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Neophilologus (2005) 89: 403418 Springer 2005DOI 10.1007/s11061-004-3094-4ANNA SEGHERSS TRANSIT: A LATE MODERN THRILLER
WITHOUT THRILLSANTHONY WAINELancaster UniversityAbstractAnna Seghers wrote Transit whilst living in exile, eeing her Nazi persecutors. The
novel captures dramatically the moods and motives of refugees waiting to leave Europe
in search of a new life. All stand at a crossroads, including the enigmatic male narrator,
and as they look back on their old lives in Europe and contemplate their new lives
beyond that continent, an unpredictable, non-dogmatic discourse on identity, commitment, and progress unfolds. The articles argues that this discourse, riddled with
ambivalence, places the activist socialist Seghers well beyond any doctrinally realist
stance and brings her closer to the hybrid textures of later twentieth century literature.
Indeed, the adroit montage of existential and political monologues appears to be
erected within the popular genre of the thriller. The analysis examines how Seghers
exploits the narrative potency of a genre that was being taken increasingly seriously
from the 1930s onwards, whilst playing with the readers expectations of the thriller.
The author seems to de-thrill the thriller. The article thus considers the stylistic and
thematic make-up of Transit and also places it in a broader cultural matrix by comparing it with the lm Casablanca, Hollywoods classic tale of romance, ight, and
commitment.Das siebte Kreuz, Anna Segherss most famous novel, appeared in
translation in the United States of America in 1942, enjoyed immediate
success, and within two years had been turned into a Hollywood lm,
starring Spencer Tracy as Georg Heisler, the novels protagonist. Not
only the books intrinsic dramatic qualities, but also its vividness, had
been evidently appreciated as soon as it appeared in print because the
Complete Pictorial Version1 of it began to be published in comic strip
format from November 30, 1942, and ran more or less daily until the
beginning of the new year, accompanied by 15,000 words of text. King
Features Syndicate, the company behind this apparently new venture
into serialising major contemporary and serious novels through the
increasingly popular medium of the comic strip, advertised the illustrated version in the following manner: The rst book to be released
will be THE SEVENTH CROSS, that tremendously important novel404by Anna Seghers, which has all the fascination of a rst-class detective
story.2...