„Wir werden dem Tao nachgehen“ ‒ Der Einfluss Asiens auf die Poetik des Expressionismus am Beispiel der Autoren Alfred Döblin und Gottfried Benn

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 33, 1 - 22, 01.07.2015

Sang-bum Chin Michael Mayer

Abstract

„Wir werden dem Tao nachgehen“ ‒ Der Einfluss Asiens
auf die Poetik des Expressionismus am Beispiel der Autoren Alfred Döblin und
Gottfried Benn „Wir werden dem Tao nachgehen“ ‒ Der Einfluss Asiens
auf die Poetik des Expressionismus am Beispiel der Autoren Alfred Döblin und
Gottfried Benn

   

Keywords

Gottfried Benn, Autoren Alfred Döblin

The Asiatic influence on the Poetics of Expressionism by examples of the German writers Alfred Döblin and Gottfried Benn

Abstract

The European individual
is in a crisis, man has lost its autonomy from nature. In the first two decades
of the 20th century, the enthusiasm for Asian philosophy, religion or belief is
thus of economic activity in Europe and especially in Germany, because the
worldview promises to improve the situation. The artistic movement of
Expressionism participates in this trend and explores specific ways out to
restoring patient's autonomy. However, the literary happens in very different
ways. While Alfred Doblin tries in his novel Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun (The
Three Leaps of the Wan-lun) to connect Taoist way of life and political
revolution, the disillusionment by the experience of two world wars is evident
in Gottfried Benns Lotosland, which
was published after the Second World War. However, the Asia reference remains
as a refuge point, although the Second World War has resulted in Asia and
particularly in Japan in the disaster. The paper aims to examine how
philosophical and religious models from Asia are literary adapted and how these
models are tested narrative for an improvement of social reality. In order to
describe the circulation of Asian thought good among the different sectors of
society, working according to Greenblatt's methodology of the New Historicism.
Thus, the proposed investigation is breaking new ground. Because the
methodology of the New Historicism has not yet been applied to texts of
Expressionism. This approach therefore promises innovative results. The content
of the goal of the study is to make the close link between the influence of
Eastern religion and philosophy as well as political and social events visible
and interpret intended. This relationship has been scientifically not
considered because either the one or the other direction was investigated.
Thus, the paper will provide new insights into the connection between Alfred Döblin's novel  Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun,Gottfried
Benns narrative Lotosland and the Adaption of  Asiatic religions.

Keywords

Expressionismus, intercultural Studies, Asia in German Literature, Gottfried Benn, Alfred Döblin

References

• Ricorda, Ricciarda (2012): La letteratura di viaggio in Italia. Dal Settecento a oggi, Editrice La Scuola, Brescia.