ZWEI ‘ACHTUNDVIERZIGER VON ALTEM SCHROT UND KORNʼ SCHREIBEN ÜBER DEN VÖLKERFRÜHLING: LOUISE ASTON, MAX RING UND IHRE DARSTELLUNG DER MÄRZREVOLUTION

Abstract

AbstractThe following article compares two novels whose plots are set during the March Revolution of 1848. Berlin und Breslau, 1847–49 is the novel debut of Max Ring, a now largely forgotten writer and doctor of Jewish origin who came from Upper Silesia and became the author of numerous stories, novels and non‐fiction books in the second half of the nineteenth century. He often uses the location of Berlin. In the novel Revolution und Contrerevolution, Louise Aston – poet, author and women's rights activist from Gröningen – deals with revolutionary issues. Both books were published in 1849, at a time when the consequences of these events for the future were not yet entirely foreseeable. Both Aston and Ring were supporters of the revolution. In this paper, the perspectives and views of their characters or narrators as well as the issues of narrative strategies and focalisation are analysed and discussed. Of importance here are not only the gender‐specific differences between Louise Aston and Max Ring, but primarily, in addition to similarities such as generational affiliation, the differences in their literary expression and the articulation of their political views.