Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 16 (8): 1152-1155, 2013
ISSN 1990-9233
© IDOSI Publications, 2013
DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.16.08.11947
On Some Postmodern Aspects in Contemporary European Writing
(On the Example of D. Kehlmann’s Novel “Measuring the World”)
Julia Kazakova
Kazan (the Volga region) Federal University, 423600, Tatarstan,
Yelabuga, Street Kazanskaya 89, Russia
Abstract: The article deals with the interpretation of some dominant postmodern features of the novel
“Measuring the World” by the famous European writer of the XXI century Daniel Kehlmann. Using the
aesthetical types of analysis, the author explores the intertextual aspects of the novel and the peculiarities of
the writer’s style. Special attention is paid to the theory of magic realism and the phenomenon of intertextuality
in the novel, which is to the author’s mind not unlike one of the cult Latin American novels of Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. One of the main advantages of the novel pointed out by the author of the article is that the reader is
enabled to judge the values in his own way, to interpret the text and decode the author’s message according
to his personal competence and knowledge of the world.
Key words: Daniel Kehlmann
World”
Intertextuality
Latin American novel
INTRODUCTION
The theory of intertextuality is based on Jacques
Derrida’s conception "the world is the text" which plays
the central role in the aesthetical position of
postmodernism when reference can be attributed not only
to a single literary work, but to any work of culture [1].
Absolutely consciously revised by postmodernism, all
the literary heritage with the existing cultural context of
the mankind becomes today a huge cultural unwritten
encyclopedia where all texts belong to each other as parts
of some intertext. As part of socio-cultural and historical
development, postmodern literature can be seen as a
specific way of depiction of the postmodern life and
culture. It shows a crisis of identity of human being
(ethnic, sexual, social and cultural) and its struggle for
legitimization in a hypocritical society [2]. This literary
theme is now widely treated by many authors all over the
world, which gives us a possibility to consider this issue
worth discussing.
Literary postmodernism is generally characterized by
features such as: a mixing of styles ("high" and "low," for
example) in the same text; discontinuity of tone, point of
view, register and logical sequence; apparently random
Corresponding Author:
postmodernism
“Measuring the
unexpected intrusions and disruptions in the text; a
self-consciousness about language and literary
technique, especially concerning the use of metaphor and
symbol and the use of self-referential tropes. Even though
the writers most often associated with postmodernism
may deal with serious themes, their work often has
absurd, playful, or comic aspects and sometimes makes
special use of parody and pastiche and of references to
other texts and artifacts [3].
In Kusnir’s view, postmodern literary work does not
pretend to be new and original, but uses the old literary
forms, genres and kinds of literature and art, kitsch,
quotation, allusion and other means to recontextualize
their meaning in different linguistic and cultural
contexts. In postmodern literary work, a mimetic, realistic
representation of reality often overlaps with fiction,
fantasy, dreams and sometimes hallucinations and, in
difference from modernist literary works, it is difficult to
distinguish between these spheres and ontological levels.
In these works, often real historical characters meet with
fictional characters, or the characters from different
historical periods meet in the fictional present, or real
historical figure is depicted in the fictional situation which
causes “an ontological scandal” [2]. Kusnir also pointed
Julia Kazakova, Kazan (the Volga region) Federal University, 423600, Tatarstan, Yelabuga,
Street Kazanskaya 89, Russia.
1152
Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 16 (8): 1152-1155, 2013
out that one of the most important aspects of a
postmodern literary work is intertextuality. Broadly
speaking, intertextuality, a term coined by a
Bulgarian/French theorist Julia Kristeva, expresses a
connection between the texts through various devices
and techniques discussed above. It is not, however, a
single mechanical connection, but rather a creative
transformation of the referred texts in different linguistic
and cultural contexts. As the theoretical basis for
studying the novel by D. Kehlmann we would like to use
J. Kušnír’s work, which in our opinion very well
summarizes the main notions of postmodern writing.
In the present article we would like to observe the
main postmodernist features which serve as the basis for
considering intertextual context of the novel of the
popular Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann "Measuring the
world". Quite much importance should, in our opinion, be
assigned to the existence of postmodernist postulates in
the novel, in particular the position on the search of the
truth. This could be explained by the fact that Kehlmann's
works and in particular “Measuring the World” are
heavily influenced by magical realism and represent a
dramatic shift from the goals of the influential Group 47
[4].
