Konstruktionen von Authentizität in zeitgenössischer Reiseliteratur

Though it was established by the scientific community as a literary genre, in German-speaking parts the so called Travel-Literature is considered a non-fiction book. One of the genre’s central claims is to report on an authentic travel and thereby refer to reality. Contrary to those claims are the findings of the Post-Structuralism suspending the literal understanding in narrative texts. This dissertation examines the features marking the narration as ‘authentic’ and how the account of a travel disguises its methods of shaping, arranging, omitting and accentuating certain parts of the narration. The paper analyses eleven travel reports of contemporary authors such as Roger Willemsen, Ilija Trojanow, Helge Timmerberg, Wolfgang Büscher and Matthias Politycki. It demonstrates the role of the concept of authenticity, the varying techniques facilitating it and wether they are consistent with the great variety of the genre.