Between National Fantasies and Regional Realities: The Paradox of Identity in Nineteenth-Century German Literature by Arne Koch

Abstract

MLR, 103.2, 2oo8 587 Between National Fantasies and Regional Realities: The Paradox of Identity inNine teenth-CenturyGerman Literature. By ARNE KOCH. (North American Studies inNineteenth-Century German Literature, 39) Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang. 2oo6. 266 pp. C3I; ?47.40; $52.95. ISBN 978-3-039Io-939-5. While the combined impacts of globalization, postcolonial migration, and European unification redefine the relationship between regions and nation in transnational con texts in the twenty-firstcentury,Germany's struggle fornational unification during thenineteenth century faced thecombined obstacles of regional cultural diversity and political fragmentation. Studying the tensions between regional and national identity inGerman Realist literature of themid to latenineteenth century,Arne Koch seeks to unravel the seeming paradox thatprominent authors such as Berthold Auerbach, Fritz Reuter, Theodor Storm, Wilhelm Raabe, Theodor Fontane, Gottfried Keller, and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach can be viewed (and have been seen) aswriters of regional literaturewhile still contributing in theirdifferentways to the discourse on German (or Swiss orAustrian) national identity.Starting from the observation 'that regional belonging as constructed via a geographic consciousness often encompasses a sense of national identity aswell' (p. 23), Koch argues convincingly against readings which see region and nation asmutually exclusive or posit a linear development from regionalism to nationalism in nineteenth-century German literature. Exploring the complex interplay between regional and national affiliations and identities inRealist writing, Koch instead highlights the literaryrepresentation of 'simultaneous harmony and contrast' between 'region' and 'center' (p. 25) and the writers' contributions to the emergence of aGerman concept of national identitywhich includes an acknowledge ment of regional diversity. Inmost of these authors he notes a 'sense of thepossibility and even a need tomaintain regional traditions and communities for a coexistence of regional identitieswithin a German nation' as well as 'a critical position vis-a-vis authoritative and homogenizing structures' (p. i68). Auerbach's village tales (Schwarzwdlder Dorfgeschichten, I842) provide Koch with his earliest example. Placed 'in-betweennation and region', novellas such as 'Befehler les' and 'Der Lauterbacher' are shown to 'question' both 'authenticated region and the conscientious superregion' (p. 30), critiquing thepressures ofuniformity inunity and validating 'particularitywithin totality' (p. 43).With reference toHomi Bhabha's con cept of 'DissemiNation', Koch also reads Storm's novellas set inSchleswig-Holstein, such asDer Schimmelreiter (i 888), as representations of 'region broadly as an inclusive and exclusive locality that thrives on a paradox of existing ties to and tensions with theworld outside the region' (p. 57), including Denmark and Prussia. Marking the significance of both regional and national history inRealist fiction,Storm's novella Zur Chronik vonGrieshuus (i 884/85) is thengiven a comparative readingwith Raabe's satirical novella Die Gdnse von Buitzow (i866), untypically set inMecklenburg and therefore said to complement 'the intraregional perspectives of Storm, Reuter, and Fontane' (p. 94). Unsurprisingly, this is one of the least convincing chapters, since this text is clearly not representative of theway inwhich Raabe promotes his liberal ideas of nationhood in stories setmostly inLower Saxony between the Weser river, theHarz mountains, and the local capital of Braunschweig. Raabe's historical novel Das Odfeld, one of his fictional accounts of the interaction between liberalism and nationalism in the nineteenth century, such as Gutmanns Reisen, or one of his social novels, such asMeister Autor, would have allowed foramore appropriate discussion ofRaabe in the context of thismonograph. More problematic than this unfortunate choice of text, however, isKoch's con tinued reliance on binary oppositions between 'center' and 'margins' and between authors who are thought to be 'writingon the inside' and others who are believed to be 'writingon the outside' of the emerging German nation state.Given Schleswig 588 Reviews Holstein's political history,Storm may just be said tobewriting 'from thegeographic margins of theGerman-speaking states' (p. 23), but this does notmean thathis sto ries are positioned 'on the fringes' of the 'unifying process' (p. I03); and locating Auerbach's village tales at the 'margins' of 'theGerman territories' (p. 103) isclearly at odds with linguistic, cultural, geographical, and indeed political realities in the nineteenth century.The lack of a 'center of theGerman territories' (p. I03) has long been acknowledged as one of thedefining elements in the interplay between regional and national identity inGermany, and it isat...