Born on January, 13 (1975) Daniel Kehlmann is now
one of the most popular Austrian authors of
contemporary postmodern trend. He is a German language
author of both Austrian and German nationality. His work
“Die Vermessung der Welt” (translated into English by
Carol Brown Janeway as Measuring the World, 2006) is
the bestselling novel in the German language since Patrick
Süskind's “The Perfumer” (released in 1985). Awarded the
Heimito von Doderer Prize for the novel, Kehlmann
reimagines in his work the lives of the German
mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and the German
geographer Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied on his
journeys by Aimé Bonpland and their many
groundbreaking ways of taking the world's measure, as
well as Humboldt's and Bonpland's travels in America and
their meeting in 1828. Both were brilliant scientists,
amazingly productive and rich in ideas, although their
methods and approaches were widely different. Various
periods in their lives are described in this book,
culminating in their meeting in 1828, when Gauss, having
been invited to Berlin, took part in a scientific meeting
there organized by Humboldt and stayed in Humboldt’s
home [5]. Relying upon the reader’s intelligence,
Kehlmann uses very subtle humour to tell about two
genius persons of the period of Enlightenment, showing
them as typical representatives of national German
character in all its manifestations. The whole idea of
writing the novel came to the author during his literature
course in Mexico where he studied Latin American prose
and was considerably impressed by the emotionality and
passionate power of it [6].
MATERIALS AND METHODS
While writing the present article we were guided by
the principle of systematic approach to the phenomena of
literature and culture. It leans on philosophical and
aesthetic knowledge and gives a more profound
multidimensional presentation of the literary work [7].
During research we also used comparative-historical,
biographic, typological and the method of complete
analysis of an artistic work. J. Kusnir makes it a special
point that magic realism has also significantly influenced
many postmodern writings. Latin American or the socalled magic realist fiction emphasizes the power of
storytelling and relativizes a difference between fiction
and reality. To this belong the real (actual) and fictional
worlds (G.G. Marquéz, A. Carpentier, J. Cortazár, M.
Vargas Llosa, M.A. Asturias) and especially the
Columbian author Jose Louis Borghes’ works of the
1960’s. This sort of literature parodies transforms and
deconstructs popular literary genres, other well-known
literary works and metafictional techniques [2]. In his
article „Die Wunder des Erzählens. Anmerkungen zu
"Hundert Jahre Einsamkeit"“, Kehlmann acknowledges
the influence of Latin American prose [8]. This is further
supported by the Britsh literary critics, who write about
Kehlmann that “ …although the subject of the novel
could hardly be more German, “Measuring the World”
does not feel like a "German" novel - more like the kind of
thing that Gabriel García Márquez might have written had
he been born in Stuttgart”. This is also proved by the
following author’s words : “I wanted to write a Latin
American novel. But I'm not from Latin America. I can't
write like Márquez, who has a beautiful woman putting the
washing on the line and suddenly being caught up by the
wind and flying away…But I could have the Latin
American atmosphere and playfulness and absurdity and
anything could happen….I've written a Latin American
novel about Germans and German classicism….It has the
tone of a non-fiction book. But it keeps slipping into
fiction and mock-historical monography” [4]. What
distinguishes “Measuring the World” from previous
German novels is its delightful authorial irony, masterfully
intervened with historical and real life facts. Thus in the
present article we are making an attempt to draw a parallel
1153
Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 16 (8): 1152-1155, 2013
between the subject themes of the novel of Daniel
Kehlmann "Measuring the world" and Gabriel Garcia
Marquez's novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
Intertextuality and Magic Realism of the Novel:
Identification and restoration of the intertextual frame in
D. Kehlmann's novel "Measuring the world" opens a new
way of interpreting the novel. The author creates a certain
network of allusions and associations by inserting into
the novel the names of well known scientists and
outstanding persons of the Enlightenment era. The names
of Napoleon, the Mongolfye brothers, Goethe, Galvani,
Marco Polo, Leibniz and many others let the reader
visualize different stories and provoke further
development of new and not less fascinating plots [9].
Written in the best literary tradition of the Latin
American novel, namely Gabriel Garcia Marquez's cult
work "One Hundred Years of Solitude", the novel
"Measuring the World" represents a freakish mix of
comedy and melancholy on the universal issues,
attitudes, meaning of life and true values.
In his novel “Measuring the World” Daniel
Kehlmann enables the intelligent reader to reconstruct
various subject parallels with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's
work "One Hundred Years of Solitude" as his main source
of inspiration. The author depicts real-life and imaginary
pictures of culture and life of the people of Latin America,
being at his best in the description of the travel of the
main characters Humboldt and Bonplan across the
Amazon in the chapter The River" [9]. The freakish
texture of events and words characterizing local
peculiarities helps the reader visualize the magic charms
and prophetic dreams associated with this culture.
The author succeeds here in a very plausible imitation
Garcia Marquez's narration, constantly balancing between
reality and fantasy. Credit must be given to the author for
being extremely resourceful in moulding the portrait of
man in his eternal search for the truth. In his peculiar
manner of blending minute psychological analysis and
abstract reasoning both intricate and individual, the
author focuses on the subjects characteristic of Latin
American prose, that is search of the meaning of life, true
value of it and a “happiness formula”. The message is
conveyed to the reader through the prism of natural
sciences with their exact angles and dimensions.
The world of natural sciences and ingenious scientists is
skillfully bound and intervened with the world of simple
inhabitants, with their indistinct ideas of logic and reality.
