Nothing for Children : Buddhist and Daoist Motifs in Michael Ende’s Phantastic Novels

Wenning, Mario (author)

Michael Ende’s phantastic novels are rich in transcultural references to Asian mythologies. This paper begins by reconstructing these traces in his early children’s novels, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver and Momo, before focusing on The Neverending Story. In The Neverending Story, his opus magnum, Ende draws on Buddhist and Daoist themes to conceive of nothingness in a twofold sense: when written in capital letters, “The Nothing” (Das Nichts) is a threatening force that engulfs the fictive world of Phantasia (Fantásien). Conversely, when written in lowercase letters, “nothing” (nichts) represents the root of human consciousness and imagination, which holds the potential to resist the spread of The Nothing. Ende’s transcultural approach unleashes a critical force by exposing deep-seated pathologies linked to the encroachment of Nothingness, as manifested in the destructive impact of the modern rush toward acceleration, consumerism, and loss of meaning. Ende’s protagonists resist The Nothing with nothing, which is connected to the rediscovery of the human capacities to wish, to name, and to remember.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Michael Ende, Buddhism, Daoism, nothingness
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.09.2025
• Number of pages: Str. 33-52
• Numbering: Vol. 13, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-178280
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• eISSN: 2350-4226
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.3.33-52
• Publication date in RUL: 22.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Nič za otroke : budistični in daoistični motivi v fantazijskih romanih Michaela Endeja

Abstract

Fantazijski romani Michaela Endeja so polni transkulturnih referenc na azijske mi-tologije. Članek se začne z rekonstrukcijo teh sledi v njegovih zgodnjih otroških ro-manih Jim Knof in strojevodja Luka ter Momo, nato pa se osredotoča na Neskončno zgodbo, njegovo osrednje delo. V njej Ende črpa iz budističnih in daoističnih tem ter zasnuje ničnost v dvojnem pomenu: kadar je zapisana z veliko začetnico, »Nič« (Das Nichts), predstavlja grozečo silo, ki požira domišljijski svet Fantazije (Fantásien); ka-dar je zapisan z malo začetnico, pa »nič« (nichts) predstavlja izvor človeške zavesti in domišljije, ki nosi potencial za odpor proti širjenju Niča. Endejev transkulturni pristop predstavlja kritično silo, saj razkriva globoko zakoreninjene patologije, povezane z vdiranjem Ničnosti, kot se kažejo v uničujočem vplivu sodobne naglice k pospeševanju, potrošništvu in izgubi smisla. Endejevi junaki se Niču uprejo z ničem, kar je povezano s ponovnim odkritjem človeških zmožnosti po želji, poimenovanju in spominjanju.

• Keywords: Michael Ende, budizem, daoizem, nič