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Empathy and conflict between tragedy and comedy: reading Komödie in Moll, by Hans Keilson

Abstract

Hans Keilson is one of the numerous German-speaking writers who published works about World War II and tangent themes between the 1930s and 1950s. Recognized only later, Keilson wrote an autobiography, novels, and essays in which his experiences, fiction, and his technical knowledge as a psychoanalyst are all present. In this article we interpret the novel Komödie in Moll, regarding empathy as a fundamental key for reading the work, focalization as a narrative resource to reach empathy, and analyzing the presence of comic elements involved in the serious and sometimes tragic reality that is built in the short story.

Keywords:
Hans Keilson; Perspective; Empathy; Comedy

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