America through the Eyes of a European: Koeppen’s Amerikafahrt

Abstract

The essay focuses on Wolfgang Koeppen’s trip to America and his book Amerikafahrt (1958) that provides his personal impressions of the country and the people. Koeppen set on the trip to search for the nation he had known through numerous American writers’ texts. He came to believe that despite political and technological progress America was a space which was still under-colonized – at least on a personal level. That is why, he argues, loneliness permeates American mind. Americans are still alienated from the under-domesticated and unconquered nature of their continent. For this reason the automobile became a psychological necessity, a symbol of completeness.

Keywords

• wolfgang koeppen
• amerikafahrt
• the usa
• travelogue
• american literature
• nature
• civilization