Failure and the necessity of resistance to the 'dictatorship of the indicative'. The configural projection in Alfred Andersch's novel 'Winterspelt'

This article distances itself from simplifying statements by the author and stresses the polyvalent features of 'Winterspelt' and thus its openness to different interpretations. The novel reflects on its poetological premisse s and transforms them into a complex narrative structure. Incorrect or miss ing historical decisions, both political and military, are never disregarde d, which means that 'Winterspelt' preserves the hope especially of aestheti c resistance. The text is always aware, though, of the limitations of hypot hetical thinking.