Margrit Fiederer (review)

Abstract

826 Reviews Geld und Besitz im biirgerlichen Trauerspiel. By Margrit Fiederer. (Epistemata: Reihe Literaturwissenschaft,4i4) Wiirzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2002. 402 pp. ?50.90. ISBN 3-8260-2335-8 (pbk). The breadth of Margrit Fiederer's study is certainly impressive, as is its depth. Above all it is her simple but faultlessly rigorous methodological approach that is so refreshing for a study of this type. Fiederer eschews all the thorny and, as her detailed and meticulously constructed analyses show, questionable theoretical or genre-oriented arguments, privileging, quite rightly,direct engagement with a wide range of primary sources. Moreover, an empirical text-based study of this type is surely a prerequisite for any attempt to tackle such questions. As Karl S. Guthke stresses in Das deutsche biirgerliche Trauerspiel (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1972), the canon's concentration on the well-known yet rare Hb'chstleistungenof the genre, such as Emilia Galotti or Kabale und Liebe, does not give 'einen angemessenen Eindruck von Eigenart und Bedeutung der Gattung als ganzer oder auch ihrer einzelnen Phasen' (p. 1). Fiederer takes up this challenge by dispensing with aesthetic judgement of less accomplished examples of so-called Trivialtexte, thereby giving her survey as wide a range as possible. Taking her cue from C. H. Schmid's list of Trauerspiele, which appeared in 1798 in the Deutsche Monatsschrift, she incorporates some 217 dramatic texts, drawn from a number of sources, but especially fromthe Oettingen-Wallerstein collection in Augsburg. Despite the quantity of such texts and comparisons made with Komodien, Lustspiele, and Schauspiele, it is not Fiederer's intention to become embroiled in certain forms of debate, as she honestly states in her introduction: 'die Gattungsfrage [soil] weitgehend ausgeklammert bleiben' (p. 17). Rather, in the first half of her study she presents a complex and rich survey ofthe function of 'Geld und Besitz' in its various guises, thereby expertly guiding the reader through a number of less familiar works, with the titles seemingly vying forattention, or even top billing, as a handful of examples show: Leichtsinnund Verfiihrung, oder Die Folgen der Spielsucht; Verbrechenaus Vaterliebe; Charlotte ein Opfer des Aberglaubens; Der Hochzeittag, oder: das Aergste zuletzt, or even more to the point, That und Reue. While not figuring in all biirgerlicheTrauerspiele, as her empirical statistics illustrate, 'Geld und Besitz' fea? ture in the majority, albeit to varying degrees. Their function is duly approached from all angles, with the reader taken through an array of salient themes, such as excess, lotteries, gambling, debt, profligate students, greed, unscrupulous business dealings, deception, marriages driven by money and inheritance. Such negative elements are then also measured against the positive effects of money, such as generosity, charity, altruism, the emergence of empfindsameLiebe, family and religious duty to others. Thanks to her exhaustive method, Fiederer's account is highly detailed, if some? what unrelenting, as she moves from one involved plot to another, weaving together the strands of what emerges as a decidedly varied genre. Her attention to the intricacies of each play does necessarily make for a highly descriptive account for much of the firsthalf of the study, yet she more than manages to communicate her depth of knowledge in a telling manner when it comes to drawing conclusions. At the end ofher analyses of the primary dramatic texts a clear picture of the function of 'Geld und Besitz' materializes. Above all, money constitutes 'ein Priifstein und Gradmesser der Tugend' (p. 138), with the moral implications of deviating from the path of 'biirgerliche Tugendhaftigkeit' graphically exposed. Moreover, the centrality of such a theme is part of an emergent articulation during the later eighteenth century of a moral code exclusively claimed by the evolving Biirgertum. However, as her argument continues, the definition ofsuch morality rarely involves a direct conflictbetween Adel and Biirgertum; rather,it is through the treatment of specific thematic considerations, above all the ethics of money. All dramatic genres are seen as 'belehrend-erzieherisch' (p. 195) in this sense. MLR, 99.3, 2004 827 In the second half of the study Fiederer seeks to illustrate that the articulation of burgerlich morality as regards money takes place across a number of different discourses, and so broadens her scope to include socio-political, kameralistisch, eco? nomic, moral...