Gabriele Radecke (review)

Abstract

MLRy 99.3, 2004 833 VomSchreiben zum Erzdhlen:Eine textgenetischeStudie zu Theodor Fontanes (LAdultera '. By Gabriele Radecke. (Epistemata: Wiirzburger wissenschaftliche Schriften, 358) Wiirzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2002. 345 pp. ?49.50. ISBN 3-8260-2052-9 (pbk). Gabriele Radecke's book begins with the question 'Wie entsteht poetische Fiktionalitat ?'. What follows is more modest: a scrutiny ofthe production of a single literary text, L'Adultera, in its successive phases up to its publication, firstin serialized form (1880), and then in book form (1882). In view of the copious documentation available in the Berlin Stadtmuseum and the Theodor-Fontane-Archiv, one chapter ('Unter Palmen') is chosen as the object of a case study. The work in question, Fontane's firstnovel of Berlin society, fictionalizes a well-known contemporary scandal that has subsequently generated a large amount of biographical comment, so that the author also finds herself engaging with this, even ifonly to demonstrate the limits of its value for editorial or interpretative purposes. Radecke follows modern genetic criticism in considering the text as a developing phenomenon. Rather than orienting discussion on a definitive version, she subjects the manuscripts and other relevant source texts to close analysis in their own right, attempting to reconstruct the writing processes. There are four main parts to the ana? lysis. The reconstruction permits a precise dating of the writing of the novel over a ten-month period fromthe original idea to finalproof correction. Supplementedby an evaluation ofthe material aspects ofthe manuscripts, and a comparative examination of language and content, this provides the basis for a discussion of Fontane's work? ing method, in the specific sense ofthe 'Textualisierungsprozess' implied in the title, rather than in terms of the writer's relationship to the externally prevailing conditions of literary production. This leads to conclusions that differfrom what is implied in Fontane's correspondence, namely that a rationally structuring, goal-orientedimpulse is dominant over intuitive creativity at every stage of the work. A complete section is devoted to the often criticized title of the novel, and here Radecke is able to qualify certain reductive conclusions by showing not merely its symbolic function, but the correspondence of its evolution to a conscious multiplication of the levels of mean? ing, and so to the development of authorial intention. In addition, she adds evidence which identifies the point at which, and the way in which, the interests of the pub? lisher come into play. The reconstruction of Chapter 12 is concerned most explicitly with the transformation of extra-literary reality into fictional text, showing, on the one hand, the reduction of the very specific referentiality of certain source elements so as to extend the significance ofthe fictivesetting, and, on the other, the insertion of precise references to the extra-textual world (especially contemporary Berlin) in order to tie poetic into historical and empirical reality,that is to say to conceal its fictionality. The analysis is followed by a lengthy section demonstrating firstthe limitations of current editions of Fontane's works, which, it is accepted, are not based on the principles espoused by Radecke, and then presenting sections of Fontane's text and sources, including the firstdraftof Chapter 12, in model text-geneticform. The clos? ing Ausblick' restates the claim of the author that insights such as are contained in the present study have been, and indeed can be, obtained solely on the basis of the comprehensive comparative textual analysis undertaken in the preceding pages. It concludes with a plea for a new edition of Fontane's prose narratives, 'die samtliche Handschriften und Drucke auswertet und dokumentiert' (p. 285). If this is realistic, then why only the narratives? Elsewhere there are signs that Radecke's enthusiasm forher chosen method makes her incautious in her claims; this is evident in a repeated and rather strenuous use of the temporal adverb 'erst'. While one cannot argue with such statements as: 'Das Gemalde [. . .] tritterst nach der Uberarbeitung [. . .] in Erscheinung [. . .] der Name 834 Reviews [. . .] ist sogar erstim Zeitschriftenabdruckbelegt [. . .] das Eierhauschen [ist] erstim Zeitschriftenabdruckbelegt' (p. 37), the parallel implied in the immediately following paragraph, which relates to perception rather than fact, is not at all self-evident. It is, in fact, based on a non sequitur, barely concealed...