In the present master thesis I first focus on a detailed interpretation of Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann, regarding the aspects of a construction of the narrative identity and its relation to the narrative procedure of the novel. I aim to show the key relevance of the motif of the inarticulation in the narrative self for the interpretation of the novel as a whole. I then focus on the name of the title character Malina, and show the important link between the name and the motif of the inarticulate narrator. Bachmann’s construction of the narrative subject is thereupon taken into consideration in the light of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy. It turns out, Bachmann develops an original concept with respect to cognitive value of literature on the basis of Wittgenstein’s thoughts on language. I then set the question of cognitive aspects of literature in the context of German and Austrian post-war literature by contrasting the writing of T. W. Adorno and M. Horkheimer with Malina, thus including the culturological perspective on the matter, and conclude with an emphasis on the intertextual links to various works of Paul Celan that function not merely as a homage, but occupy a much more important role as a part of the key motif of a narrative self, longing to find expression.
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