Chronotopoi der Krise. Zur literarischen Vergegenwärtigung von Lebenswelten und Kontingenzerfahrungen in Joseph Roths „Die Flucht ohne Ende“

Abstract

Joseph Roth’s novel “Die Flucht ohne Ende”, published in 1927, provides a diagnosis of the crisis and contingency phenomena of the interwar period against the backdrop of the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy in World War I and the October Revolution. These two events of world-historical significance lead to an erosion of old familiar worlds and to the emergence of new ones. Starting from the concepts of ‘contingency’ and ‘crisis’, the article shows how this contrast between the new and the old world is literarily shaped and visualized on the basis of selected time-space constellations. In doing so, it becomes clear that not only the life worlds in which the protagonist Franz Tunda operates, but also his own life design is highly contingent.

Keywords

• Crisis
• contingency
• life worlds
• Chronotopos
• Habsburg Monarchie