The Emergence of the Modern German Novel: Christoph Martin Wieland, Sophie von La Roche, and Maria Anna Sagar

by Claire Baldwin

Overview

A study of the rise of the German novel viewed from a feminist standpoint.

This book treats both the literary history of the modern German novel and theoretical considerations about gender and 18th-century narrative strategies. It attempts to overcome a two-fold division in scholarship by treating Christoph Martin Wieland's Geschichte des Agathon and Sophie von La Roche's Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim, the two novels generally considered to be foundational in the development of the German Bildungsroman, inconjunction, rather than as examples of unrelated traditions, and by considering the reciprocal influence of fictional and theoretical writing dealing with the developing genre of the modern German novel. Baldwin also examines Wieland's Don Sylvio and Maria Anna Sagar's Karolinens Tagebuch and analyzes how gender as a relative construct functions in each of the four texts. In so doing she shows how the new German novel of the 1770s aligns reading and narrative practices with gendered attributes to establish narrative authority and cultural legitimacy for the new stories of identity they explore. The interpretations proceed from an analysis of the ways that reading andnarration are represented in the novels, and in their poetological prefaces, to show that the texts take up, challenge, and contribute to contemporary literary and social theories of the novel.

Claire Baldwin is assistant professor of German at Colgate Unversity in Hamilton, New York.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571131676
Publisher:	BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date:	05/15/2002
Series:	Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture , #1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Powers of Desire: The Debate on the Novel in Eighteenth-Century Germany
The Pleasures of Fiction: Christoph Martin Weiland's Der Sieg der Natur über die Schwärmerey oder Die Abentheuer des Don Sylvio von Rosalvades Don Sylvio von Rosalva
Seductive Strategies and the Promise of Knowledge: Wieland's Geschichte des Agathon
A Story of Her Own: Sophie von La Roche's Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim
Narrating Nothing: Maria Anna Sagar's Karolinens Tagebuch ohne ausserordentliche Handlungen, oder gerade so viel als gar keinegar keine
Epilogue: Caveat Lector
Works Consulted
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

The methodological aspiration of the study... is to combine literary history with the study of women's writing. Baldwin makes important contributions in both these areas.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION

The author delves into the major literary debate of this period from a new angle. Her approach reveals the similarity of ... genres thought vastly different.

CHOICE

Gracefully written, knowledgeable about key literary debates of both the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries, fresh in its presentation of familiar material, and effective in making the 18th-century novels sound appealing to 21st-century readers.

MONATSHEFTE

This is a good, useful, and accessible study which provides essential analysis in the area of genre theory and definition at a seminal time in the history of the novel.

GOETHE YEARBOOK

[A]n in-depth analysis of recently emerging authors . . . . [T]he chapters provide a neat snapshot of a decade's worth of literary productivity in Germany . . . . [Recommended] for graduate students and scholars, it should be at the top of the acquisitions list for research libraries.

GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

[A]n in-depth analysis of recently emerging authors . . . . [T]he chapters provide a neat snapshot of a decade's worth of literary productivity in Germany . . . . [Recommended] for graduate students and scholars, it should be at the top of the acquisitions list for research libraries. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

The author delves into the major literary debate of this period from a new angle. Her approach reveals the similarity of ... genres thought vastly different.CHOICE

The methodological aspiration of the study... is to combine literary history with the study of women's writing. Baldwin makes important contributions in both these areas. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION

Gracefully written, knowledgeable about key literary debates of both the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries, fresh in its presentation of familiar material, and effective in making the 18th-century novels sound appealing to 21st-century readers. MONATSHEFTE

This is a good, useful, and accessible study which provides essential analysis in the area of genre theory and definition at a seminal time in the history of the novel. GOETHE YEARBOOK

From the Publisher

Baldwin, who is not identified, investigates the narrative strategies developed by the three writers, examining the metafictional nature of the texts as a kind of practical poetics that positions them within 18th-century critical discussion on the genre of the modern novel. She also explores relationships between the novel and various types of novel readers. Considering male and female novelists in the same study allows her to address the issue of gender and genre that was central to contemporary controversies over the novel. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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