Gottes subversive Signale: Zur Reflexion theologischer und philosophischer Ideen in Lars Gustafssons Roman Historien med hunden

Abstract

Lars Gustafsson's novel gives the reader a caleidoscopic flux of philosophical and theological thoughts and ideas. The impression is created that although everything is connected 'somehow', unsolvable contradictions arise. The authors of this article have taken at first sight contradictory approaches to the primary text. But finally, their points of view have been fused together to the interpretation of eternal questions for good and evil as well as a search for God as constitutive elements of the novel. The novel's organizing principles are analyzed by drawing parallels to other literary works by Gustafsson and by emphasizing the novel's questioning gesture in a combination of pre- and postmodernity. Even today, six years after the novel's publication, these organizing principles can be partially transposed on the world beyond literature.