Arbeit und Müßiggang in der Romantik ed. by Claudia Lillge, Thorsten Unger, and Björn Weyand (review)

Work has long served as the object of literary, philosophical, and artistic reflection. Its alternatives are also well represented, particularly in German Romanticism. Caspar David Friedrich's Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (1818) offers a celebrated example of the latter, and features prominently on the cover of Arbeit und Müßiggang in der Romantik. Above the fog and in view of the wanderer, we also see Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870–73) by the Russian realist Ilya Repin. Because explicit depictions of work are largely absent in German Romantic painting, this striking image of manual labor was selected to counter Friedrich's iconic image (11–12). The workers, in tattered clothes and wearing blank expressions, contrast sharply with the well-dressed observer transposed to witness the men (and boy) yoked to a heavy vessel. Barge Haulers on the Volga clearly depicts work, but to what extent does Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer represent idleness, leisure, or perhaps another form of work? The twenty-eight essays in this volume demonstrate that the questions surrounding work and its other depend on circumstance and perspective.

The volume begins with a helpful introduction, which addresses work and idleness in Romantic painting, the contemporaneous understanding of key concepts, and a preview of the contributions. While the essays generally concentrate on works from the period, a few authors venture beyond the era but with due regard to the context. The collection is divided into five main sections. The first addresses various forms of Arbeit in Novalis (Franz-Jozef Deiters), Hölderlin (Sabine Doering), Chamisso (Christiane Weller), Heine (Dale Adams), and Büchner (Elke Brüns). The second shifts the focus to Muße and the related matters of Faulheit and Fleiß in Friedrich Schlegel's Idylle über den Müßiggang (Heide Volkening), Klingemann's Nachtwachen. Von Bonaventura (Mario Bosincu), Hölderlin's Hyperion (Leonhard Fuest), the Journal des Luxus und der Moden (Boris Roman Gibhardt), and Heine's Briefe aus Berlin and Lutezia (Robert Krause). The third section is dedicated to the arts and expands the scope of the volume; yet it remains heavily focused on literary texts with analyses of handcraft in Goethe and Heine (Michael Bies), the role of work and art in Klingemann's Nachtwachen (Tomasz Waszak), reflections on work and writing in Jean Paul (Monika Schmitz-Emans), and the work of poetry in Heinrich von Ofterdingen (James Hodkinson). The final essay here is the exception. It examines the work of art and the art of work in Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Claudia Hillebrandt and Tom Kindt).

The fourth section approaches work, idleness, and leisure through the lens of time and space. Klaus Vieweg draws on Hegel and Nietzsche to argue that the workday is sublimated on Sunday. Claudia Lillge explores the Mittagsruhe in Wordsworth, Eichendorff, and the French realist Courbet, whose paintings capture daytime naps and a few at work. Eichendorff returns in Fred Lönker's examination of time in Ahnung und Gegenwart and Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts.

The final essays in this section address city spaces (Uwe Hentschel), different facets of work in the forest (Erhard Schütz), multidimensional space in Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (Martin Jörg Schäfer), and an exploration of Kahnfahrten in Fouqué, Brentano, and Heine (Simon Bunke). Bunke's reading mentions Goethe's Auf dem See but, surprisingly, not the deadly boating accident in Die Wahlverwandtschaften. The final section of the collection focuses on literary figures and their historical, social, and political contexts. Ursula Regener reads Eichendorff's work in light of his official duties and Adam Müller's politicaleconomic theory. Patricia Czezior examines work as obsession in E. T. A. Hoffmann's Das Fräulein von Scuderi, and Lydia Mühlbach analyzes the work of women in the Grimms' Schneewittchen and its adaptations. The final two essays provide close readings of Wilhelm Hauff's Das kalte Herz...