Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy: Charles Sealsfield, Friedrich Gerstäcker, Karl May, and Other German Novelists of America by Jeffrey L. Sammons (review)

eluding irony, parody, self-reflexivity, the extended use ofsymbolic language and elaborate narrative structures. In sum, this exceptional investigation provides vital stimulus to Heine scholarship , adding texture to contemporary understanding ofthe poet's late "return" and revealing the layers ofimage construction that have shaped dominant perspectives on Heine to date. Here, in Cook's lucid prose, Heine's highly self-referential poetic discourse as a whole gains new import when viewed in a framework that emphasizes his poetry, in particular an anthology believed by many critics to rank among Heine's finest. By the Rivers ofBabylon offers compelling evidence that Heine's image has been too long appropriated by a critical-scholarly focus on Heine as progressive champion of liberal causes, a focus in need of balance and amendment. $z Jeffrey L. Sammons. Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy: Charles Seakfield, Friedrich Gerstäcker, KarlMay, and Other German Novelists of America. Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1998. 342p. Craig W. Nickisch Idaho State University Life in the New World, in particular the United States and its frontier, was certainly a topic of major discourse in nineteenth-century Germany. The literature written in German about the American experience is not only voluminous; it is composed ofa wide variety ofliterary undertakings as well. The American Bicentennial celebrations of 1976 raised interest in many quarters for an examination ofsuch literature about America's history. Those celebrations , in fact, furnished the impetus for Sammons' seminar at Yale on the German novel concerning North America, and that seminar engendered, eventually, this welcome addition to a relatively sparsely researched field ofGerman-American studies. For a number of reasons, I would venture to suggest that a significant Lücke exists among most Germanists as to not only most ofthe works, but indeed also in regard to most of the authors. The significant value of Sammons' Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy lies exactly here — in presenting a spectrum cum analysis ofseveral of the better or better-known authors and their material. Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy, appearing as Volume 121 ofthe University ofNorth Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures, centrally concerns three such authors: Charles Sealsfeld (whose life was more colorful and enigmatic than even that ofKarl May), Friedrich Gerstäcker (who traveled not only through FALL 1999 H- ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * 91 America, but much of the rest of the world, as well), and Karl May (of course). Each is the subject ofa major section ofthe work, and five other authors are discussed , less extensively, in transitional sections: Excursus I (Balduin Möllhausen and Friedrich Armand Strubberg) and Excursus II [Talvj (Robinson), Ferdinand Kiimberger and Reinhold Solger]. Quite obviously, even this limited selection of authors entails dealing with an extensive primary literature; no fewer than 31 of Gerstäcker's novels are discussed, for instance. The work concludes with a short overview ("Outlook") of German writing about America in this century, and despite its brevity, this section compiles an impressive list of such literature, written by a host of authors, to include Hans Werner Richter, Alfred Andersch, Max Frisch, and Peter Handke. Here Sammons contends, convincingly enough, that it should "belong to the responsibilities of Americans working in the field ofGerman studies to monitor and analyze [these works] more closely than they have been inclined to do in recent times" (269). Sammons writes an easily readable, almost conversational prose, all the while erudite and insightful, and his compelling conclusions about nineteenth-century German-American literature are significant contributions to the state of knowledge in the field. While some in the academy have cast doubt on Sealsfeld's artistic standing, Sammons finds Sealsfeld (whose section is entitled "Ideology") to be a "gifted, almost great writer," who demonstrates brilliant narrative talent and fearless experimental instinct, and whose language is ofa "forcefulness without compare in the German literature" (89). Gerstäcker (the "Mimesis" author), possesses in Sammons' evaluation great strength ofvision, and is an author who "aspired to be useful to people by transmitting true images" (200). Gerstäcker's works, most would agree, include the most critical and satirical renderings of Germans in America. Karl May ("Fantasy") stands outside the succession of fiction about America — despite all his borrowings. In fact, Sammons contends...