Walter Kempowskis Tadellöser & Wolff im Lichte narratologischer Theorien

• Walter Kempowski (1929-2007) is one of the most important authors in post-war German literature. In 1971, he published his first novel, Tadellöser & Wolff. This historical novel takes its point of departure in the everyday life of the bourgeois Kempowski family in Rostock shortly before and during World War II until the surrender of the city to the Red Army. The novel was initially very well received by literary critics and was also a commercial success. After the adaptation of the novel for film in 1975, Kempowski became even more of a public figure and won popular acclaim. In the film, however, important aspects of the novel’s literary mediation were lost, and as a result, the attitude among critics towards Kempowski changed considerably. In some groups he was viewed with suspicion and seen as the uncritical representative of the bourgeoisie. It was not until the beginning of the 1990s that he received extensive praise and recognition, much due to the publication of his multi-volume historical documentary work, Echolot. The present study explores Kempowski’s mode of writing in Tadellöser & Wolff from a narratological perspective. The main theoretical points of departure for the analysis are Franz K. Stanzel, one of the leading scholars of classical narratology, and Monika Fludernik, his successor in postmodern narratology. The mediation in the novel is very intricate and carries its theme in a complex and significant way. Though the novel depicts the milieu and atmosphere of the time in a detailed and realistic manner and, through the narrator, the voices, thoughts and opinions of the period resonate in a rich polyphony, yet the predominant narrative perspective is exploited in such a marked way as to create distance to what is portrayed. The fictional first-person narrator proves to be not altogether reliable.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Walter Kempowski – Narratology – Franz K. Stanzel – Monika Fludernik – Reflectorization – Unreliable narration

Germanic languages

Germanistik

German

tyska

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

dok (subject category)