Das Heldenkonzept in Heinrich Bölls Romanen

Abstract

Heinrich Boll's epic was mainly influenced by the Second World War as well as by the fact that as a young man he. was forced to serve in the German Army. Consequently he personally experienced the violence and destruction of the war. In his work he endeavours to find a counterbalance for the atrocities the German people are accused of. The counter - reaction of Boll's heroes is elaborated in various ways. Some agitate explicitly against the war and the propaganda system. Others are not capable of associating themselves with their present position - they heap reproach onto the flourishing community, the consumer community ("Konsum-gesellschaft") and the moral decadence of their time. With sensitive awareness of the human subconscious, Boll analyses the reaction of his heroes in existing situations and circumstances. Because war is the phenomenon which has generally influenced Heinrich Boll and thus constitutes the moulding factor in his epic works, his works are divided into war, immediately post-war and restoration literature. Although the hero concept is simulated in various ways in each of his works, it is clear that Boll's heroes are desperate, suffering, helpless and mostly passive heroes. They are not all worthy of imitation and are regarded as 'refuse'. Due to their characters and mode of conduct, Boll's heroes are divided into various categories: the passive hero, the fatherless, the escapers from reality, the lam and buffalo figures, the outsiders and the modern man in bandaged. A typology of Boll's heroes has been established on the grounds of the reception-aesthetically founded hermeneutical model of H.R. Jauss. This model consists of five identification modalities: modality of associative, admirable, sympathetic, cathartic and ironic identification. Boll's heroes are typical of the latter three modalities of identification. Finally the research and survey of this dissertation have proved the excellence of Heinrich Boll as a person and a poet who has always concerned himself with his country and environment. This dissertation covers merely a fraction of Heinrich Boll's extensive and excellent output, leaving a wide field still to be researched.