Die literarische Landschaft. Zur Geschichte ihrer Entdeckung von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (review)

This historical study of literary landscapes is divided into two parts of six and four chapters respectively. There are eleven illustrations, most of which are positioned opposite the beginning of a new chapter. After a short introduction, in which, with particular reference to the English art historian and geologist John Ruskin, Weber points out the fluid boundary between art and science in representing the natural landscape, we move into the first part of the book, "Über die Bedingungen der Naturbeschreibung" (280 pages), which examines such basic factors as concepts of nature, landscape and beauty, and the art of description. The first chapter of this part is devoted to descriptions of nature. Weber points out that an appreciation of nature is found in all European literatures—not just German, but also Russian, French, English, Italian, and Scandinavian literatures, in authors such as Chekhov, Virgil, Socrates, Boccaccio, Fielding, Keller, and Schopenhauer.

The second chapter deals with concepts of nature and how they are reflected in literature. Here Weber brings in perspectives associated with thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke, Plato, and Goethe and writers such as Stolberg, Karl May, Stifter, and Jean Paul. The third is concerned with the art of description, including the use of acoustic elements in description by Jean Paul, Fontane, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Eichendorff, and—in passing—Goethe. Goethe is central to the next chapter, however, along with Walther von der Vogelweide, in Weber's examination of the concept of rural landscape as a place of tranquil beauty, and Weber also brings in Virgil, Maupassant, and Fontane here. In the fifth chapter Weber discusses aesthetics and the assumption that there can be an objective assessment of beauty, with particular reference to Baumgarten; Aristotle, Plato, and Kant are also mentioned. In the final chapter of this part, Weber sketches the history of the description of nature, with examples from Wolfram von Eschenbach, Hans Sachs, Wieland, and Goethe.

The second part of the book, "Schriftsteller und ihre Landschaft" (120 pages), is devoted to the analysis of the use of landscapes by four German authors—Jean Paul, Adalbert Stifter, Theodor Fontane, and Arno Schmidt. This part is much more focused than the first and is more likely to appeal to Germanisten. Weber describes how Jean Paul features the beauty of nature in his works, in landscapes which are partly real, based on his native Franconia, and partly imaginary; and how his characters typically yearn to escape the ugliness of the city landscape. Stifter's landscapes, largely based on his childhood impressions, are of Bohemian forests, the hills surrounding the Danube River, and alpine scenes between Passau and Vienna, whereas Arno Schmidt's characters prefer the wind and clouds of the predominantly flat North German landscape; in this regard, Weber sees Schmidt as a worthy successor of Fouqué.

Weber's analysis of Fontane's landscapes is one of the highlights of the book. He starts with the importance of trains, railways, and railway stations in Fontane's works; their significance, he points out, goes beyond the fact that they allow his characters, as in Irrungen, Wirrungen, L'Adultera, and Cécile, to explore the varied landscapes of Berlin and Brandenburg; in Effi Briest, for example, the train motif is associated with Effi's yearning to return to the Hohen Cremmen of her childhood, and with Innstetten's obsession with punctuality. Weber then moves on to the importance of city landscapes for Fontane, and the influence of landscape artists such as Turner, Oswald, and Andreas Achenbach. Concentrating particularly on views from windows, he rightly states that nature in Fontane is almost always experienced subjectively: "Nicht als frei erscheint Natur bei Fontane, sie ist immer hergerichtet durch subjektive Schemata; erst dadurch erlangt ihr Anblick die Qualität eines Bildes" (376). Weber emphasises the symbolic element of Fontane's landscapes, for example the symbolism inherent in the description of the Hohen Cremmen swing in Effi...