Transformations in Nineteenth-Century Literature in German

Charts developments in nineteenth-century literature in German corresponding to burgeoning capitalism, significant increases in women's participation in society outside the home, and a proliferation of transnational encounters.The nineteenth century was a turbulent period in the German-speaking territories. Until 1806, most belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, comprising roughly 300 individual states. By 1900, the region had consolidated into Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Germany itself had become an empire, marked by a strong sense of national identity and overseas colonies in Africa and Oceania. These momentous geopolitical shifts were accompanied by industrial, social, and economic transformations that affected all aspects of life.Changes that both resulted from and fed into these developments included the burgeoning of the capitalist marketplace and material culture, a sharp increase in women's participation in society outside the home, and a proliferation of transnational encounters. This volume's essays explore these multidirectional influences in literary works, popular serials, and travel writing. In doing so, they pay tribute to Lynne Tatlock, whose groundbreaking scholarship in these areas has inspired the volume and whose mentorship has empowered the volume's contributors to carry forward her work on the German nineteenth century. Topics range from material culture in Droste-Hülshoff's Die Judenbuche to women's agency and animals in Ebner-Eschenbach's Unsühnbar and branding in the popular periodical Die Gartenlaube, from girl's novels of the 1880s and 90s to melancholy and menopause in Hedwig Dohm's works, and finally to transnational factors in works by Biernatzki, Möllhausen, Stinde, and, in a comparative vein, Stifter and Cather.