Geocodes

Abstract

Geographical categories, which are used as codes for certain ideas, concepts, and values in order to negotiate the identity of a culture, are a hitherto neglected phenomenon that shapes extra-literary discourses as much as literary works. This article analyzes the structure and function of such “geocodes” and explores their use in literary works of the interwar period by Alfred Döblin, Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann. The focus is on geocodes organized along the East-West axis. The objective is to show, on the one hand, different configurations of geocultural interpretive patterns and, on the other hand, the difference between static and dynamic geocodes, i. e., geocodes changing with diegetic events.