Candidate in Philology, Leading Researcher, Head of the Department of Literary Studies, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia, Moscow, e.v.sokolova@inion.ru, ORCID: 0000-0002-7098-3589
The article examines the perception of a big city in the German novel of the 1990s as a desubjectifying and deindividualizing social environment. In line with the problematization of the human reaction to the city in literature, German researchers note signs of a person’s loss of life meaning, increasing loneliness, general disorientation of the individual, and loss of connection with a significant Other. Two approaches to depicting the interaction between man and the city are compared in the described optics, based on the novels of two outstanding writers of the first post‑war generation, born and formed on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall: «A Temporary State» (Das Provisorium, 2000) by Wolfgang Hilbig and «The Shoe Tester of Frankfurt» (Ein Regenschirm für diesen Tag, 2001) by Wilhelm Genazino. In the course of comparison, it turns out that, in Hilbig’s novel, the city acts first and foremost as a “screen” for projections of the protagonist’s internal state and remains “closed” for dialogic communication. In Genazino’s novel, by contrast, the city — although retaining the function of a “screen” — is shown as “open” for dialogue with a person. Moreover, it has the potential to become a “learning environment”.
contemporary German literature; German-language novel of the 1990s; “urban novel”; city as Other; W. Hilbig; W. Genazino.
Download textFor citing: Sokolova E.V. (2025) The City as Other in the German Novel of the 1990s: Wolfgang Hilbig and Wilhelm Genazino. Human being: Image and essence. Humanitarian aspects. Moscow. INION RAN.Vol. 4 (64). pp. 96-111. DOI: 10.31249/chel/2025.04.06