A “positivist” overview on Anna Seghers’ novel “Transit”

A “positivist” overview on Anna Seghers’ novel “Transit”

Yıkılkan, Bilge

The German literary works that deal with the separation of Germany in World War Two are not much deeply examined in Turkey for political reasons as such works concentrate on the deficiencies of nationalism. The aim of this study is to examine this work from a positivist perspective, which explores the relation between author’s life and the work considering the work is inspired by the life of author. Therefore, the present study is to investigate if there is any close relation between Anna Seghers experiences she lived during her escape from Germany to France due to Nazi concentration camps and her novel “Transit”. Anna Seghers is one of the famous German authors that suffered from what happened during World War II in Germany, notably from Nazi camps. She always tried to express her feelings and her own experiences that were lived in those days in her works. Her well-known novel “Transit” explores the plight of German refugees from Hitler attempting to leave France via the seaport of Marseilles between the French capitulation in 1940 and the Spring of 1941. As in other works, Seghers uses a language in this work that depicts the tragedy of the victims and infinite confidence in the human essence which can never be destroyed. The novel “Transit” can also be seen as the critique of the decadent Western World and the writer’s plea for political commitment.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05-04

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