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Neophilologus (2015) 99:97112
DOI 10.1007/s11061-014-9405-5
Stijn De Cauwer
Published online: 28 June 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract When Alfred Dblin was writing Berlin Alexanderplatz, he was working as a doctor in Berlin. Inuenced by Ernst Simmel, he was worried about the impact of the First World War on the mental life of the people in Berlin, and especially the phenomenon of war neurosis. War neurosis is an attempt to maintain psychic integrity and to ward off total dissolution and fragmentation. The phenomenon of war neurosis had devastating consequences on the capacity of people to read the modern city and led to a problematic conception of self-protection. I situate the theory of war neurosis within a tradition of theorists, most notably Freud in Jenseits des Lustprinzips and Walter Benjamin in his writings on Baudelaire, who attempted to theorize the stimulus shield people develop to cope with the daily shocks of modern life. Benjamin regards Prousts mmoire involontaire or the correspondances of Baudelaire as tactics to retain a form of experience (Erfahrung) in times characterized by shock. Montage turns out to be an important tactic to make sense of the complex signs and stimuli that make up modern city life. By means of montage, Dblin wanted to restore the capacity to read modern society and to overcome the defensiveness of the traumatic state of society after the war, which made people incapable of nding their bearings in the modern city.
Keywords Alfred Dblin Berlin Alexanderplatz War neurosis
Walter Benjamin Stimulus shield Montage
When Alfred Dblin was writing his magnum opus Berlin Alexanderplatz, he was working as a doctor in the center of Berlin and an active member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Though he was cautious about conating his two occupations, he nevertheless repeatedly pointed out that he was both a writer and
S. De Cauwer (&)
University of Leuven, Erasmushuis (Ofce 03.26), Blijde Inkomstraat 21 bus 3311, 3000 Louvain, Belgiume-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Beyond the Stimulus Shield: War Neurosis, Shock and Montage in Alfred Dblins Berlin Alexanderplatz
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a doctor. In his medical practice, he witnessed the devastating impact of the First World War and its aftermath on the mental life of the people. In 1921, Dblin had already written an...