Das Motiv der Kindheit in der modernen Parabel

This work is an attempt to pursue a childhood as medium of ideas and functions in a text structure. Parables are particularly well suited for this approach, because they belong to a type of text in which all text elements are aligned constitutively for an ensemble of semantics. Even in the modern parable texts in which meaning is no longer clearly identifiable as in the traditional didactic parable text, there is no significant difference in this property based on the characteristics of the genre. To work out the dimensions of meaning and potentials of the motif of childhood, texts of representative modern parable authors like Franz Kafka and Bertolt Brecht are used. Also relevant texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Walser, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin in which the childhood represents an important motif region are examined in depth. In the treated texts, the motif of childhood is related to various topics and issues such as knowledge, subject, language, and criticism of society.