The Fontane Workshop: Manufacturing Realism in the Industrial Age of Print

329 Pages·2019·2.327 MB·English

by  Petra S. McGillen

New Directions in German Studies
Vol. 26
Series Editor:
IMKE MEYER
Professor of Germanic Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
Editorial Board:
KATHERINE ARENS
Professor of Germanic Studies, University of Texas at Austin
ROSWITHA BURWICK
Distinguished Chair of Modern Foreign Languages Emerita,
Scripps College
RICHARD ELDRIDGE
Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor of Philosophy,
Swarthmore College
ERIKA FISCHER-LICHTE
Professor Emerita of Theater Studies, Freie Universit ä t Berlin
CATRIONA MACLEOD
Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities and
Professor of German, University of Pennsylvania
STEPHAN SCHINDLER
Professor of German and Chair, University of South Florida
HEIDI SCHLIPPHACKE
Associate Professor of Germanic Studies,
University of Illinois at Chicago
ANDREW J. WEBBER
Professor of Modern German and Comparative Culture,
Cambridge University
SILKE-MARIA WEINECK
Professor of German and Comparative Literature,
University of Michigan
i
DAVID WELLBERY
LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professor,
University of Chicago
SABINE WILKE
Joff Hanauer Distinguished Professor for Western Civilization and
Professor of German, University of Washington
JOHN ZILCOSKY
Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
ii
Volumes in the series:
Vol. 1. Improvisation as Art: Conceptual Challenges, Historical Perspectives
by Edgar Landgraf
Vol. 2. The German P í caro and Modernity: Between Underdog
and Shape-Shifter
by Bernhard Malkmus
Vol. 3. Citation and Precedent: Conjunctions and Disjunctions
of German Law and Literature
by Thomas O. Beebee
Vol. 4. Beyond Discontent: ‘Sublimation’ from Goethe to Lacan
by Eckart Goebel
Vol. 5. From Kafka to Sebald: Modernism and Narrative Form
edited by Sabine Wilke
Vol. 6. Image in Outline: Reading Lou Andreas-Salom é
by Gisela Brinker-Gabler
Vol. 7. Out of Place: German Realism, Displacement, and Modernity
by John B. Lyon
Vol. 8. Thomas Mann in English: A Study in Literary Translation
by David Horton
Vol. 9. The Tragedy of Fatherhood: King Laius
and the Politics of Paternity in the West
by Silke-Maria Weineck
Vol. 10. The Poet as Phenomenologist: Rilke and the
New Poems
by Luke Fischer
Vol. 11. The Laughter of the Thracian Woman: A Protohistory of Theory
by Hans Blumenberg, translated by Spencer Hawkins
Vol. 12. Roma Voices in the German-Speaking World
by Lorely French
Vol. 13. Vienna’s Dreams of Europe: Culture and Identity
beyond the Nation-State
by Katherine Arens
Vol. 14. Thomas Mann and Shakespeare: Something Rich and Strange
edited by Tobias D ö ring and Ewan Fernie
Vol. 15. Goethe’s Families of the Heart
by Susan E. Gustafson
iii
Vol. 16. German Aesthetics: Fundamental Concepts
from Baumgarten to Adorno
edited by J. D. Mininger and Jason Michael Peck
Vol. 17. Figures of Natality: Reading the Political in the Age of Goethe
by Joseph D. O’Neil
Vol. 18. Readings in the Anthropocene: The Environmental Humanities,
German Studies, and Beyond
edited by Sabine Wilke and Japhet Johnstone
Vol. 19. Building Socialism: Architecture and Urbanism
in East German Literature, 1955–1973
by Curtis Swope
Vol. 20. Ghostwriting: W. G. Sebald’s Poetics of History
by Richard T. Gray
Vol. 21. Stereotype and Destiny in Arthur Schnitzler’s Prose:
Five Psycho-Sociological Readings
by Marie Kolkenbrock
Vol. 22. Sissi’s World: The Empress Elisabeth in Memory and Myth
edited by Maura E. Hametz and Heidi Schlipphacke
Vol. 23. Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism: Mind, Matter,
and the Life Sciences after Kant
edited by Edgar Landgraf, Gabriel Trop, and Leif Weatherby
Vol. 24. Staging West German Democracy: Governmental PR Films
and the Democratic Imaginary, 1953–1963
by Jan Uelzmann
Vol. 25. The Lever as Instrument of Reason: Technological
Constructions of Knowledge around 1800
by Jocelyn Holland
Vol. 26. The Fontane Workshop: Manufacturing Realism in the
Industrial Age of Print
by Petra S. McGillen
iv
The Fontane
Workshop
Manufacturing Realism in the
Industrial Age of Print
Petra S. McGillen
v
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America 2019
Copyright © Petra S. McGillen, 2019
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on pp. xvi–xvii constitute an
extension of this copyright page.
Cover design: Andrea F. Bucsi
Cover image: Theodor Fontane at his desk. Courtesy Theodor-Fontane-Archiv,
Potsdam, Germany.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McGillen, Petra (Petra S.), author.
Title: The Fontane workshop : manufacturing realism in the industrial
age of print / Petra S. McGillen.
Description: New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. |
Series: New directions in German studies ; vol. 26 | Extensive and
substantial revision of author's thesis (doctoral—Princeton University, 2012,
titled Original compiler : notation as textual practice in Theodor Fontane. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2019008431 (print) | LCCN 2019016631 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501351563 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781501351570 (ePub) |
ISBN 9781501351587 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Fontane, Theodor, 1819–1898—Criticism and interpretation. |
German literature—19th century—History and criticism. | Realism in literature. |
Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Classifi cation: LCC PT1863.Z7 (ebook) | LCC PT1863.Z7 M34 2019 (print) |
DDC 838/.709—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019008431
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-5158-7
ePDF: 978-1-5013-5156-3
eBook: 978-1-5013-5157-0
Series: New Directions in German Studies
Typeset by Refi neCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk, UK

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vi
To Michael and Henry
vii
viii
Contents
List of Illustrations x
Permissions xii
Note on Translations and Transcriptions xiv
List of Abbreviations for Recurring Fontane Citations xv
Acknowledgments xvi
Introduction: Remediating Copy and Paste 1
1 Media-Historical Coordinates: Literature in the
Industrial Age of Print 33
2 Biography vs. Autobiography: The Making of a Compiler 71
3 A Living Archive: Generating Input 121
4 The Manufacture of Literature: Generating Output 183
Coda: The “Uncreative” Writing of M athilde M ö hring 257
Bibliography 277
Index 297
ix