DOPPELTE BRECHUNGEN: DAS ‘DURCHS‐FERNGLAS‐SCHAUEN’ IN STIFTERS FRÜHEN ERZÄHLUNGEN

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores the extent to which the use of the optical medium of binoculars in Der Condor and Der Hochwald reflects the experience of a paradigmatically new way of seeing. In Der Condor, the refractive power of ‘Durchs‐Fernglas‐Schauen’ is demonstrated by means of a kaleidoscopic fragmentation of the narrative perspective. The portrayal of the hot air balloon ride at the beginning of the story gives tragic evidence of the loss of the beloved as well as of the loss of an overall sense of perception due to the crossing of gazes that are technically mediated. An emancipatory aspect is expressed in that it is a female figure who becomes aware of the ‘transzendentale Obdachlosigkeit’ of modern man. The catastrophe perceived technically from a distance in Der Hochwald raises the question of the fundamental possibilities of representation. The experience of seeing, re‐created here from a narratorical point of view, is a dynamic process of de‐ and restructuring storytelling itself, anticipating moments of non‐representational strategies in the literary modernism of the twentieth century.