In Partial Fulfillnent April 1966 - MSpace at the University of Manitoba

story the accent fal-Is on the self-love, on the Narcissus
aspeets of such a person. fn the case of Boleke Roleffs
the Narcissus gets out of eontrol, it becomes exeessive,
lead.ing to Boleke's d.estruction by a soeiety whlch ls
incapable of eomprehending his nature, whieh is at once
godlike and d.iabol1eal.
llhe less problenatic prose works have in common
their geographie loeation in the villages of Ostfriesland..
In these stories the profound. nystery of mants being
anil the manifestation of his fate are expressed in a
style which tend.s toward.s understatement, marked
objeetivity, and an unusual power of expressive
language.
This language is eharaeteriøed by an arresting
inagery, by fresh eonnotations lent to ordinary words,
and an eloquent subtlety. From this intlmacy with and
sensitivlty to language springs its intensity and
originality and at the sane tine lts highly conscious
artistry, In Jahnrs works the mystery of poetic
inspiration and consclous 'rGestaltungrr blend with eaeh
other, letti-ng his language take on ar almost sleepwalking
sureness at times, as though the poet had. only
to write down what the inner voice of inspirati-on dictated.
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