A LIBERATING EXPANSION INTO NOTHING – CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE AND TIME IN MICHAEL STAVARIC’S NOVEL BRENNTAGE Cover Image

EINE BEFREIENDE EXPANSION INS NICHTS – RAUM- UND ZEITKONSTRUKTION IN MICHAEL STAVARIČ’ ROMAN BRENNTAGE
A LIBERATING EXPANSION INTO NOTHING – CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE AND TIME IN MICHAEL STAVARIC’S NOVEL BRENNTAGE

Author(s): SZILVIA RITZ
Subject(s): Austrian Literature, Czech Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: Myths; the fantastic; role of time; relation to the past; narrative worlds; polyphony; cyclic and linear concept of time; childhood; coming of age; narrator’s position;

Summary/Abstract: Present contribution focuses on the function of mythical and fantastic elements in connection with the role of time in the novel Brenntage of Czech-Austrian author Michael Stavarič. Beyond a special way of waste disposal, the title of the book refers to an iterative symbolic act in a village community which determines the relation to their past. This article examines Brenntage with regard to the linguistic presentation of parallel narrative worlds, which constitutes the polyphony of the text. Special attention will be given to the combination of cyclic and linear concepts of time that create the multi-layering of the text and which are going to be interpreted in the context of the transition to adulthood. Subsequently, variant readings will be presented to show possible consequences of the juxtaposition of cyclicity and linearity for the position of the first-person narrator.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 40
  • Page Range: 115-127
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: German
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