Heffernan, Valerie (2010) Swimming Against the Current? Rolf Lappert’s Nach Hause schwimmen. FIGURATIONEN: GENDER-LITERATUR-KULTUR 1, 11 (1). pp. 113-128. ISSN 2194-363X

Download (131kB)

Abstract

Rolf Lappert’s 2007 novel Nach Hause schwimmen [Swimming Home], seems on the surface to be anything but a Swiss novel. Set in part in rural Ireland and in part in the United States and with a brief interlude in Sweden, it tells the story of „Will McDermott, alias Wilbur Sandberg, verhinderter Selbstmörder mit partiellem Gedächtnisverlust, zwanghafter Trinkhalmbenutzer und traumatageschädigter Nichtschwimmer“.1 Wilbur’s story has a wider resonance, as indicated by Anja Hirsch, who proclaims: „,Nach Hause schwimmen‘ ist nicht nur Wilburs Geschichte, sondern Familien-, Irland-, Amerika-Roman.“2 Lappert’s novel draws on established images of Ireland and America and on cultural representations of the sea and uses these as a springboard to explore issues of belonging and separation, integration and exclusion.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Rolf Lappert; Nach Hause schwimmen;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures > German
Item ID:	4260
Depositing User:	Valerie Heffernan
Date Deposited:	19 Mar 2013 09:49
Journal or Publication Title:	FIGURATIONEN: GENDER-LITERATUR-KULTUR 1
Publisher:	Böhlau
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads