’Amerika in Farbe’ : die Darstellung der amerikanischen Fremde bei Max Frisch

It was a coincidence based on lack of geographical knowledge that led the old world to America. Since then, this foreign continent implies a massive force of attaction on the Europeans, and has had its influence on the German literature - for instance as common American topoi like the utopia of the American Dream in the land of opportunities. Literature is the vehicle in history that projects the visions of the new world: descriptions of America portraying clichees and stereotypes varying from American ideal to anti-American nightmare, depending on the predominant American perception and the era-specific zeitgeist. Max Frisch is not into this common usage of clichees describing the new world, which is even more remarkable considering that his opus covers almost the complete period of the rivalry between UdSSR and USA. Despite the double proposition of dichotomizing thinking - American clichees and stereotypical enemy images of the cold war - Max Frisch has described a country and its people without applying this thinking. So ’America in colors’ - the portrayal of the American abroad by Max Frisch transports a picture of America literally being in colors celebrating its fine nuances in contrast to the black-and-white stereotypical world only engaging with cultural paradigms of the past. For his whole live, Max Frisch has always been on the move, continuously diving-deeper into the new world avoiding pure reproduction and only being part of it - the Swiss citizen is therefore fully in line with the in his essay "Unsere Arroganz gegenüber Amerika (1953)" described cosmopolitan ideal of the global citizen. The constant change of cultural areas has had strong influence on Frisch’s life and opus, particularly the biographical experiences in his foreign America are present in his public statements and fictions. Therefore, Frisch’s America is no simple repetition of stereotyical patterns of the common public perception, but influenced by the experiences and realities on location and therefore clearly differentiated - which is the core thesis of ’America in colors - the portrayal of the America abroad by Max Frisch’.