Hauptdarsteller Hilfsausdruck: Wolf Haas Brenner-Romane - Wenn der Erzähler seinen Figuren die Show

This contribution deals comprehensively with the narrative technique of the Brenner novels by Wolf Haas. These are analyzed narratively using the framework of a systematics based on Gérard Genette. Notably, there is an omnipresent narrator at the center of the narrative, who often prioritizes himself and his storytelling over the plot. Initially merely an observer, he later intervenes in the events, dies, and rises again, which denies the clear distinction between homo-, hetero-, and autodiegetic narration, and overcomes the necessary separation between histoire and discours in a narrative text. The ubiquity of the narrator and his omniscience are unusual for crime literature; however, a measured handling of this knowledge does not undermine the expectation of suspense. The study makes it clear that the connection between narrative and what is narrated fluctuates significantly: both the categories of time, mode, and voice are characterized by great dynamism. The narrator not only presents himself as extremely present but also exerts an exceptionally strong influence on the impact of the events on the audience through his variability. He is a skilled manipulator.