[en] Hansel and Gretel on Lanzarote: Neujahr, from Juli Zeh

This paper is about the fairy-tale elements in Zeh's best-selling novel, especially in the central embedded story, this is, the main character's early childhood memory when he and his young-er sister were abandoned by their parents in a summer house on Canary Island Lanzarote. The sum-mer holidays of the now adult at the same place are thus transformed in a journey into the subcon-scious which, to a certain point, resolves his mental problems. The numerous parallels with Grimm's fairy-tale Hansel and Gretel, not consciously intended by the author, are unveiled and their function explained in the context of the novel in order to get a psychological interpretation.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the fairy-tale elements in Zeh's best-selling novel, focusing on the central embedded story that explores the main character's childhood memory and its resolution of his psychological problems.