The plot is constructed on the contrast of perception of
the world by different people, which nevertheless, doesn't
give the reader a feeling of dissonance and chaos.
It rather forces the reader to the unwilling self-reflection
of the context, to the wish to compare and estimate
actions, to try on various masks of the protagonists.
The author is always concerned with the process of
decoding the meaning and the message which is greatly
influenced by the reader’s individual competence and
knowledge.
A play upon contrasts and contradictions and
affirming the very opposite of the obvious truth lies at the
basis of the author’s sarcastic method in portraying his
characters. Both Humboldt and Gauss were concerned
with the measurement of the world - with the displacement
between one part of space and another and the relation of
that gap to temporal intervals and theoretical absolutes.
Humboldt constantly took readings during his vast
journey - the height of every mountain, the line of the
equator, the exact number of lice on the head of a servant
- while Gauss stayed at home and conceived space as a
mathematical reality in which even lines were merely an
abstraction; yet his space was, in its way, as full of life as
Humboldt's. Kehlmann has the contemporary novelist's
fascination with territorial politics and the poetics of
space. Measuring the World's power is all the more acute
in the reassessment of the geographical perspectives and
spatial assumptions because it harnesses to this spatial
turn the sense of history in process which is key to the
best historical novels [10]. For that reason the British
critics highly estimate Kehlmann as an "attractive" writer
of the new generation who doesn't look for inspiration to
Mann or Grass and rather looks to the Spanish magic
realism and Anglo-Saxon fiction, thus presenting
complete contrast to standard "boring" German literature.
Making it a dominating factor of perception of the German
prose, the British literature critics emphasize that
Kehlmann's creativity marks a revolutionary change in the
post-war literary context of Germany, breaking all standard
ideas of "gloomy" German literature [4]. In his motherland
Kehlmann is awarded such epithets as "modern romantic
novelist" and "story-teller philosopher", who follows
Pynchon, Mann, Nabokov and Borges [11].
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion we should mention that Kehlmann
absorbs and transforms traditional forms of Latin
American prose focusing his attention on ironical
reconsideration of conventional post-modernist games
with popular literature characterized by the combination
of fascinating plots and deep philosophical problems.
1154
Middle-East J. Sci. Res., 16 (8): 1152-1155, 2013
Thus we get a possibility to find intertexts throughout
the novel at different levels, which allows the reader to
independently establish his individual semantic
connections. Turning the reader to cultural experience by
means of his emotional and intellectual fiction, the author,
thereby, promotes intellectualization of the reader's
consciousness. This also serves a dominant feature of a
postmodern literary work and makes postmodern writing
different from other literary trends. The novel of Daniel
Kehlmann "Measuring the world" successfully integrates
many Austrian and Latin American literary and art
traditions, forming a difficult semantic mosaic with a
multiple-valued figurative row that completely
corresponds to the current trend of updating prose, its
language and genre forms in modern European literature.
REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ilyin, I.P., 1996. Poststructuralism. Deconstructivism.
Postmodernism. Moscow, pp: 256.
Kušnír, J., 2011. Postmodernism in American and
Australian Fiction. Pulib, pp: 27-53.
Matterson, S., 2003. The Essential Glossary:
American Literature. Available: http:// www.pbs.org/
wnet/ americannovel/timeline/postmodernism.html.
Harding, L., 2006. Unlikely Bestseller Heralds the
Return of Lightness and Humour to German
Literature.
Guardian.
Available:
http://
www.guardian.co.uk/
world/
2006/
jul/
19/books.germany.
5.
Oort, F., 2008. Measuring the World. Notices of the
AMS, 55(6): 681-684.
6. Kehlmann, D., 2006. Ich wollte schreiben wie ein
Verrückt Gewordener Historiker. Interviewed by
Felicitas von Lovenberg. Available: http://
www.faz.net/ aktuell/ feuilleton/buecher/bucherfolgich-wollte-schreiben-wie-ein-verrueckt-gewordenerhistoriker-1304944.html.
7. Petrenko, A.P. and S.A. Petrenko, 2013. Humorous
Mysticism as a Base of Bulgakov’s Grotesque Model
in the Story “Diaboliad”. Middle-East Journal of
Scientific Research, 15(4): 595-600.
8. Kehlmann, D., 2011. Die Wunder des Erzählens.
Anmerkungen zu Hundert Jahre Einsamkeit. Sinn und
Form. Heft1. pp: 65-78.
9. Kehlmann, D., 2005. Die Vermessung der Welt. 2005.
Rowohlt, pp: 302.
10. Foden, G., 2007. The Long and the Short of It.
Available: http:// www.theguardian.com/ books/
2007/ apr/14/featuresreviews.guardianreview11.
11. Kammler, C., 2004. Deutsche Literatur seit 1889/90.
Ein
Rückblick
//
Deutschsprachige
Gegenwartsliteratur seit 1989: Zwischenbilanzen –
Analysieren – Vermittlungsperspektiven. Heidelberg,
pp: 126.
1155