_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Intercultural and intertextual encounters in Michael Roes' travel fiction. Dafydd, Seiriol How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Dafydd, Seiriol (2013) Intercultural and intertextual encounters in Michael Roes' travel fiction.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42453 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ miSiEA UNiVSF LUSkARY MOTTO BE REMOVED FROM THE LIBRARY Submitted to the University of Wales in fulfilment of the requirements Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Swansea University 2013 ProQuest Number: 10798161 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10798161 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract This thesis focuses on intertextuality in four key examples of Michael Roes’ fictional travel literature. It places Roes’ oeuvre within the wider context of both supposedly factual and avowedly fictional travel writing. I argue that Roes’ use of intertextuality is inextricably linked to his vision of a cosmopolitan intercultural encounter and that his work offers alternative perspectives with which contemporary debates about identity can be understood. The four main chapters reveal that each novel acclaims, undermines, or throws new light on its respective intertexts in different ways. The chapter on his most celebrated novel,Leeres Viertel, explores the links between the anthropological context in which the intercultural encounter is staged and the novel’s playful intertextual approach. The second chapter, onHaut des Stidens, argues that Roes’ deconstruction of racial identity depends to a considerable degree upon its ‘metatextual’ (Genette) reliance upon its classic American intertexts (Twain, Faulkner, Melville). In my analysis of Weg nach Timimoun, I read Roes’ relocation ofThe Oresteia to contemporary Algeria as ‘demythologizing’ intertextuality, indicating a rejection of myth as an universal model. The final chapter, onGeschichte der Freundschaft, explicates the parallels between that novel’s narrative of an intercultural friendship and its related intertexts (Montaigne, Foucault, Nietzsche), which provide a new framework for understanding the issue of relationships between men. By interweaving paradigm- changing theories into his novels, Roes impels his readers to rethink and revise perceptions of the world, both with regard to their home culture and to societies further afield. As such he engages with some of the most important and widely- discussed issues in contemporary society: race, sex, gender and international relations in a globalized world. Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Michael Roes 2 1.2 Travel Literature: Fact, Fiction and Everything In-Between 12 1.3 Intercultural Encounters 25 1.4 Intertextuality 36 2.0 Aspects of Play in Leeres Vieriel. Rub ’ al-Khali 46 2.1 The Literary Turn in Anthropology 54 2.2 ‘Das Spiel ist nicht Spielerey’: The Anthropology of Play 64 2.3 Dance and Intercultural Encounters 73 2.4 Intertextuality in Leeres Viertel 80 2.4.1 Contrapuntal Intertextuality 81 2.4.2 Intertextual Allusions 87 2.4.3 Playful Intertextuality 94 3.0 Engaging the American Literary Canon in Haut des Siidens 105 3.1 Following in Huck’s Footsteps? 110 3.2 ‘Das Ungeheuer “WeiBheif” : Herman Melville andMoby Dick 122 3.3 Intercultural Friendship 127 3.4 A Postmodern Intertextuality? 132 3.5 William Faulkner: Fear and Lynching in Yoknapatawpha 137 4.0 Bloodless Retribution:Weg nach Timimoun as a Modern-day Oresteia 145 4.1 On the Road to Timimoun 151 4.2 Ancient Greece in Modern Algeria 159 4.3 Algerian Outsiders 170 5.0 International Borders and Interpersonal Bonds in Geschichte der Freundschaft 179 5.1 Life in Kabylia 183 5.2 Migrant Characters in German Literature 189 5.3 ‘Die Immigration macht krank’: Yanis in Berlin 193 5.4 Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Partir and Michael Roes’ Geschichte der Freundschaft 206 5.5 The Body 210 5.6 The Voice: Narrative Characteristics 214 5.7 A History of Friendship: Nietzsche, Foucault & Co. 217 6.0 Conclusion 226 Bibliography 237 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the AHRC for the scholarship that made this research project possible. I would like to thank Professor Julian Preece, my primary supervisor, wholeheartedly for all the encouragement and advice he has given me, and for being so ready to share his enthusiasm and expertise. I am grateful to Dr Brigid Haines and Dr Tom Cheesman for their comments on drafts of the thesis. I would also like to thank other members of staff in the Modern Languages Department at Swansea, especially Dr Katharina Hall, Professor Duncan Large and Dr Sophie Smith. I am also indebted to lecturers who have since left Swansea for inspiring me in my academic endeavours: Professor Rhys W. Williams and Dr Mererid Hopwood. Thank you also to Dr Annette Biihler-Dietrich, who made it possible for me to spend a period of research at Stuttgart University. I am very grateful to Michael Roes who kindly sent me a copy of one of his films and agreed to meet me in person to discuss his work. It has been a great pleasure and privilege to get to know the writer behind the books. I would like to say a big thank you to my fellow postgraduate students in the German Section of the Modern Languages Department in Swansea, whose company and support I have greatly enjoyed and appreciated over the last few years. I owe a great debt to my parents, who have unfailingly encouraged me in my academic studies. Diolch yn fawr! And last but certainly not least, thank you to Janina, who has been a ray of sunshine on even the rainiest of Swansea days. Note on Referencing I use the Harvard system of referencing. The abbreviations used when referring to Roes’ primary works are given below. Page numbers in brackets without any other information always refer to the novel that is the subject of that particular chapter. Primary Works by Michael Roes Jizchak: Versuch iiber das Sohnesopfer (Berlin: Gatza, 1992) [J] Cham: Ein Symposion (Berlin: Gatza, 1993) [C] Lieu Llaw Gyffes (Berlin: Gatza, 1994) [LLG] Leeres Viertel. Rub ’ al-Khali: Invention iiber das Spiel (Frankfurt am Main: btb, [1996] 1998) [LV] Durus Arabij / Arabische Lektionen (Frankfurt am Main: Eichbom, 1997) [DA] Der Narr des Konigs: Madschnun al-Malik. Ein Schelmenstiick (Frankfurt am Main: Gatza bei Eichbom, 1997) [NK] Der Coup der Berdache (Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 1999) [CB] Haut des Siidens: Eine Mississippi-Reise (Berlin: Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag, [2000] 2002) [HS] David Kanchelli (Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 2001) [DK] Nah Inverness (Berlin: Parthas, 2004) [NI] Kain: Elegie (Berlin: Parthas, 2004) [K] Weg nach Timimoun (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2006) [WT] Krieg und Tanz (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2007) [KT] Perversion und Gliick (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2007) [PG] Ich weifi nicht mehr die Nacht (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2008) [IWN] Die Fiinf Farben Schwarz (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2009) [FFS] Geschichte der Freundschaft (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2010) [GF] Engel undAvatare [with Hinderk Emrich] (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2011) [EA] Die Laute (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2012) [L] 1.0 Introduction The journey motif reaches back to the very beginnings of literature and travel narratives are central pillars of the Western canon. Homer’sOdyssey , Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Cervantes’Don Quixote are all structured around protagonists and their journeys. The journey lends itself to narration; voyages promise excitement, adventure and the exceptional. Michel de Certeau goes so far as to state that ‘[ejvery story is a travel story - a spatial practice’ (Certeau 115). Over the course of the twentieth century, travel was democratized and large swathes of the Western population were able to venture on journeys of their own. Technological advances and the mechanisms of globalization have made the world, if not smaller, then certainly more traversable. People now enjoy far greater freedom and opportunity to travel to foreign countries. As European