Explosive Kontaktzonen

Tankstellen als poetologische Drehpunkte im Coming-of-Age-Genre

Abstract

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Tankstellen im Alltag sind grundsätzlich unauffällig. Überlandstraßen und Autobahnen saumend, eingefaltet in urbane Raume oder als Element suburbaner, industrieller Zonen nimmt man sie kaum wahr. Werden sie jedoch gebraucht, sei es zum Tanken, sei es zum Einkaufen abseits der üblichen Öffnungszeiten, rücken sie aus ihrer Latenz von einem Augenblick auf den anderen in den Vordergrund der Wahrnehmung und können für Reisende zu einer Obsession werden – rettende Oasen in der Wüste.

Explosion Hazard
Gas Stations in the Coming-of-Age Genre

Gas stations are in-between-places; non-lieux (Marc Augé), places with a special density. In terms of space and metaphor they are often situated at the margins of urban and suburban zones. Gas stations frequently appear throughout popular culture, in novels, films and T V series, often as a threshold to supernatural, uncanny spaces. At a gas station, anything can happen, any time. People meet by chance, continue their trip together, get into fights, fall in love, get killed. And of course, gas stations can explode as soon as safe-ty measures are ignored. In the coming-of-age genre, in particular, there is a huge variety of gas stations: Gas stations as everyday places as well as adventurous zones reflect the fragile emotional state of adolescent characters on the run. When they turn in at a gas station, dramatic things happen – an old order might be destroyed and a new one seems possible. Even though gas stations seem easy to grasp as icons of modernity, they are the result of complex media processes. This article analyses the poetics of the gas station in German coming-of-age-novels, putting them into the context of international media culture for young adults.