In this thesis, I analyze the Germanophone reception of Gustav Meyrink's The Golem (Der Golem) between 1916 and 1996 with respect to its treatment as light fiction (Trivialliteratur). I examine a representative selection of literary criticism concerning the dominant themes and narrative structures of the novel. Since The Golem could not be ascribed to a distinct genre or period within the canon, its reception has been characterized by profound dichotomies. Meyrink's novel can be seen as a blank screen upon which critics have projected their respective ideological agendas. By applying new historicist and genre studies, I contextualize the trends across eighty years of critical response to The Golem and the dialectical conflict between 'high' literature and popular fiction. I thus demonstrate that the novel's reception is symptomatic of the debate about art and popular fiction concerning works of early modern surrealism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28281 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Jabs, Stefanie. |
| Contributors | Schmidt, Josef (advisor) |
| 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 | Master of Arts (Department of German Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001642716, proquestno: MQ43888, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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