Novel Associations: Theodor Fontane and George Eliot Within the Context of Nineteenth-century RealismWhile Fontane's «Anglophilia» has been gaining wider critical acclaim, the notion of his Verspätung as a writer of realist novels has lingered on. In contrast, this study focuses on Fontane's communality in life, thought, and art with an eminent contemporary English novelist, George Eliot, and delineates how his experience of English life and literature enabled him to join, then transcend the European tradition of the realist novel and develop into a forerunner of modernism. Part I of this investigation emphasizes the impact of Fontane's and Eliot's cross-cultural experience in the formation of a strikingly similar humanist Weltansicht evolving primarily through their attempt to come to terms with predominant philosophical currents of their times, Feuerbachian optimism and Schopenhauerian pessimism. Part II discusses Fontane's and Eliot's aesthetic theories where John Ruskin's principles are revealed to have contributed the catalyst in this communality of aesthetics as Feuerbach's did to their humanism. The unique constellation of humanism and determinism in both Weltansicht and aesthetics then provides the focal point for Part III, an investigation of the author's artistic practice through analyses of three representative novels, Middlemarch, Vor dem Sturm, and Der Stechlin. |
Contents
THEODOR FONTANE EPIGONE OR INNOVATOR | 9 |
Notes | 27 |
Introduction and Part I | 40 |
Copyright | |
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accepted action aesthetic appears artistic attempts authors beauty becomes belief Berlin called character choice concept concern consequences considered constitutes criticism definition depiction determined discussion Dorothea effect element emphasis England English essay essence ethical Evans example existence experience expression fact familiar feeling Feuerbach fiction Fontane's Fontane's emphasis force George Eliot German hand happiness human Ibid idea ideal imagination importance individual influence knowledge lack later Letters linked literary living London Lydgate Lydgate's man's Marie marriage means Middlemarch mind moral nature novel novelist objective once particular philosophy political position possibility present principles Providence question realism reality refers relation relationship religion remains represents reveals Review Rosamond Ruskin Schopenhauer seems sense similar social society Stechlin stresses Sturm sympathy Theodor Fontane theory things thought tradition translation true truth turn ultimately whole writing young