Keller's Anthropological Realism: The Scientific Underpinnings of the Early Prose

Abstract

The so-called problem of Schein and Sein has been identified as a major thematic axis in the work of Gottfried Keller.' In an effort to elucidate the 'Anthropological Realism of Keller's early prose, I will argue that Keller's portrayal of the dichotomy of Schein and Sein reflects a scientific conception of human behavior in the context of nineteenth-century thought. Keller's intellectual premises crystallize in the novella Kleider machen Leute, which will be interpreted here as a synthesis of the anthropology of JeanJacques Rousseau and that of Ludwig Feuerbach. Numerous passages in Keller's letters and other writings support the view that the early Keller conceives of human society in specifically anthropological terms. The particular anthropological orientation of the early prose distinguishes Keller from both the more sociohistorically oriented Realists of France and England on the one hand and the German exponents of the Dorfgeschichte on the other; discussions of Ethnologie in literary manifestos of Keller and of Keller's contemporaries help to clarify the singularity of his literary achievement.