Publication details
Das Buch, das nicht ist. Das Motiv des Bruno Schulzschen Buches in Maxim Billers Novelle Im Kopf von Bruno Schulz
| Title in English | A book that is not. Schulzian Theme Books in Max Biller's novel Inside the Head of Bruno Schulz |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Junge Slavistik im Dialog IX. Beiträge zur XIV. Internationalen Slavistischen Konferenz |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://www.verlagdrkovac.de/978-3-339-11576-8.htm |
| Keywords | Bruno Schulz; Maxim Biller; Thomas Mann; pretext; posttext; intertext; Renate Lachmann; memory of text; intertextual strategy |
| Description | This article is providing a comparative analysis of the book theme in the short stories of the interwar Polish Jewish writer Bruno Schulz and the novella Inside the Head of Bruno Schulz written by the current German Jewish novelist Maxim Biller. The basic point for the comparison of this motive in both authors is the concept of intertextuality communicated by the German Slavist Renate Lachmann, who distinguishes three ways in which the manifested text (posttext) follows the reference text (pretext), i.e. three strategies for dealing with cultural heritage, which is either written down, rewritten or the posttext attempts to deny and delete the pretext. We interpret Biller's strategy of dealing with the "memory of the text" with the fact that in 1938, Bruno Schulz addressed his literary idol Thomas Mann in a letter containing a short story. This letter, however, was not preserved to this day. It is precisely this letter – non-book, that allows Maxim Biller to conduct a double-entry dialogue with the iconic role of Thomas Mann in the German culture, as well as with the Drohobych author of The Cinnamon Shops, the emerging literary icon of the 21st century. |
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