Craftsmanship and Storytelling in Joseph Roth's Der Leviathan

Abstract

Joseph Roth's novella Der Leviathan (1934) about the coral merchant Nissen Piczenik has been understood as an allegory of the conditions of literature in a modern capitalist market, and most readings focus on the eponymous mythical creature of the Leviathan. This study instead explores poetical implications of Piczenik's artisanal practice and material consciousness. Using Benjamin's conception of storytelling as a form of craft, the article sheds light on how the depiction of artisanal practice and sensibility can be understood in terms of literary self‐reflection. It further analyzes passages in which storytelling occurs, focusing on the storytellers and on the heterotopical spaces in which stories are exchanged. This results in a re‐evaluation of the novella and its ending, which in this reading depicts the deterritorialization of the storytelling craftsman while simultaneously staging—and inviting readers to take part in—a scene of storytelling.