Business Economics in Postmodern Literature: Kathrin Röggla

Abstract

The dehumanising process that the turn of the century New Economy entailed for high level professionals turned out to be a very attractive theme for authors of the so-called Pop Generation. In this context, Kathrin Röggla presents Wir schlafen nicht (2004) as both a novel and a theatre play. Taking her work as starting point, this article outlines the artistic parameters used by postmodern literature to portray the aggression of the most savage capitalism, precisely on the bodies and psyches of those who sustain and represent it. After briefly describing the plot of Wir schlafen nicht and the lexical and formal peculiarities involved in the transcription of narrative fiction, the leading character of the consultants will be analysed. In their grotesque professional environment, riddled with allergies, nervous tics and cognitive dissonances, pathological symptoms of their workaholic habits, Röggla manages to unmask in a literary sense, employing what she describes as «a hybridisation of genres and media», the vulnerability of the infallible homo oeconomicus.