Joseph Breitbach began publishing literature in the late twenties. He came to occupy a specific place in the literary period generally called New Objectivity. The goal of this thesis is to define that place more closely. The first chapter analyzes Breitbach's early stories, whose themes are based on the new social reality of his time. The focus is on the organized workers of the far left (the proletarians), as well as the growing class of small clerks known as the petite bourgeoisie. Breitbach, a department store manager, crafted his fictional characters from this milieu and portrayed both their social problems and everyday life from his observations. / The second chapter illustrates a decisive change in Breitbach's emphasis. In the novel Die Wandlung der Susanne Dasseldorf, which unfolds during the Allied occupation following the First World War, he juxtaposes the two fundamental classes, proletariat and bourgeoisie. Breitbach maintains a place among the writers of the New Objectivity for his retrospective of the postwar period as well as his contemporary portrayal of the lower classes. / The thesis also discusses Breitbach's progressive thinking in his treatment of the female character in his novel and the now almost forgotten German-American relations in the occupied region of Coblenz.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75836 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Doerr, Karin |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | ge |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of German.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000730721, proquestno: AAINL48514, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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