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Document Details : Title: Verlangen, uitstoting en 'magisch naturalisme' Subtitle: Schoppenboer en Bahnwärter Thiel aan de hand van de mimetische theorie van René Girard Author(s): VAN EECKELEN, Kevin Journal: Spiegel der Letteren Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Date: 2012 Pages: 35-59 DOI: 10.2143/SDL.54.1.2152722 Abstract : In Schoppenboer (Cyriel Buysse; 1898), the protagonist Jan experiences two kinds of expulsion that can be explained on the basis of René Girard’s mimetic theory. On the one hand, Jan becomes the scapegoat of his social environment. On the other hand, his impression to be ostracized by an ‘evil world’ is due to mimetic rivalry, which can be shown to dominate the plot. This rivalry leads to a transfiguration in his perception of reality. The narrative itself, however, doesn’t seem to entirely transcend this illusion either, which can be linked to ‘magical remainders’ within naturalist fatalism. This provides an explanation for the magical atmosphere in Bahnwärter Thiel (Gerhart Hauptmann; 1888). In that ‘study’, mimetic rivalry is also at work, but in a far more implicit way. The narrative itself is much more affected by the transfiguration of the world that is crucial to understand the madness of the protagonist, Thiel. |
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