The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum Essay -- essays research papers

The Lost repay of Katharina BlumKnowing about the writer of a literary text can shape significantly the way that it is read. take away the effect of the writers context on your understanding of The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.As a writer of fiction Bll was interpreting history, creating patterns of meaning, club his material to enable his reader to make sense of it. The experiences of Bll and his values that arose from these events create been influential on the content and themes of Blls novel, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. Bll experienced both the first and second world wars and the effects that these wars had on German society. Events such as the economic collapse in Germany localize WWII, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the rise of student based urban terrorism in West Germany in the 1970s and the increasing state controls to contain such assert threats can be seen to influence the issues explored in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. The novel is a comment on the press and the law, the labyrinth of social truth, the collision of feature and fiction and the authority of language. Bll himself experienced the press first hand and this along with the experiences of Professor Bruckner, form the basis of his criticism directed at the fibrous and hegemonic structures in society, in particular in relation to the police and the press and their corrupt relationship in the novella. Many of Heinrich Bll s views and attitudes, resulting form his context, argon clearly visible in the novella through the portrayal of certain characters in positive or negative lights. The historical, social, economic and political context of Bll and West Germany at this time (1900s) had a considerable effect on the issues Bll delves into in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum and greatly affected my understanding of the novel. Germany has a deeply rooted history with fascism in the form of Nazism in WWII (1939-1945). Bll was a teenager at the time of Hitlers rise to po wer and he despised Hitler and everything that he stood for. I hate the war and all those who love it. Bll actively refused to join Hitlers Youth as a boy, yet as a young man he was forced to join Hitlers army. After the war, until the German Republic was formed, Bll lived under the affiliate Occupation. These events led Bll to view politics with doubt and skepticism and he became vehement abo... ... context that shaped Heinrich Bll, it becomes apparent to the reader that these conditions have greatly shaped the themes and ideas discussed in Blls, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. Main issues such as the corruption and collusion of powerful institutions in society, especially the police, press and industrialists have come through, with emphasis being placed on the misogynistic and patriarchal society and the effects this has on the treatment of woman, shown by Katharina. Bll brings his awareness of they way in which power and status are connected to wealth into the text and great ly condemns the abuse of power by the dominant groups in society, Bll had little combine in any moral renewal coming from political or ecclesiastical hierarchies. . Bll believed that the function of literature is to challenge the arrogant claims to totality do by all ideological systems . By incorporating his own context into his work, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Bll leads the reader to a greater understanding of this time issue in West Germany, at the same time undermining the dominant systems and causing the reader to question and carefully examine power structures in society.