Historische und mythische Zeit im Barockroman
Historical and Mythical Time in the Baroque Novel

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this text is to explore the way the narrative category of “time” in Grimmelshausen’s baroque novel “Der abentheurliche Simplicissimus Teutsch” (1669) is treated. After mentioning some of the most popular theories of the structure of the novel, the poetics of the 17th century will be outlined, including the latest discoveries concerning Grimmelshausen’s way of writing. Given this background and following the rules of exegesis, the whole plot appears to consist of at least two time-levels. Firstly, there is a historical dimension of the story, closely related to the Thirty Years’ War. Secondly, there is another time-level in the story, parallel to the first one but valid in the allegorical dimension. In conclusion, the novel seems to have an extremely complex and precise narrative structure based on the Christian allegorical ways of world interpretation. Moreover, the chosen method of analysis enables to explain why there are some inaccuracies despite the prevailing exact description of historical events in the novel. They seem to result from the existence of more than one dimension of the plot and, consequently, more than one time-level inside the story rather than from Grimmelshausen’s insufficient knowledge of historical facts.

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