Page 109 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 109
the principle of montage and literature
collective experience of a place – Alexanderplatz – with the fate of an in-
dividual character, Franz Biberkopf. The place forms the locus of the epic,
dissolving the solitude of the individual character into a reflex of urban ex-
perience” (Caygill, 1998: p. 71).
Walter Benjamin was one of the first theoreticians, who determined
some fundamental concepts for reading Döblin‘s novel Berlin Alexander-
platz, which could be taken as an example of a multiple uses of the coun-
ter-identification mechanism. As Benjamin indicates in the text of his re-
view, Döblin’s lecture at the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1929 made a strong
impression on him. Under the spell of this lecture, he contrasted Döblin’s
“epic fiction” with André Gide’s idea of roman pur. Although Döblin knew
about and was very impressed by James Joyce, Benjamin insisted that it was
unnecessary to operate with artistic expressions (Kunstausdrücken), or to
talk about dialogue interieur, or recall Joyce while considering Berlin Alex-
anderplatz.
Actually, this is something different. The stylistic principle of this
book is montage. Petit bourgeois leaflets, scandalous stories, mis-
fortunes, sensation from 28, popular songs, and advertisements
sprinkle this text. The principle of montage explodes the novel, its
form and its style, and it opens up new, very epic possibilities, most-
ly with regard to form. In fact, the material of montage is not at
all random. Real montage is based on the document. In its fanati-
cal battle against the artwork Dadaism has made use of it in order
to ally itself with everyday life. For the first time, if only tentative-
ly, it has proclaimed the sovereignty of the authentic. In its best mo-
ments, film has prepared us for it. (Benjamin, 1991: p. 232)
In the case of Döblin‘s novel the montage, as it has been brought for-
ward by Benjamin, becomes a principle of counter-identification, which
works for the author, a reader and, above all, for characters in the novel. As
much as things are changing and one cannot speak about any unified field
of literary theory, we can say that this theory – or better to say: set of theo-
ries – classifies, canonises and validates literary works as it interprets them
and at the same time constructs a framework of interpretation. The liter-
ary theory undoubtedly declared Berlin Alexanderplatz to be an important
novel worth of multi-dimensional interpretation: “Döblin’s brilliant play
with traditions and topoi opens doors to an interpreter of the novel to di-
verse spaces and offers utmost differentiated possibilities of links to biblical
107
collective experience of a place – Alexanderplatz – with the fate of an in-
dividual character, Franz Biberkopf. The place forms the locus of the epic,
dissolving the solitude of the individual character into a reflex of urban ex-
perience” (Caygill, 1998: p. 71).
Walter Benjamin was one of the first theoreticians, who determined
some fundamental concepts for reading Döblin‘s novel Berlin Alexander-
platz, which could be taken as an example of a multiple uses of the coun-
ter-identification mechanism. As Benjamin indicates in the text of his re-
view, Döblin’s lecture at the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1929 made a strong
impression on him. Under the spell of this lecture, he contrasted Döblin’s
“epic fiction” with André Gide’s idea of roman pur. Although Döblin knew
about and was very impressed by James Joyce, Benjamin insisted that it was
unnecessary to operate with artistic expressions (Kunstausdrücken), or to
talk about dialogue interieur, or recall Joyce while considering Berlin Alex-
anderplatz.
Actually, this is something different. The stylistic principle of this
book is montage. Petit bourgeois leaflets, scandalous stories, mis-
fortunes, sensation from 28, popular songs, and advertisements
sprinkle this text. The principle of montage explodes the novel, its
form and its style, and it opens up new, very epic possibilities, most-
ly with regard to form. In fact, the material of montage is not at
all random. Real montage is based on the document. In its fanati-
cal battle against the artwork Dadaism has made use of it in order
to ally itself with everyday life. For the first time, if only tentative-
ly, it has proclaimed the sovereignty of the authentic. In its best mo-
ments, film has prepared us for it. (Benjamin, 1991: p. 232)
In the case of Döblin‘s novel the montage, as it has been brought for-
ward by Benjamin, becomes a principle of counter-identification, which
works for the author, a reader and, above all, for characters in the novel. As
much as things are changing and one cannot speak about any unified field
of literary theory, we can say that this theory – or better to say: set of theo-
ries – classifies, canonises and validates literary works as it interprets them
and at the same time constructs a framework of interpretation. The liter-
ary theory undoubtedly declared Berlin Alexanderplatz to be an important
novel worth of multi-dimensional interpretation: “Döblin’s brilliant play
with traditions and topoi opens doors to an interpreter of the novel to di-
verse spaces and offers utmost differentiated possibilities of links to biblical
107
