Borders Within the Text and the Text as a Border – Terézia Mora’s Das Ungeheuer

Authors:

Pages: 293-308
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/PMYF9245

Abstract:

Non-chronologically told texts demand a lot from their readers, but they are not uncommon and can sometimes even be found in young adult literature. The situation is different with texts that slow down or even impair the reading process due to their special typography. Terezia Mora’s novel Das Ungeheuer (2013) is used as an example of such a text, which confronts the reader with horizontally divided pages: Each page of the novel is divided into two halves by a black line; there is often text above and below the line, sometimes just above it. Are two narrative strands being developed in parallel here? Are there points of contact between the two texts or do they lead a life of their own? And how do you actually read such a text?

Keywords:

border poetics, crossing borders, formal potential of texts, typography, aesthetic of reception

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