Resonantes Erzählen - Zu einem formsemantischen Prinzip bei Alfred Döblin

Abstract

From the sympathetic vibration of strings to the resonance disasters of collapsing bridges, the physical phenomenon of resonance has fascinated people for centuries. In the 20th century, German writer Alfred Döblin takes up the notion of resonance in his philosophical text Unser Dasein. In Döblin’s understanding of the individual as an ‘open system,’ resonance features as the main natural principle that connects individuals with each other, but also with the world in general. This dissertation investigates the concept of resonance in its anthropological and literary implications for Döblin. It combines a cultural studies approach with structuralist narratology. The first part of the dissertation examines the history of the discourse on resonance from the 16th to the 20th centuries with regard to a small set of examples of resonance phenomena, and leads up to an analysis of Döblin’s concept of resonance. The second part consists of close readings of Döblin’s novels Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun and Berge Meere und Giganten, as well as his epic Manas, in light of this concept and its relationship to the problem of individuation. The dissertation argues that resonance as a figure of repetition and increase features both on a diegetic and a formal level in Döblin’s texts and, as ‘resonant narration,’ becomes a form-semantic principle in the literary text.