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Transitional Time in Keller's Züricher Novellen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2020

Friedhelm Radandt
Friedhelm Radandt*
Affiliation:
Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois
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Abstract

In contrast to the commonly held view that Keller is portraying the high points of Zurich's cultural history in his Züricher Noeellen, the historical phenomenon of periods in transition, particularly the individual response to the fact and realization of transition, appear as the main theme of this cycle of novellas. A detailed analysis of the five stories leads to the observation that the Active present in each novella is a period removed from the actual high point of a given era. Hadfoub, for example, takes place at the very end of the Minnesang period, representing a latecomer among the minnesingers, one who plays an anachronistic role, and Ursula treats events surrounding religious change, in this case the clash between the Zwingli forces and the Anabaptists after the introduction of the Reformation in Zurich. To underscore the idea of transition, Keller makes use of the ironic narrator who frequently voices his discriminating opinion about the characters, and who in the frame novella clearly relates the issue of “transitional time” to Keller's own age, also a period of transition, and in so doing censures those writers who are oblivious to the needs of the present and seek refuge in a glorious portrayal of the past.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , January 1974 , pp. 77 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1974

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References

Note 1 in page 83 “Die Zeitebenen der historischen Dichtung: dargestellt am Beispiel einer Interpretation von Gottfried Kellers Ziiricher Nore/len” DVLG, 36 (1962), 356–82,

Note 2 in page 83 K/eine Sc/irifien, ii (Berlin: Weidmann, 1893), 154.

Note 3 in page 83 Gottfried Keller: Scimtliche Werke, ed. Carl Helbling, x (Bern: Benteli, 1945), 329.

Note 4 in page 83 J Emil Ermatinger, too, appears to assume that Keller had planned to portray the landmarks of Zurich's past. Keller's poetic inventiveness was inhibited, he writes, “indem einzelne Punkte durch die Marksteine der kulturgeschichtlichen Uberlieferung fixiert waren …” (G. Kellers Leben, Zurich: Artemis, 1950, p. 488).

Note 5 in page 83 Besides being inexact, Reichert's analysis also fails to account for the remaining two stories in the cycle, Der Narr auf Manegg and Das Fiilmlein der sieben Aufrechten.

Note 6 in page 83 Gottfried Keller, Scimtliche Werke, ed. J. Frànkel and C. Helbling, 22 vols. (Bern: Benteli, 1926–49). All quotations from the Ziiricher Novellen are from this edition and give only volume and page references.

Note 7 in page 83 It should be kept in mind that Keller's concept of Minnesang in general, and of “hohe Minne” in particular, reflects the views commonly held in the 19th century. He is, however, taking considerable liberties in his portrayal of the historical Hadlaub.

Note 8 in page 83 This date can easily be ascertained. We are told at the beginning of the novella that Landolt is 42 years of age in 1783. His first love affair took place when he was 25 years old, and the second shortly thereafter, that is. some 15 or 16 years prior to 1783. It was this second affair that ended abruptly during the party at Gessner's estate.

Note 9 in page 83 This would correspond to the definition of time in Keller's early poem with the provocative title “Die Zeit geht nicht,” where time is defined as a neutral element, “ein Etwas, form- und farbenlos,” to which only man gives shape and form (xv/1, 133).

Note 10 in page 83 Keller sees the Anabaptists as negatively as the 19th century saw them. Whether such a view does, indeed, do justice to the work and teachings of the Anabaptists need not concern us here.

Note 11 in page 83 Keller's concept of time has been the subject of considerable discussion. There appears to be a general agreement that Keller, like several other 19th-century authors, was convinced he was living in times of decline. Emil Staiger stresses this in Die Zeit ah Einbildungskraft des Dichters (Zurich: Atlantis. 1939), pp. 180–87. H. G. Adler expresses the same view by giving his article the title “Gottfried Keller. Grosser Dichter in kleiner Zeit,” Hochland, 58 (1965–66), 219–35. According to Adler, Keller, being fully cognizant of the decadence of his age, nevertheless thought that the humanistic spirit could be restored in any age as long as one realistically assessed one's own situation. Kaspar T. Locher in his “Gottfried Keller and the Fate of the Epigone,” GR, 30 (1960), 164–84, probably provides the most exhaustive study of the question. He modified Staiger's view and declared that Keller knew he was living in decadent times, but that he did not consider himself an epigone. Locher even goes so far as to assert that decadence was merely a theoretical problem for the critic Keller.

Note 12 in page 84 Gottfried Keller, Gesammelte Briefe, ed. C. Helbling, 5 vols. (Bern: Benteli, 1950–54), iii/2,195. 13 As Helbling points out, Keller actually found these four lines among Logau's poems.

Note 14 in page 84 Helbling calls attention to this matter when he states that Keller, unlike many of his contemporaries, did not subscribe to the tendency of many 19th-century historical novels that sought to glorify the past (ix, 294).