Geschichte der deutschen Literatur Band 4. Vormärz und Realismus by Gottfried Willems (review)

This is the fourth in a series of five volumes on the history of German literature up to modernism, and it provides a worthwhile introduction to the literature of the nineteenth century. The volume is well suited for graduate students or advanced undergraduates seeking initial orientation to the period, and it likewise is useful for scholars getting to know the field for the first time or seeking a refresher for teaching purposes. Under examination is the time period 1830–1890, and the author seeks to offer a larger cultural history of the nineteenth century through the lens of literary history. This fusing of Kulturgeschichte and Literaturgeschichte is an ambitious and valuable undertaking, even if Willem’s volume does not always deliver. Willem’s cultural-historical model relies on something of an anthropological approach that links the experience of modernization—secularization, industrialization, individualization—to experiments with literary form. The volume’s revisiting of questions of periodization that have long irritated nineteenth-century literary history (Biedermeier vs. Vormärz? early vs. late realism? the “long” or the “short” nineteenth century?) is useful for introductory purposes, though the author ends up opting for a relatively standard solution to the periodization dilemma, straddling historical/political categories (Napoleonic-era nationalism, Vormärz, and Gründerzeit) and literary-aesthetic ones (post-Goethezeit and Realism).

The volume unfolds via what the author calls “exemplary studies,” extended discussions of single works via multiple longer pull-quotes. The focus on specific works and longer passages aims to address issues of basic historical background as well as “was diese Literatur im Innersten bewegt” (10). The longer pull-quotes often are used to draw out the main motives and themes of the texts in question, and Willems thereby often elaborates competing nineteenth-century Weltanschauungen. This approach has both pros and cons, for it lends itself to close readings and to communicating a deeper sense of the style and concerns of the texts in question, but it leads to a somewhat uneven coverage of the literary production of the period. Certain authors such as Immermann, Heine, Büchner, Platen, and Keller are strongly represented (though only a small selection of their texts are discussed in detail), while other authors (Droste-Hülshoff, Stifter, Freytag, Fontane, Börne) are sometimes only mentioned in passing. The first hundred pages of the book, for example, orbit around Immermann’s Die Epigonen as a case study for the experience of modernization as social, historical, and aesthetic crisis. The second part of the volume, on “Vormärz und ‘Weltschmerz’,” compares Heine’s “Das Buch Le Grand” and Platen’s poetry, and then undertakes an extended consideration of Büchner’s Dantons Tod and Lenz as well as Gutzkow’s Die Nihilisten. The third part, on “Realismus und ‘Weltfrömmigkeit’,” looks at Keller’s “Das verlorene Lachen.” The fourth section, on “Literatur und Nationalismus,” returns to Immermann and Heine and their representations of the national movement, before looking back at Romantic-era figures such as Fichte, Adam Müller, Arendt, and Jahn and a summary of their worldviews; the final section on “Realismus der Gründerjahre” proceeds through a consideration of Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Raabe’s Pfisters Mühle. In each case, a strong thematic focus on the emergence and clash of specific Weltanschauungen guides the readings, as Willems handily introduces his readers to vitalism, nihilism, modernization, secularization, Humanitätsreligion, Weltschmerz, and more. The volume thereby offers a nice mixture of novels, prose narratives, and lyric, but there is little representation of drama and feuilletonistic or literary-critical prose.

Some miscellaneous observations: the volume presents interesting reflections on the relationship between realism and narrative theory, compellingly describing how twentieth-century narrative theory has as its springboard nineteenth-century realist fiction. Willems also provides an engaging comparison of Platen and Heine, juxtaposing Platen’s aestheticism to Heine’s vitalist rejection of nihilism; this section’s close reading of specific poems benefits from the author...