Wolfgang Koeppens short stories: various ways of an autobiographical writing

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 33, 23 - 40, 01.07.2015

Laura Colaci

Abstract

Autobiographical aspects permeate
Koeppen’s entire literary production, with the fragments of one single
character splintered into the novels larger texts, which are dominated by a
great unique theme: Koeppen’s ‘Lebensroman’, his literary existence, his
memories, his relationship with himself and with the world. In the 1950s
Koeppen intensified his approach to the autobiographical perspective above all for
intimate and personal experiences. The selected texts from these years
(included in the collection Auf demPhantasieroß) document the variety of
his narration, however based on his private experiences and his intimate world.
The analysis of this work is useful not only to extract information about the characters
and the themes of Koeppen’s literary production, but also to lighten the
subjective processes of his writing.

The present article will analyse Koeppen’s
poetics and existence: the representation of the theme of social and
psychological exclusion, the theme of madness and of extreme emotions; the
conflict between desires and cruel reality and, thus, the escape into imaginary
kingdoms (for example in Vor dem Film) or foreign countries (Tanger,
Petra); the contrast between the memories of happy times in the past and
a present time of suffering; the biographical and literary motif of melancholy
(Elisenhein, Der schwarze Ritter); the portrayal of women as
‘Kinderfrauen’ or as moody and angry women (for example in ArmeDiotima) as
products of the influence of Koeppen’s beloved women (his first sad love,
Sybille Schloß, and his wife, Marion Ulrich); the centrality of Eros in human
experience: from onanism to homosexuality, from the nudity of the female body
to (sexy) photography - in particular, he demonstrates how erotic symbols are
associated with sensory perceptions as well as the importance of mythology not
only in his work, but also in his perception of reality, for example in Das
Kleid der Frau Prometheus and Der Sarkophag der Phädra. Erzählung. 

Keywords

Wolfgang Koeppen, Autobiography, Short Stories

Wolfgang Koeppens Erzählungen: mehrere Wege eines autobiographischen Schreibens

Abstract

Wolfgang Koeppens Erzählungen: mehrere Wege
eines autobiographischen Schreibens    

Keywords

Schreiben, Wolfgang Koeppens Erzählungen

References

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