ABSTRACT
First published in 1973, the children’s fantasy novel Momo, by German author Michael Ende, has since been translated into more than twenty languages, and the German edition has never gone out of print. Its full title, Momo oder Die seltsame Geschichte von den Zeit-Dieben und von dem Kind, das den Menschen die gestohlene Zeit zurückbrachte [Momo, or the Strange Story of the Time-Thieves and the Child who Brought the Stolen Time back to the People], compresses the plot of the novel and profiles its concern with the consequences of perceiving time as having only material value. Ende’s Die unendliche Geschichte [The Neverending Story], another fantasy, was published in Germany six years after Momo’s first edition and soon became an international success. The title of this novel emphasizes its focus on the beginning and the end of time and the relation between temporality and storytelling. Both novels are deeply rooted in Ende’s fascination with Japanese culture and mysticism, which led him to study Zen teachings (“Mariko Sato”). This chapter examines Ende’s Momo and The Neverending Story to highlight how the two novels’ perspectives on time, life, and death invoke eastern spirituality – specifically Zen Buddhism – and how their allegorical narrative structure and other metaphorical strategies challenge dominant attitudes towards these three themes in western children’s literature.
