Epic Worlds Podcast: Transcriptions

Posted  November 2023 – April 2024

Episode 1 Transcript. Introduction to AD. Includes a reading of “Two Souls in a Single Breast (Doctor Döblin and the Writer Döblin)”.

Episode 2 Transcript. AD’s Epics: What? How? Why? Includes a dramatised reading from his 1905 medical thesis.

Episode 3 Transcript. AD’s biography 1878-1900. Includes a reading from his (unpublished, anguished) 1917 attempt at an autobiography.

Episode 4 Transcript. The Three Leaps of Wang Lun. Includes a reading of the two final scenes: jubilant Emperor; grieving mother.

And a bonus: The Adventurous Readers Guide to Wang Lun. Packed with useful background, missing passages, and reviews.

Episode 5 Transcript: Biography 1912-1922 Includes a reading “The Musicians” from Wallenstein – a lovely miniature scene, minutely observed.

Episode 6 transcript: Mountains Oceans Giants. Reading: an intense depiction of the Tourmaline fleet.

Episode 7 transcript: The Weimar Twenties. Reading: from a 1930 broadcast by Döblin, about his creative life and what Berlin has meant to him.

Episode 8 transcript: the epic-in-verse  Manas. Döblin’s most unjustly neglected work, ripe for discovery by Adventurous Readers. The Reading this time has a cast of three – very dramatic!

Episode 9 transcript: The Alexanderplatz Event. Here we come to the high point of Döblin’s literary career. How did he arrive at the theme and format of Berlin Alexanderplatz? What else was going on in his life as he wrote the novel? How was it received? What challenges does it pose for translators?

Episode 10 transcript : Things Fall Apart. In this final episode of Season 1, we follow momentous changes in Döblin’s life as the Wall Street Crash causes economic havoc, while the unexpected windfall from Berlin Alexanderplatz enables the family to move to classy Berlin West – meaning an end to Alfred’s medical practice.

Watch out for Season 2 – to follow in 2025!