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Article: Poetic Realism in Scandinavia and Central Europe: 1820-1895.
- Article from:
- Journal of European Studies
- Article date:
- June 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Sage Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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All students of nineteenth-century German literature encounter the 'Novelle of Poetic Realism', only to find that both terms have been controversial for many decades.
The term 'Poetic Realism' is usually ascribed to the novelist and critic Otto Ludwig. It denotes the attempt to depict everyday life truthfully while 'transfiguring' it poetically. The focus is usually on individual lives rather than social relationships. The practitioners of Poetic Realism are said to be the Swiss and North German writers who emerged after 1848, notably Storm, Keller, Meyer, and (sometimes) Fontane. Here as in his earlier book, German Poetic Realism (1981), Professor Bernd accepts this ...