Funktionen des Erzählers im letzten Roman von Christa Wolf „Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud”
The role of the narrator in the last novel by Christa Wolf ''City of Angels or The Overcoat of Dr. Freud”

Summary/Abstract: Functions of the narrator in the last novel by Christa Wolf “City of Angels or The Overcoat of Dr. Freud” The text analyzes the narrative function of Christa Wolf’s recent novel ''The City of Angels or Overcoat of Dr. Freud'' (2010). The narrator’s dominance in the novel is “I”, but it is not the only form of actant. The novel is a peculiar synthesis of narrative and descriptive text, corresponding respectively to two narrative forms and forming a peculiar symbiosis. The term “actant” is used in the text as a literary figure in the interpretation of scientists Algirdis Julien Greimas and Vladimir Propp without any semiotic characterization. The text is described as factual and fictitious, and accordingly forms a complex narrative structure corresponding to the functions used by the “I” and “You” narrators: biographical reminiscences correspond to the “I” narrator function, while the “You” narrator functions manage text related to internal monologue. Such an actant mutation is seen as a change in the position of the “I”-messenger. The “I” becomes the “You” and the “You” becomes the “I” again – this is the narrative structure of Christa Wolf’s self-analysis.

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