Christa Wolf’s Richard Neutra: Architecture, Psychoanalysis, and Southern California in Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud

Abstract

Christa Wolf’s novel Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud has spawned an impressive amount of scholarly attention in less than a decade. However, two of the major themes of the novel—psychoanalysis and Southern California—remain underexplained. I provide a framework for better understanding both of those themes in the novel by connecting them by way of the role of Richard Neutra and his architecture in the novel. Neutra’s role in the novel has been almost entirely overlooked. Although he is not central to the novel, he does offer a way of understanding some of the more slippery themes of the novel.