Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Der Tunnel [The Tunnel]

Friedrich Dürrenmatt wrote “Der Tunnel” [“The Tunnel”] in 1951. The narrative was first published in the story collection Die Stadt [The City, 1952] and appeared in numerous later editions. It has been translated into several languages and still ranks among the author's best known and most widely read texts. Situated between Dürrenmatt's early plays and stories – all heavily laden with existentialist philosophy and the resonance of World War II and its horrors – and the author's emerging unique theory and practice of tragi-comedy, this fascinating pivotal text combines elements of both. With its suspension of empirical reality, the perfectly cogent development of a succession of bizarre events, touc