Non-places in literature. Hotel theme in the works of Joseph Roth

Abstract

After he left Brody, Joseph Roth spent the rest of his life in hotels. The theme of the hotel and the lack of a permanent residence, appeared not only in his novels and stories, but also in the feuilletons he printed in German-language press. This article presents the most important feuilletons in which he wrote about the hotel and attempts to present the hotel as a non-place (in Marc Augé’s terminology) — an anonymous space, created for people with no addresses, emigrants and loners. Joseph Roth was one of them, a citizen of the non-existent monarchy, so the hotel was a substitute of home for him.