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Modern Sociological Theory: An Introduction, New Delhi, India (Oxford University Press) 1983. x and 310 p.

  • This dissertation investigates the relationship between the utopian idea of a normative totality and the genesis of modern totalitarianism in the exile novels Pardon wird nicht gegeben. Amazonas-trilogy, and November 1918 by Alfred Doblin (written between 1934 and 1937). – Chapter 1 analyses first the resurgence of narrative authority in the novel Pardon wird nicht gegeben as a function of Doblin's Marxist insight into economic determinism and as his literary contribution to the popular front of German emigres in the Paris of the 1930's. The novel describes the social rise and downfall of a proletarian whose sadomasochistic predisposition resembles the authoritarian character analysed by Erich FROMM in his psychoanalytic interpretation of Nationalsocialism. The protagonist's desire for social integration results in the destruction of his individuality through politically totalitarian groups. – Chapter 2 analyses the development of the concept of normative totality in Doblin's theory of the novel. – Chapter 3 shows how in Doblin's Amazonas-trilogy several historical attempts to realize a peaceful co-existence between European conquerors and their >Other< results in the brutal repression of the Native Indians. The desire of modern, rational, and technological man for a transcendental >home< is unmasked as the source also for the false totalitarian promises of salvation in our century. Doblin interprets Nationalsocialism as the repetition of earlier ecstasies of self-destruction, which in their turn were desperate responses to the loss of a holistic medieval order. – Chapter 4 follows the traces of Doblin's conversion to Catholicism in the narrative structure and content of November 1918. It elucidated the dialectics of totality totalitarianism by showing how Doblin's demand for a mystically motivated retreat from history results in the involuntary affirmation of those power structures whose inhuman face Doblins portrays in more than thousand pages. – The dissertation is framed by an introduction and a conclusion both of which deal with the problem of the relevance of his exile novels for our own time.

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Metadaten
Author:M. F. Abraham, J. H. Morgan
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:1983
Release Date:2012/12/13
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Abraham_M_F_and_Morgan_J-H_1983
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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