Alfred Döblin is, without doubt, one of the most unusual writers in the history of modernist literature. His talent is so indefinable that critics have described him in contradictory terms: as a Jew and an anti-Semitic Prussian, as an anarchist and middle-class representative, as a socialist and an individualist. He has been termed an expressionist (and as such characterised by extreme subjectivity) and at the same time a driving force behind the so-called Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). The latter was a new aesthetic movement that emerged as a reaction to expressionism and was characterised by impartiality, technical mastery and the realistic portrayal of everyday reality.
Born in Stettin on 10 August 1878, …
1868 words
Citation: Fernandez, Juan-Fadrique. "Alfred Döblin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 November 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5456, accessed 22 November 2024.]
