Out of Place: German Realism, Displacement, and Modernity

Description

In late nineteenth-century Germany, the onset of modernity transformed how people experienced place. In response to increased industrialization and urbanization, the expansion of international capitalism, and the extension of railway and other travel networks, the sense of being connected to a specific place gave way to an unsettling sense of displacement. John Lyon analyzes works of three major representatives of German Realism Wilhelm Raabe, Theodor Fontane, and Gottfried Keller within this historical context. It situates the perceived loss of place evident in their texts within the contemporary discourse of housing and urban reform (Huber, Faucher, Engels, Gurlitt, and Simmel), but also views such discourse through the lens of twentienth-century theories of place. Informed by both phenomenological (Heidegger and Casey) as well as Marxist (Deleuze, Guattari, and Benjamin) approaches to place, Lyon highlights the struggle to address issues of place and space that reappear today in debates about environmentalism, transnationalism, globalization, and regionalism. Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Permissions Introduction: Displacement and German Realism Place German Realism Place and Realism The Trajectory of Place within Realism: Stifter’s Granite Organizational Rationale 1. Place and Displacement in Berlin, 1848–1900 Historical Background: The Shift from Feudalism to Industrial Capitalism and the Growth of Berlin Place as Differentiated Space Place as a Commodity of Exchange Place as Restricting/Confining Place as Dissociated from Identity and Transportable Place as a Means of Social and Political Power Conclusion 2. Wilhelm Raabe and Modernity: Realism’s Trajectory of Place The Metropolis, Place and Realism Heidegger on Place Raabe and Place Embedding Place: The Chronicle of Sparrow Lane Narrative Strategies of Place From The Chronicle of Sparrow Lane to The Files of Birdsong Relinquishing Place: The Files of Birdsong Conclusion 3. Dynamic Places in Theodor Fontane’s Irrungen Wirrungen Introduction Theoretical Context: Dynamic and Stable Perspectives of Place Historical Context: Displacement and Housing Reform Stable Places in Irrungen Wirrungen Displacement in Irrungen Wirrungen Dynamic Places in Irrungen Wirrungen 4. Allegorical Place in Gottfried Keller’s Martin Salander Place and Home Place in Keller’s Works Walter Benjamin and Allegory The Allegorical Perspective in Martin Salander: Marie’s Märchen Repetition and Displacement Critique of the Idyll Displacement and Ubiquity: The Sameness of Place Lack of Resolution: Petrified Unrest Conclusion: Place Today—Politics and Humanity Bibliography Index