Postromantische Liebe und Poetik der Vagheit. Zur Neucodierung von Emotionen in Leif Randts <i>Schimmernder Dunst über CobyCounty<i> und <i>Planet Magnon</i>

Abstract

Diverging from the pathos of strong feelings commonly embraced by literary tradition, contemporary author Leif Randt’s writing is concerned with balancing emotions. In his two novels Schimmernder Dunst über CobyCounty (2011) and Planet Magnon (2015), he develops a post-romantic discourse on love that counters the notion of passionate love (Niklas Luhmann) with the theory of PostPragmaticJoy. According to this theory, the failure of love is no longer a catastrophe, but an opportunity for something new. At the same time, Leif Randt’s literature is characterized by a poetics of vagueness, leaving many aspects within his novels unclear. The article explores the connection between the discourse of post-romanticism and the mode of vagueness and shows how Randt initiates a new coding of emotions while leaving their consequences in limbo.