Bibliography: pages 401-417. / The question whether the critical tools developed by, the structuralist approach can stand up to a text which alienates or deviates from traditional narrative discourse is one of the main theoretical concerns of this thesis. The investigation is based on two premises: firstly, that the contemporary novel is as much the literary expression of bourgeois consciousness as its predecessor in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose mode of expression was that of realism; secondly, that the paradigm shift from classic bourgeois realism to the modern novel must be seen as a dialectic process: modern fiction can thus be said to be engaged in an intertextual dialogue with traditional realist discourse. In confronting the method and conclusions of S/Z by Roland Barthes with a contemporary text, the thesis aims to reflect this dialogue on a meta-literary level. Starting from a detailed analysis of the structural elements of the text and their arrangement, the thesis proceeds to a description of the technique of deviation on the microstructural level as well as in conjunction with contextual, ideological and symbolic reference. The complex relation between fiction and reality is then investigated with regard to the configuration and in conjunction with the notion of identity, the focal point of the novel. Handke's complex understanding of reality and consequently also his response to the realist tradition are derived from the unstated realization of the fictionality of the bourgeois concept of the subject. This is the background to the discussion of the structures of traditional realist discourse and the ambivalent portrayal of reality in Handke's novel, which amounts to the application of realist discourse in order to subvert it. Finally, Handke's rigorous anti-ideological position is evaluated in conjunction with Bakhtin's theory of the dialogic text and the concept of intertextuality as developed by Julia Kristeva. While Handke's novel can thus be seen to be critical both in its perception of, and response to contemporary reality and in its refusal to accept any systematic modes of thought, its contradictions remain unresolved since it registers but does not transcend the problematic nature of the core of bourgeois ideology, the self-image of the subject.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/16991 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Pakendorf, Gunther |
| Contributors | Horn, Peter |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities, German Language and Literature |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | application/pdf |
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