Transformations of the German Novel

"Simplicissimus" in Eighteenth-Century Adaptations
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-3-03911-896-0
Verlag: Peter Lang

Buch, Englisch, Band 14, 255 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 410 g

Reihe: Cultural History and Literary Imagination

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the German literary establishment considered the novel the contemptible entertainment of the uneducated. By the end of the century, the novel had eclipsed the epic poem as the most appropriate genre for depicting humankind and its preoccupations. The story of the novel’s emergence as a respected and productive artistic genre is intimately bound up with the vicissitudes of the most popular of all German baroque works, Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s (1621/22-1676) Der abentheurliche Simplicissimus: Teutsch (1668/69). Between 1756 and 1785, Simplicissimus quietly found its way into bookshops three times in radically different forms, in adaptations that were not, as critics have asserted, arbitrary, but quite purposeful. This investigation discusses the ways in which this canonical text was reworked to reflect the thinking of leading – and warring – Enlightenment aestheticians. At the genre war’s end, the novel emerged triumphant and Simplicissimus adaptations had been instrumental in securing the victory; the multi-faceted Simplicissimus had served as a vehicle for reifying theoretical positions in the conflicts. For, as the social and aesthetic climate shifted radically, Grimmelshausen’s work not only survived, but took on new life in the most important literary campaign of the century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rinere, Monique

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents: The Shift in the Aesthetics of the Novel via Gottsched – The 1756 Simplicissimus – The 1779 Simplicissimus – The Shift in the Aesthetics of the Novel via Wieland and Blanckenburg – The 1785 Simplicissimus.

Über Autor(innen)

The Author: Monique Rinere received her B.A. in German and Music in 1990 from the City University of New York, Hunter College and an M.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton University in Germanic Languages and Literatures. After serving as the Director of Studies of Mathey College and then as the Residential College Dean of Butler College at Princeton, in 2006 she became Harvard College’s founding Associate Dean of the Advising Programs Office at Harvard University. In summer 2009 she moved to Columbia University as the Dean of Advising/Associate Dean of Student Affairs for Columbia College and The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.