Techniques of Exposition: Introducing Heimito von Doderer’s The Strudlhof Steps

Abstract

When does Heimito von Doderer’s novel The Strudlhof Steps (1951) begin? What are its specific ‘techniques of exposition’? In his poetological essay, ‘Grundlagen und Funktion des Romans’ [Function and Fundamentals of the Novel], (1970) Doderer uses musicological terminology to describe his expository technique of opening a narration: ‘Exposition durch Einstreuung und Einbettung; man k€onnte das auch Vorhalte nennen, wie in der Musik, wenn Bestandteile eines neuen Accordes, der sp€ ater erst dem Satz zu Grunde liegen wird, vorweg genommen werden’ [Exposition through interspersion and embedding; one could call it a forefall, like in music, when elements of a new chord are being anticipated that will later ground the movement]. In other words, the novel opens through the processes of what Doderer calls ‘interspersion’ and ‘embedding’, ornamental insertions that, insofar as they anticipate a future event, resemble the musical device of a ‘forefall’. Doderer distinguishes this simultaneously halting and foretelling technique of beginning from what he calls an ‘additive Technik’ [additive method], which, he writes, ‘legt vor den Augen des Lesers in direkt auf ihr Ziel hin sich bewegender Weise die Fundamente; alles tritt nacheinander heran im Flusse der Zeitfolge’ [lays the fundamentals before the reader such that everything moves directly towards its goal; each thing follows the next in the linear flow of time]. Exposition by means of ‘interspersion’ and ‘embedding’ – or, in Doderer’s musical terms, a ‘forefall’ – suspends linear narration by introducing a ‘vorgelegte und heterogene Handlung’ [propounded and heterogeneous action] into the ‘Hauptbett’ [main riverbed] of the plot. This essay investigates Doderer’s technique of exposition and exposure in The Strudlhof Steps and asks what it means for a novel to begin with the ornament of a forefall, keeping its movement at bay.