Abstract

The works of the German writer Alfred Döblin (1878-1957) have not received sufficient literary investigation. The frequent classification of Döblin in literary histories as an expressionistic or futuristic writer remains ambiguous and unfounded. Rather, Döblin created a new concept of reality and realism which calls for the inclusion of a surreality. Döblin sets forth his new ideas in philosophical writings concerned with man and reality and with theoretical essays about a new novel. Döblin's dimension of a new reality shows similarity to the philosophical and literary characteristics of the vision of surreality as advanced by French Surrealists. Guillaume Apollinaire, an important precursor of the French literary movement recognized such similarities in 1913. He hailed Döblin's literary work with the words "Vive le doeblinisme." An investigation of doeblinisme reveals philosophical, thematic, and linguistic features akin to those of French surrealism. Moreover, Döblin's novels display many of the characteristics of a surrealist novel which Breton proclaimed in 1944. The surrealist facets generally appear as demonic manifestations of non-rational, unconscious forces in man. Döblin's heroes are searching for self-identification and ontological justification, thereby equating the surrealist motif of "Hamletism." While embarked upon the quest for identity man experiences a distortion of himself and his environment due to a continuous metamorphosis of nature and man. Such transformations are caused by non-rational forces and disintegrate objective reality, the rational conception of man, and traditional human sensibilities. Within such negation of mere objective reality Döblin creates a surreality which manifests the unconscious in man in form of dreams, hallucinations and stages of mental disorder. Moreover, the realm of surreality contains the miraculous encounters between persons and between individuals and objects. The encounters are caused by the power of Resonanz, as Döblin calls it, which bears similarity to the surrealist idea of objective chance. The surreal dimension in Döblin's works becomes enhanced by mythopoeia which attests to his ability of mythic thinking. Striking parallels exist between Döblin's philosophical ideas, surrealist philosophical tenets, and the facets of mythic thinking. The subject matter and linguistic form of Döblin's writings are interwoven. Metaphors and images constitute motifs in their linguistic genesis. Until the end of his life, Döblin attempted the creation of a surreality in aesthetic form.