The focus of this dissertation is on Theodor Fontane's relationship to his audience. In particular, I investigate the question of how Fontane saw his own role and responsibility as a writer with regard to his actual and desired reading public. Theodor Fontane lived and worked in the late phase of the epoch that Jürgen Habermas describes in his study Strukturwandel der Ãffentlichkeit (1962) as an era when the bourgeois public sphere declined. Habermas explains this process as the change from a critical-rational discourse of early bourgeois culture to late capitalist mass culture, characterized by its lack of critical discourses. Today there is an ongoing debate on the decline of public life, the role of writers and intellectuals, and on the social function of literature in general. The analysis of Fontane's relationship to his public is an important contribution to this discussion, because he is one of the first authors who experienced the so called "structural transformation" of the public sphere in the second half of the 19th century and had to deal with its consequences: the emergence of a mass culture, the difficulties of publishing, and an uncritical public. <p>
Compared to earlier studies that identify Fontane's audience mainly in the "Bildungsbürgertum" (teachers, professors, pastors), Jews, a small group of nobility, and a group of young intellectuals, this essay proposes that the new mass public including women and the lower social classes should also be considered. It also provides a wider and more precise picture of Fontane's targeted and actual reader by determining different audiences during the three phases of his career. <p>
Fontane became increasingly aware of the uncritical reading public and showed great concern at the low social status of the professional writer. Nevertheless, he tried to establish as critic and novelist a close relationship with readers of all stripes and to educate and expand his audience via his writings to mature and critical readers. I demonstrate these trends in two of his late novels Effi Briest and Die Poggenpuhls.<p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03252016-112935 |
| Date | 11 April 2016 |
| Creators | Lazar, Adrienn |
| Contributors | John A. McCarthy, Meike G. Werner, Christoph M. Zeller, Helmuth W. Smith |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03252016-112935/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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