Friedrich Spielhagen: Novelist of Germany's False Dawn

The once nationally and internationally prominent realist Friedrich Spielhagen (1829-1911) was decanonized and driven to the periphery of literary history in his own lifetime. Since then critical interest has ben sporadic and has often reflected the negative judgment passed on him by gatekeepers and tastemakers of his own time. Except for a very few specialists, most scholars have concentrated on his obsessively propagated >objectiveVormärz ideals of freedom and democracy, while being driven, somewhat against his will, in the direction of Social Democracy and the harsher realism of such French writers as Emile Zola. Special attention is given to a number of thematic centres, such as the aristocracy; class identity, liberalism, and Social Democracy; the military and the dueling ethos; Jews; America; women and love; and his agonized engagement with the contemporary French novel.