Dokter Jankowsky alias Sigmund Rascher - Nogmaals over referentialiteit in Louis Ferrons De keisnijder van Fichtenwald (1976)

• Published in: Nederlandse letterkunde 2011-01, Vol.16 (1), p.19
• Main Author: Konst, Jan
• Format: Article
• Language: dut
• ISSN: 1384-5829; 2352-118X
• DOI: 10.5117/NEDLET2011.1.DOKT325

This article shows how Nazi doctor Sigmund Rascher (1909-1945) was the model for Doctor Jankowsky, the protagonist of Louis Ferron’s De keisnijder van Fichtenwald [The stone-cutter of Fichtenwald] (1976). This has interesting implications for the way in which the novel can be read. If you look at the last part of Ferron’s ‘Teutonic trilogy’ as a roman à clé, it is possible to discover a core meaning in this work – something which existing interpretations generally reject. The novel can be understood as the fictitious report of a notorious war criminal who tries to portray his own actions during the war years in as positive a light as possible. With an appeal to so-called Modest Actual Intentionalism, this reading of De keisnijder van Fichtenwald is seen in the light of statements which Ferron himself made on his novel. The article printed here is a direct continuation of an earlier article of mine on De keisnijder van Fichtenwald which was published in this magazine one and a half years ago.