«Sehr geehrter Herr Sektionschef!» Oder: Wie aus einem Appell (fast) eine Obligation wird. Der Brief in Franz Werfels Novelle Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift

Research has shown how textlinguistics and the analysis of dialogue can contribute to a deeper understanding of a literary text. The present article uses tools from these frameworks to analyse the novel “Eine blaßblaue Frauenschrift” by Franz Werfel. By shifting the focus to the letter as one of the main aspects of the novel and to the scene of the face-to-face conversation of the protagonist with the sender of the letter, the analysis reveals on the one hand the different characteristics of written and oral communication (the contrast between the two forms of communication) used by the author, and shows on the other hand the problematic personality of the protagonist with his antisemitic sterotypes and prejudices as representative of the socio-political situation in 1936 in Austria.