ABSTRACT

Originally published in 1971, this book outlines the period of Germany’s belated industrial revolution and suggests why German literature does not, before the 1880s, contribute to the tradition of European realism. It considers the alternatives to realism offered in three genres of drama, poetry and prose fiction. The book closely analyses specific texts, both in the original and in translation, with comparisons with non-German works.

chapter One|11 pages

Palms and Odalisques

chapter Two|35 pages

Three Dramatists

chapter Three|24 pages

Heinrich Heine’s Contentious Muse

chapter Four|22 pages

Eduard Mörike: Recollection and Inwardness

chapter Five|26 pages

Adalbert Stifter: ‘Erhebung without Motion’

chapter Six|16 pages

Gottfried Keller: Realism and Fairy-tale

chapter Seven|24 pages

Wilhelm Raabe: Home and Abroad

chapter Eight|16 pages

Theodor Fontane: The Realism of Assessment

chapter Nine|17 pages

Fiction and the Immutable Self

chapter Ten|16 pages

Friedrich Nietzsche: The Birth of a Myth?