be explained by the text alone. I argue that the recipient is highly influenced by the author’s personal background, although it is not about autobiographies – which clearly reduces options for interpretation.

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