EXPRESSIVE POTENTIAL OF ASYNDETON AND POLYSYNDETON IN PATRICK SÜSKIND’S “PERFUME. THE STORY OF A MURDERER”

The relevance of the study is determined by the important role of syntax in shaping the fictional world of Patrick Süskind’s “Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders”, in which smell functions not only as a physical sensation but also as a means of cognition, a marker of identity, and a source of power. Syntactic organization is particularly significant because olfactory experience is difficult to verbalize directly; consequently, rhythmic, sequential, and contrastive patterns guide the reader’s perception of sensory information. The aim of the article is to identify, systematize, and interpret the expressive functions of asyndeton and polysyndeton and to determine their contribution to narrative rhythm, the representation of sensory experience, characterization, and psychological intensity. The material of the study is the German original of the novel, published by Diogenes in 1985. The research employs qualitative contextual, structural- syntactic, functional-stylistic, and interpretive analysis. The study establishes that asyndeton generally contributes to syntactic compression, acceleration of rhythm, accumulation, and an impression of immediate succession of sensory or narrative units. Polysyndeton, by contrast, strengthens rhythmic segmentation, slows the progression of a sequence, and foregrounds its individual components, which is important for representing duration, repetition, obsessive attention, and the differentiation of sensory impressions. The analysis demonstrates that the expressive effect of these figures is not produced in isolation but emerges through their interaction with lexical repetition, enumeration, syntactic parallelism, gradation, olfactory semantics, and focalization through Grenouille’s extraordinary sensory perception. The findings show that asyndeton and polysyndeton form a functional opposition and participate in regulating narrative rhythm, sensory imagery, characterization, and psychological tension. Thus, syntactic expressivity in “Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders” is inseparable from its central olfactory semantics and from the ways in which the text organizes the reader’s perception of temporal and sensory density.