In this Book
- The Merchant in German Literature of the Enlightenment
- Book
- 1986
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
- Series: UNC Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
summary
John Van Cleve analyzes the influence of the merchant class on what Leo Balet termed the Verburgerlichung (the 'becoming middle-class') of German literature during the eighteenth century. He describes the origins and development of the class and examines its successive images in works by Haller, Schnabel, Borkenstein, Luise Gottsched, J. E. Schlegel, Gellert, and Lessing.
Between the years 1729 and 1750, merchants were better able to lend financial support to the literary world than were civil servants and professionals. Although merchants were central in the cultural life of the German states, they were usually less educated than other members of their social stratum and therefore less disposed to literature. Tradition has cast the merchant class in a highly unflattering light as ethically indefensible. Van Cleve's in-depth analysis traces the evolution of attitudes toward merchants from negative, underdeveloped images to positive, heroic portrayals.
Table of Contents
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- Half-Title Page
- p. i
- Series Page
- p. ii
- Title Page
- p. iii
- Dedication
- pp. vii-viii
- Table of Contents
- pp. ix-x
- Other Articles
- pp. xi-xii
- I. The Merchant in Society
- pp. 3-10
- Part Two: The Merchant in Literature
- pp. 43-44
- II. Menace and Menaced: Haller, Schnabel
- pp. 45-69
- V. The Merchant as Hero: Lessing
- pp. 109-133
- Conclusion
- pp. 137-140
- Bibliography
- pp. 157-165
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469656878
Related ISBN(s)
9781469656861
MARC Record
OCLC
1155227553
Launched on MUSE
2020-06-05
Language
English
Open Access
Yes
Creative Commons
CC-BY-NC-ND