Arbeitscredo und Bürgersinn: Das Motiv der Lebensarbeit in Werken von Gustav Freytag, Otto Ludwig, Gottfried Keller und Theodor Storm by Petra Weser-Bissé

Abstract

MLR, 105.2, 2010 597 for those seeking basic information about the practicalities of authorship as it was experienced inGermany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Liverpool University Rebecca Braun Arbeitscredo und Burgersinn: Das Motiv der Lebensarbeit inWerken von Gustav Freytag, Otto Ludwig, Gottfried Keller und Theodor Storm. By Petra Weser Bisse. (Epistemata: Reihe Literaturwissenschaft, 617) Wiirzburg: Konighau sen & Neumann. 2007. 555 pp. ?68. ISBN 978-3-8260-3691-0. How do the protagonists ofGerman nineteenth-century fiction view theworld of work and what role does itplay in the construction of their individual and social identities? These are the central questions of Petra Weser-Bisse's extensive study of the theme of 'Lebensarbeit' in the prose fiction of Gustav Freytag, Otto Lud wig, Gottfried Keller and Theodor Storm. The study explores how these authors' bourgeois heroes are frequently faced with the dilemma of being economically successful and socially responsible citizens, while also remaining true to their sense of selfand theirdesires as individuals?desires which may be in conflictwith wider social norms. It is around the question ofwork,Weser-Bisse fluentlydemonstrates, that such conflicts and concerns are revealed most clearly. On itsbroadest level, the study argues that there is a shiftfrom a nationally af firmative,yet non-emancipatory 'work ethic' in the earlyNachmarz author Freytag, to a socially critical and individually motivated 'ethic ofwork' in thewritings of Keller, Ludwig, and Storm. Central to this argument is a somewhat over-systematic distinction between 'programmatic realists' (such as Freytag) and so-called 'poetic realists' (Keller, Ludwig, Storm). Weser-Bisse concludes thatworks of 'program matic realism' see work as a national-economic duty, rather than as an individual pursuit, while works of 'poetic realism' are primarily concerned with the discovery of the self through themedium ofwork. The study primarily consists of a series of case studies on each author. The opening section on Freytag provides a fairly traditional overview of Soil und Haben, focusing firston the most obvious symbol of work in the novel?the firm of T. O. Schroter?before considering the difference between the attitudes shown towards work by the Jewish figures, the Poles, and the aristocracy. Although rarely surprising in its conclusions, the commentary is interesting and detailed, and Weser-Bisse plausibly concludes that Freytag's vision of work involves the subjugation of the individual to the collective. Put simply, Anton Wohlfart ultimately works for the abstract goal of the greater good of his class, to the detriment of his sense of individuality. The following sections of the study present counter-examples to Freytag and the programmatic realists, through analyses of Ludwig's Zwischen Himmel und Erde, Keller's Der grune Heinrich, Martin Salander, and the Seldwyla novellas, and Storm's Der Schimmelreiter.Weser-Bisse presents Ludwig as a transitional figure:as a 'programmatic realist' inhis literarymanifesto, but as a 'poetic realist' inhis de scription ofwork as ameans both to engage with society and to achieve individual 598 Reviews emancipation. In Weser-Bisse's analysis, thehero of Ludwig's Zwischen Himmel und Erde achieves a degree of individuality and self-introspection through his engage ment with work, something which isdenied Anton Wohlfart in Soil undHaben. The significance ofwork as a means of personal-psychological development is, according toWeser-Bisse, even more evident in the fiction of Keller, where the motivations of the protagonists towork (or not) take precedence over any need to be economically productive for the greater good of society. Rather than uncondi tionally accepting their fate as cogs in a greater economic system (as in Freytag), Kellers figures actively rebel against such hierarchical structures. Finally, Storm's Der Schimmelreiter is read as a fable about the impact of individual work on wider society. Hauke Heien's work on the dyke is read both as a socially useful exercise and as an individualistic, private project?a tension that isnever fully resolved and culminates in the disastrous flood at the end of the tale. A problematic aspect ofWeser-Bisse's study is her uncritical reliance on the terms programmatic realism' and poetic realism'?groupings and distinctions that, at least for this reviewer, should be treated with a level of caution. Curi ously,Weser-Bisse never defines her understanding of...