“Sie sitzen daheim und denken sich Geschichten aus”. The Representation of Authorship in Daniel Kehlmann’s Literary Works

Daniel Kehlmann is considered one of the major writers not only of the German-language book market. His best seller Measuring the World has been translated into over forty languages, the novel Tyll is soon to be a Netflix series. Based on the assumption that writer figures can contribute to the reflection about literature and the relation between author, narrator and characters, this thesis examines the representation of authorship in Kehlmann’s literary works. Tracing the most common concepts of authorship, the text explores Kehlmann’s ways of portraying literary production and compares them with his own poetological statements. In this context, it also gives insights into Kehlmann’s handling of metafiction and intertextuality and demonstrates in which ways the dualism of reality and fiction affects the genesis of authorship.