The Anticipation of German Poetic Realism in Danish Poetisk Realisme

Abstract

Critics and scholars have, for about a century, used the term Poetischer Realismus to give historical cohesion to a huge and important body of mid-nineteenth century German literature. As a means of literary characterization, Otto Ludwig first employed the term critically;' and ever since Ludwig's faithful editor Adolf Stern adopted it while writing his history of modern German literature in 1885,2 Poetischer Realismus has become a key phrase in the critical vocabulary of German literary history. While some have staged both occasional and serious protests against the widespread use of this term, particularly against its indiscriminate usage, critics, by and large, have not succeeded in finding a substitute which maintained itself with as much persistency when it comes to charting the contours of a major block of German literature in the mid-nineteenth century. Countless have been the studies which have sought a closer understanding of the prose and poetry of Keller, Ludwig, Meyer, Raabe, and Storm, for instance, by referring to their various artistic productions as landmarks of Poetic Realism. And there can be no doubt, too, that these studies have helped us acquire a more sensitive historical appreciation of many of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century German literature. If any lingering doubts have remained with regard to the effective usage of this literary term, Wolfgang Preisendanz, the eminent