Jurij Lotmans erzähltheoretische Raumsemantik am Beispiel von Raphaela Edelbauers Roman Das flüssige Land
Jurij Lotman’s Narrative Theory of Spatial Semantics Illustrated by Raphaela Edelbauer’s Novel Das flüssige Land

Author(s): Goran Lovrić
Subject(s): Semiotics / Semiology, Studies of Literature, Semantics, Austrian Literature
Published by: Društvo germanista u Bosni i Hercegovini (DGuBiH) / Germanistenverband in Bosnien-Herzegowina (GViBH)
Keywords: Jurij Lotman; spatial semantics; complementary subspaces; boundary; liminality;
Summary/Abstract: The theoretical basis of this article is Jurij Lotman’s narrative theory of spatial semantics, in which literary space is defined as a constitutive part of the narrated world. The narrated world consists of complementary subspaces that are separated by a boundary, which the protagonist crosses, thereby bringing dynamism to an otherwise static system. The novel becomes a ‘subject-like’ text with a revolutionary subject when the existing spatial order is changed, or a ‘restitution scheme’ emerges when the existing spatial order is confirmed. Raphaela Edelbauer’s novel Das flüssige Land (2019), whose partly surreal plot takes place in the Austrian provinces, is analyzed as an example. The alternating area appears like a boundary between different spatial and temporal dimensions, with the complementary subspaces taking on a metaphorical meaning.

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