The “Old Wheelwork” and Its Revolutions: Precarious Authority in Gisela and Bettine von Arnim's Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns

Abstract

This article investigates tropes of sovereignty and revolution in Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns, a novel-length Kunstmärchen written in 1840 by Gisela von Arnim with her mother Bettine. In its renditions of authority and resistance, the Gritta tale contains both an archive of the political frictions of the Vormärz period and an object-lesson in the ambiguous status of female authorship at the time. This reading calls attention to the proliferation of sites of precarious authority in the tale, from the eccentric Count's gimcrack Rettungsmachine (rescue machine)—a throne with an ejector seat that flings off anyone who sits in it—to the not-quite-satisfying fairy-tale ending, which raises Gritta herself to the role of sovereign even as it excludes her from the story's true locus amoenus: a “nature convent” in line with Schillerian ideals. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments. I would also like to thank the students in my Reed College seminar, “Law and Outlaw in German Literature.” Our lively conversations about the Gritta story planted the seed that became this article.