Polyphonie und Improvisation: Zur offenen Form in Guenter Grass' 'Die Raettin'. (German text).

摘要

Gunter Grass is a writer highly conscious of form; the structures of his prose works are complex and bear his unmistakable signature. This dissertation is an analysis of the specific compositional method employed by Grass in Die Rattin. Points of departure in the study are analogies to structural concepts in music: polyphony and improvisation. In the process, we work our way through four aspects of layers of the form.; The first layer is the polyphonic organisation of the book, and the term polyphonic describes the parallel development of five independent narrative strands. We give an outline of the individual narratives in terms of plot lines and thematic ideas, and we also describe the techniques Grass uses to weave these strands into the overall structure. The first layer is the surface--form is seen as a given, a result: form as stasis.; The second layer is form as process. Here we look at the open aspect of the form, at the dynamic, improvisational quality. The form develops out of dialogic constellations between the auctorial I and two other narrative figures, they are rivals for hegemony in the narrative. Their contest is highly ironic, the narrative process parodies itself.; The third layer presents other striking features of the form: the film and dream element, the treatment of time, and the mixing of fantasy and facts. These features reveal the same characteristics as those in the second layer--form as process, play, irony--, and also explain the polyphonic organisation, described in the first layer, as a psychological metaphor for the thought processes of the auctorial I in the act of writing.; In the fourth layer we come to the tension between the serious didactic purpose on the thematic level and the parody of the narrative apparent on the structural level. What is the function of the form? Grass' view of the world and of history is essentially bleak and pessimistic; paired with his didactic intent is, paradoxically, the awareness of its futility. We argue that the form of Die Rattin is an expression of the author's stance toward his thematic material, a stance of defiance and ridicule. It represents the defense against the paralysing effect of his absurdist world view, a refusal to succumb to despair, a celebration of life in the spirit of Camus' Sisyphos. This dissertation is written in German.