Heimito von Doderers »Dämonen«-Roman: Lektüren
Beiheft zur Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie
[Heimito von Doderer’s Novel “The Demons”: Readings. Supplement to the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie]

Heimito von Doderer’s Demons, driven by a strong need for reflection, competes with fellow Austrian Robert Musil’s unfinished monumental work The Man Without Qualities. In its chronicle form, scope, and tendency towards the bizarre, it is close to The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, published three years later.
Despite (or perhaps because of) its many connections with such grand titles of 20th century literary history, Doderer’s text has not yet been permanently canonized. This is partly due to the many contradictions and ambivalences that pervade this polyphonic novel. It playfully confuses its own theorems, demands and subverts form at the same time, and is by no means playing it safe when it comes to politics. The Demons are no primer of “apperceptive ability”—as claimed by some voices within and about the novel—but a theatrum daemonicum.
The contributions to this supplement, the result of a collective reading adventure, respond to the challenge that The Demons poses to its readers and interpreters. The readings stay close to the text, but offer pointed theses that open up new approaches to Doderer’s work and materials for future interpretations.