Abstract

This study analyses the chapter “Replying to the Abbess”, from the novel Fame: a Novel in Nine Episodes, by Daniel Kehlmann. Miguel Auristos Blancos is a character/writer renowned for his works, in which the main approach is about spirituality. Every day he replies to letters from his readers, who expect to receive tips, suggestions, and advice. He spent almost all day answering the abbess, while the sun shone and while the air slowly filled with darkness. Blancos feels disturbed with the reply, because it makes him reflect on his literary texts and beliefs. His thoughts lead him to consider suicide as a solution for his inner conflicts. This bibliographic research considers other writers, who reflect about death over their texts, as Michel de Montaigne, or those before the unhappiness, anguish, and melancholy decide to anticipate the death, as Stefan Zweig and Virginia Woolf might inspire the construction of this fictional writer. On the other hand, the philologist Ottmar Ette emphasizes some writers that used the writing while facing the death, but pursuing survival, like Werner Krauss and Hannah Arendt. In both situations: pursuit for survival or surrender to death; fear, anguish, and suffering devastate, and in both circumstances, the idealized end is the purest freedom, and the written literature is a way to assure the survival.

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Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Literary Humanities

KEYWORDS

Novel Fame,Writing,Death,Survival

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