Galicia as an Intertext: the Concept of the Frontier in the Novel “The End of Days” by Jenny Erpenbeck

Abstract

The article analyses the model of the cultural space underlying the image of Galicia in the novel The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck. The research is focused on the intertextual elements used to create this image, their functions and the range of their interactions with the concept of the frontier. The myth of Galicia, the works of Karl Emil Franzos, Joseph Roth, Johann Wolfgang Goethe as well as Old Testament stories and psalms are considered as the main sources of intertextuality. Based on the analysis it can be inferred that the novel uses the intertextual elements not only for the wide cultural contextualization of the image of Galicia but also for the subversion of both the myth of Galicia and the literary pretexts from which these elements are borrowed.