LEADER 03729cam a2200397Ia 4500001 112791 005 20240621181436.0 008 060125s1998 xx rb 000 0 eng d 028 52 9905220 |bUMI 035 (OCoLC)ocm69400967 035 112791 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 PT2662.E294 |bZ753 1998 100 1 Rockwell, Robert Clinton. 245 10 Jurek Becker's three character types : |bthe Schlemiel, Picaro, and Willenloser / |cby Robert Clinton Rockwell. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c1998. 300 iii, 194 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington University, 1998. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-194). 520 Jurek Becker (1937-1997) was a prominent postwar German author whose seven novels, short stories, and films treat Jewish and East German themes. Born in Lodz, Poland in 1937 to Jewish parents, Becker was interned in the Lodz ghetto from 1939-1944, and in the concentration camps of Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen. After the war he lived with his father in East Berlin, learning German at the age of nine. The aim of this study is to interpret Becker's novels Jakob der Lugner (1969), Irrefuhrung der Behorden (1973), and Aller Welt Freund (1982) by comparing the novels' main characters with character types with well-developed traditions: the schlemiel, picaro, and Willenloser. The use of "character" in my dissertation refers to fictional types. Although Jakob der Lugner has won several awards and been translated into over twenty languages, critics have not fully developed its relationship to modern Yiddish literature. By comparing Jacob Heym with the Yiddish schlemile, a type of Jewish fool, one acquires a better sense of the warring opposites which inform the novel's structure and theme. Chapter one develops four major traits associated with the schlemiel in modern Yiddish fiction and in Jacob Heym: foolishness, Heroism, comic misrepresentation of reality, and the inversion of accepted judgments. Irrefuhrung der Behoorden treats a central theme in Becker's oeuvre--opportunism, which involves adapting oneself to circumstances. The picaro, originally a Spanish rogue, is a literary protrait of an opportunism is the result of social factors in East Germany by tracing the historical development of the picaro from sixteenth century Spain to postwar German fiction. Despite Aller Welt Freund's treatment of the main character's problem from a variety of angles, scholars have been unsuccussful in describing it fully. In chapter three I discuss the Willenloser, a German term for a character with a paralysis of the will, in Russian, Spanish, Austrian, and East German fiction. I then compare Becker's Kilian with the Willenloser in order to interpret his problem and to demonstrate the novel's thematic unity. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2006. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 600 10 Becker, Jurek, |d1937-1997 |xCriticism and interpretation. 600 10 Becker, Jurek, |d1937-1997 |xCharacters. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=732854301&sid=18&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib112791/9905220.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 C0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hPT2662.E294 |iZ753 1998 852 |bwww 852 |bebook