A Companion to the Works of Alfred Döblin

A volume of carefully focused essays illuminating the works of one of the leading 20th-century German writers.

A volume of carefully focused essays illuminating the works of one of the leading 20th-century German writers.

Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) was one of the great German-Jewish writers of the 20th century, a major figure in the German avant-garde before the First World War and a leading intellectual during the Weimar Republic. Döblin greatly influenced the history of the German novel: his best-known work, the best-selling 1929 novelBerlin Alexanderplatz, has frequently been compared in its use of internal monologue and literary montage to James Joyce'sUlysses and John Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer . Döblin's oeuvre is by no means limited to novels, but in this genre, he offered a surprising variety of narrative techniques, themes, structures, and outlooks. Döblin's impact on German writers after the Second World War was considerable: Günter Grass, for example, acknowledged him as "my teacher." And yet, whileAlexanderplatz continues to fascinate the reading public, it has overshadowed therest of Döblin's immense oeuvre. This volume of carefully focused essays seeks to do justice to such important texts as Döblin's early stories, his numerous other novels, his political, philosophical, medical, autobiographical, and religious essays, his experimental plays, and his writings on the new media of cinema and radio.

Contributors:Heidi Thomann Tewarson, David Dollenmayer, Neil H. Donahue, Roland Dollinger, Veronika Fuechtner, GabrieleSander, Erich Kleinschmidt, Wulf Koepke, Helmut F. Pfanner, Helmuth Kiesel, Klaus Müller-Salget, Christoph Bartscherer, Wolfgang Düsing.

Roland Dollinger is associate professor of German at Sarah Lawrence College; WulfKoepke is professor emeritus of German at Texas A&M University; Heidi Thomann Tewarson is professor of German at Oberlin College.

Introduction by Roland Dollinger, Wulf Koepke, and - Heidi Thomann Tewarson
Döblin's Early Collection of StoriesDie Ermordung einer Butterblume: Toward a Modernist Aesthetic - Heidi Thomann Tewarson
The Advent of Döblinism:Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun andWadzeks Kampf mit der Dampfturbine - David Dollenmayer
The Fall of Wallenstein or the Collapse of Narration? The Paradox of Epic Intensity in Döblin'sWallenstein (1920)Wallenstein (1920) - Neil H. Donahue
Technology and Nature: From Döblin'sBerge Meere und Giganten to a Philosophy of Nature - Roland Dollinger
"Arzt und Dichter:" Döblin's Medical, Psychiatric, and Psychoanalytical Work - Veronika Fuechtner
Döblin's Berlin: The Story of Franz Biberkopf - Gabriele Sander
Döblin's Engagement with the New Media: Film, Radio, and Photography - Erich Kleinschmidt
Döblin's Political Writings during the Weimar Republic - Wulf Koepke
Döblin, the Critic of Western Civilization: TheAmazon Trilogy - Helmut F. Pfanner
Döblin'sNovember 1918 - Helmuth Kiesel
Döblin and Judaism - Klaus Mueller-Salget
Robinson the Castaway: Döblin's Christian Faith as Reflected in His AutobiographySchicksalsreise and His Religious DialoguesDer unsterbliche Mensch and ...DialoguesDer unsterbliche Mensch and ... - Christoph Bartscherer
The Tragedy of Truth: Döblin'sHamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende - Wolfgang Duesing