Becoming Fiction
Reassessing Atheism in DĂŒrrenmatt's «Stoffe»
Olivia Gabor-Peirce
- 288 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Becoming Fiction
Reassessing Atheism in DĂŒrrenmatt's «Stoffe»
Olivia Gabor-Peirce
About This Book
Becoming Fiction: Reassessing Atheism in DĂŒrrenmatt's Stoffe sets forth a clarification of the importance of Friedrich DĂŒrrenmatt, modern Swiss dramatist, essayist, novelist and self-proclaimed atheist (1921â1990), and offers new insights into the ways in which his father's vocation as a Protestant minister, along with DĂŒrrenmatt's own decision as a young man to pursue a career in writing rather than religion, shaped his world view and, in particular, made necessary a final, desperate attempt to fictionally recast his own life through revisions and amplifications of many of his earlier works when he created his final prose volume, Stoffe. DĂŒrrenmatt devoted immense energy in his writings to wrestling with his father's God as a way of seeking self-identity. That perceived loss of his father's esteem became the motor behind his works. After earlier successes, the icy reception of his most ambitious play, Der Mitmacher, in 1976, left the author in such a frustrated state of disappointment that he reached a point of linguistic breakdown. This book contends that DĂŒrrenmatt's loss of voice forced the author to a new kind of writing: a 're-turn' home. Becoming Fiction explores the damage caused by DĂŒrrenmatt's inability to express his most central beliefs through the outdated, deceptive modes of linguistic thought and tradition. Consequently, the book argues, at the point of that breakdown of rigid linguistic and theological concepts, a space was forced open, and the Stoffe reveal a Divine presence.