Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2020]

©1998

1 online resource (xi, 157 pages).

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University of North Carolina studies in the Germanic languages and literatures ; no. 120.

Reprint. Originally published in 1998.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-152) and index.

Gender, childhood, and alterity in Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's Doppelgänger thematic -- The double, the alter ego, and the ideal of aesthetic comprehensiveness in "Der poetische Realismus": Otto Ludwig -- The Oriental alter ego: C.F. Meyer's Der Heilige -- Duplication, fungibility, dialectics, and the "epic naiveté" of Gottfried Keller's Martin Salander -- Guilt, memory, and the motif of the double in Theodor Storm's Aquis submersus and Ein Doppelgänger -- The alter ego as narration's motive force: Wilhelm Raabe

German Poetic Realists drew on the Romantic motif of the Double in a manner consistent with the central dictum of Poetic Realism as articulated by its chief theorists, Julian Schmidt and Otto Ludwig. Schmidt and Ludwig argued that contemporary authors should, above all, strive for psychological and aesthetic totality in their narrative representations, turning away from the Romantic fantastic but also avoiding the fragmentary approach to the portrayal of everyday life that Ludwig found in early Naturalism. The 'poetic' presentation of reality adheres to quotidian life but strives to show it in all its many dimensions. While Romantic Doppelgänger are often preternatural figures, the Poetic Realists configure egos and their narrative Others ('alter egos,' who are also sometimes physical Doubles) to portray characters in their psychological comprehensiveness. After offering an overview of the Romantic Double motif and its connections to the theory of Poetic Realism, John Pizer analyzes the work of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Otto Ludwig, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, and Wilhelm Raabe.

German fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

Realism in literature.

Doubles in literature.

Split self in literature.

LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German.

Doubles in literature.

German fiction.

Realism in literature.

Split self in literature.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Print version: Pizer, John David. Ego--alter ego. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2020] 9780807865828

9781469656533 (electronic book)

1469656531 (electronic book)