ABSTRACT
The words Popularity and Realism therefore are natural companions. It is in the interest of the people, the broad working masses, that literature should give them truthful representations of life; and truthful representations of life are in fact only of use to the broad working masses, the people; so that they have to be suggestive and intelligible to them, i.e. popular. None the less these conceptions need a thorough clean-up before being thrown into sentences where they will get smelted and put to use. It would be a mistake to treat them as fully explained, unsullied, unambiguous and without a past. (‘We all know what’s meant by that, no need for hair-splitting.’) The German word for ‘popular’, Volkstümlich, is itself none too popular.1 It is unrealistic to imagine that it is. A whole series of words ending in turn need handling with care. One has only to think of Brauchtum, Königstum, Heiligtum,2 and it is well known that Volkstum3 too has a quite specific ceremonious, sacramental and dubious ring which we cannot by any means overlook. We cannot overlook it, because we definitely need the conception of popularity or Volkstümlichkeit.
