Alfred Döblin is, without doubt, one of the most unusual writers in the history of modernist literature. His talent is so indefinable that critics have described him in contradictory terms: as a Jew and an anti-Semitic Prussian, as an anarchist and middle-class representative, as a socialist and an individualist. He has been termed an expressionist (and as such characterised by extreme subjectivity) and at the same time a driving force behind the so-called
Neue Sachlichkeit(New Objectivity). The latter was a new aesthetic movement that emerged as a reaction to expressionism and was characterised by impartiality, technical mastery and the realistic portrayal of everyday reality.
Born in Stettin on 10 August 1878, Alfred Döblin was the son of Jewish merchant who took off for the United
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Citation: Fernandez, Juan-Fadrique. "Alfred Döblin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5456, accessed 23 November 2024.]
