Die Welt des postmodernen Romanhelden: Zwischen Selbstverwirklichung und Erosion der Persönlichkeit
After the Second World War, the figuration of the anti-heroic in novels became increasingly important. Whether in German-language literature with protagonists in novels such as Stiller (1954) by Max Frisch and Alles andere als ein Held (1959) by Rudolf Lorenzen or in West African literature with Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart, 1958) and Amadou Kourouma (Les Soleils des Indépendances, 1968), who attempt to present (post)colonial realities in Africa through their antiheroic figures, the antiheroic seems to be appropriate for postmodern conditions, aesthetically speaking. It is therefore about anti-heroic figures who are caught up in the maelstrom of postmodernism and its crises and who, at their core, can do little with social conditions. The identity crisis or inner turmoil of these characters can be directly linked to recent history and world events. At the center of the postmodern novels - which were selected for the dissertation project - are anti-heroes or anti-heroic characters who feel social unease and are thus confronted with identity problems.
The study of anti-heroic novel characters in German-language and West African literature from the post-war period to the present can help to open up new horizons and perspectives in character and novel research in literary studies. The two literary spaces mentioned above were selected in order to examine different cultural perspectives on the phenomenon of the "antihero" and its socio-historical and aesthetic implications in depth and detail.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Eric Achermann