Echoes and Oscillations: Poetics, Public Intellectualism, and Contemporary Literature in the Work of Juli Zeh

• Author / Creator

  Richter, Lars

• Since the publication of her debut novel in 2001, German author Juli Zeh has established herself as an important figure within the landscape of contemporary German-language literature. Echoes and Oscillations: Poetics, Public Intellectualism, and Contemporary Literature in the Work of Juli Zeh examines the work of Juli Zeh with respect to how her poetological positions, her work as a public intellectual and the incorporation of modes of realistic writing in her narratives result in an interplay between diegetic and non-diegetic realities that, in turn, have an impact on the question of what role literature can play in the present cultural landscape of Germany and beyond. Through the analysis of Zeh’s poetological writings and her work as public intellectual, Echoes and Oscillations defines Zeh as a politically committed author who revives the long-standing model of author as public intellectual and transports it into the twenty-first century. The analysis of selected novels with respect to echoes of traditions of realistic writing from German literary history leads to a re-conceptualization of the term ‘contemporary German-language literature.’ Exemplified through Zeh’s texts, the dissertation proposes a model that regards contemporary literature as being embedded in, being mindful of, and commenting on their time via the tight interconnection between sociopolitical discourses and her fictional and nonfictional work.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Politics and Literature
  • Juli Zeh
  • Contemporary German Literature
  • Public Intellectual

• Graduation date

  Fall 2016

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3CF9JH7W

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.