Triest as Place of Refuge and Counterpoint to the Homeland in the Novel “Dauerhaftes Morgenrot” by Joseph Zoderer

No other work occupied the Southern Tirolian writer Joseph Zodereras long as his novel „Permanent Dawn“ (Dauerhaftes Morgenrot),which he worked on (discontinuously) since 1976; the book appearedSchlüsselwörter:Joseph Zoderer, Trieste,MittelmeerKeywords:Joseph Zoderer, Trieste,MediterraneanJohann HOLZNER (INNSBRUCK)izvorni znanstveni radfor the first time in 1987. From the very beginning, (as the priliminarystages of the novel demonstrate), the author chose a Mediterranean islandfor its setting. The protagonist is a man in his best years, however,stranded in every respect.This constellation fatally recalls other novels from the time after 1968,such as, for instance, the biographical report „The Thirty-Year Peace“(Der dreißigjährige Friede) by Peter O. Chotjewitz (1977), in whichanother stranded man, in this case on Sardinia, finds an idyllic worldin contrast to the familiar system of norms in Germany.In the final version of Zoderer’s novel, this simply-knit and conventionaldichotomy is, however, suspended. The setting and timeframe of theplot remain unknown for a long time. Only gradually, it turns out thatthe protagonist left his home and sojourns in Trieste. But his home, asis visible at the beginning and at the end, is a region located furthernorth; it is a landscape dominated by ashes, larches, and apple trees insteadof cypresses and it is possible to see snowflakes there as late as inMay. – The accent of home is still present in the language of the novel.