The Asiatic influence on the Poetics of Expressionism by examples of the German writers Alfred Döblin and Gottfried Benn
Sang-bum Chin, Michael MayerThe European individual is in a crisis, man has lost its autonomy from nature. In the first two decades of the 20th century, the enthusiasm for Asian philosophy, religion or belief is thus of economic activity in Europe and especially in Germany, because the worldview promises to improve the situation. The artistic movement of Expressionism participates in this trend and explores specific ways out to restoring patient's autonomy. However, the literary happens in very different ways. While Alfred Doblin tries in his novel Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun (The Three Leaps of the Wan-lun) to connect Taoist way of life and political revolution, the disillusionment by the experience of two world wars is evident in Gottfried Benns Lotosland, which was published after the Second World War. However, the Asia reference remains as a refuge point, although the Second World War has resulted in Asia and particularly in Japan in the disaster. The paper aims to examine how philosophical and religious models from Asia are literary adapted and how these models are tested narrative for an improvement of social reality. In order to describe the circulation of Asian thought good among the different sectors of society, working according to Greenblatt's methodology of the New Historicism. Thus, the proposed investigation is breaking new ground. Because the methodology of the New Historicism has not yet been applied to texts of Expressionism. This approach therefore promises innovative results. The content of the goal of the study is to make the close link between the influence of Eastern religion and philosophy as well as political and social events visible and interpret intended. This relationship has been scientifically not considered because either the one or the other direction was investigated. Thus, the paper will provide new insights into the connection between Alfred Döblin's novel Die drei Sprünge des Wang-lun,Gottfried Benns narrative Lotosland and the Adaption of Asiatic religions.