Postmoderne Sonderlinge: Der Antiheld in den Romanen Schlafes Bruder und Das Parfum

Authors : Gülsüm Atahan

Pages : 105-126

Doi:10.55036/ufced.1489825

View : 48 | Download : 51

Publication Date : 2024-06-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study discusses how the concept of hero changes and transforms in Robert Schneider\'s The Brother of Sleep and Patrick Süskind\'s Perfume novels. The highly developed “hearing” and “smell” senses of the protagonists of these novels are placed against the sense of “sight”, which is the method of perceiving the world in the Enlightenment. Thus, both novels enable a criticism of the Enlightenment. In this context, the senses of hearing and smell are associated with concepts such as the subconscious, emotion, and impulse, which the Enlightenment suppressed or ignored, but Postmodernity reconsidered through anti-heroism. The sense of sight served the Enlightenment project as the representative of mind, consciousness, and science, as well as its close relationship with the classical hero. Hence, it is described that there is a symbolic regression to pre-Enlightenment through postmodern heroes. In this context, the classical hero is defined as a product of the Enlightenment, an ideological and mythical figure who transcends nature and its rules, bringing “wisdom” and “culture”. The anti-hero, on the other hand, is portrayed as representing the return to nature, the subconscious and its uncontrollability, primal instincts, and emotions, reflecting the worldview and problems of contemporary individuals.
Keywords : Postmodern, Kahraman, Antikahraman, Duyular