Bürgerliches Leben im Zeichen der Uhr: Bemerkungen zu einer literarischen Kontroverse um 1800 in Deutschland by Christoph Prignitz

Abstract

MLR, I02.2, 2007 563 change between 'high-art' activities and 'low-art' ones was actually very fluid,and the rigid binary distinctions generally made indiscussions of the era exaggerate the case. It isdifficult todo thisbook justice in such a short review, forsuch awealth of topics isaddressed in it. In some ways, however, thismight be considered aweakness of the book, for the author tends toquote from such a variety of secondary sources that the primary ones are apt toget lost: theone exception is in thechapter on Bertuch's Jour nal, where the claims made are based on citations and illustrations from theJournal itself. At other points in thevolume, however, sweeping generalizations-which may in factbe valid ones-are supported bymodern theory (Barthes, Geertz, Bourdieu, and more) or works ofmodern cultural studies (too numerous to be named) with out firmpinning to contemporary evidence. Wurst shows a very impressive range of reading, but loses something in the strength of her own argument or point of view. Admittedly, she states that theory,not concrete evidence, isher focus (p. I2). Wurst might have written a great deal more clearly inplaces, and the lack ofmore careful editing certainly does a great disservice tohermeticulous study.This is a real pity,because itdetracts froman otherwise very solid piece of research.Yet the reader is encouraged not to be put offby the stylistic flaws, as considerable as they are, for there is much tobe praised, andmuch clarity inbetween the solecisms. Forge through the early chapters and the beginnings of later chapters-it iswell worth it. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW LAURA MARTIN BzirgerlichesLeben imZeichen der Uhr: Bemerkungen zu einer literarischen Kontroverse um i8oo inDeutschland. By CHRISTOPH PRIGNITZ. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang. 2005. 203 PP. ?36.80. ISBN 978-3-631-53792-3. When Harrington, in Joyce's 'Counterparts' (Dubliners), in need of a drink and in sullen defiance of his hectoring employer, pawns his watch, he is rebelling against a chronometricization of time that,according toChristoph Prignitz inhis refreshingly readable, informative, and theory-freeaccount, began around i8oo. Following brief reflections on themeaning of 'time' from St Augustine toHenry Ford, Prignitz surveys the history of timekeeping-from the sun- and water-dials of medieval monasteries and the firstfourteenth-century tower clocks to the portable timepieces of theRenaissance and thepocket watches of theeighteenth century.Hav ing reached the first peak of chronometry around I800, Prignitz cites literaryexamples reflecting the new awareness of time asmeasured out by clocks: theirdissemination, theirvalue, their status as prestige objects. The French Revolution, with itsRepublican calendar and decimalized hours, politi cized time from 1792 through I805, when the scheme was revoked byNapoleon. In Germany, in contrast, a new 'bourgeois understanding of time' emerged fromwhat Max Weber was todefine as theProtestant work ethic, aphenomenon best represented by Benjamin Franklin, whose ideas were popularized inGermany by such works as thenovels of Friedrich Nicolai and Knigge's famous handbook Uber den Umgang mit Menschen. The 'bourgeois understanding' was not uncontroversial. From satirists such as Theodor von Hippel inhis stage comedy Der Mann nach der Uhr (I 765) by way of Rousseau with his sense of personal time down toHeinrich Heine, polemics raged around the all too strict regimentation of lifeby the tyrannyof the clock. But by far themost vociferous opponents of 'metrical time'were theRomantic writers. Prignitz offers a pot-pourri of passages from Wackenroder, Tieck, Hoffmann, Eichendorff, Arnim, Brentano, Novalis, and others to illustrate his thesis. At thispoint theoften sketchynarrative is interrupted foran extended discussion of BOGS der Uhrmacher (I807), the amusing satire co-authored by Clemens Brentano 564 Reviews and Joseph Gorres. BOGS, who aspires to be the perfect philistine and to join the local 'bourgois shooting club', is precluded frommembership by a fatal disposition towards music. He must prove his capacity for reasonable restraint by attending a concert and resisting itsappeal. But Haydn's music inspires him to a surreal journey of the imagination thatmakes him appear mad. Two examining physicians, peer ing into his schizophrenic brain, detect two differentpersons there: theDionysian Cholerius and the strait-laced Sanguinicus. Cholerius escapes into theworld while Sanguinicus is leftbehind towrite, in a now wholly rationalisticmanner, the account ofBOGS's adventures. Prignitz succeeds in exposing themore serious implications of thisplayful satire...