Ervin Malakaj1; 1 University of British Columbia: Vancouver, BC, CA, Canada
Discussion
Drawing on recent work in formalist literary studies, which posits that the realist novel conceptualizes the building blocks of social relations and even imagines new ones, this chapter turns to the rhythms of social life in German realist fiction with the aim to inflect the analysis through a consideration of how form relates to affect. Its case study is the three-volume novel Die Erlöserin (Hulda or The Deliverer,1873) by the German-Jewish writer Fanny Lewald (1811–1889). The novel’s investment in social patternsmakes legible how regulated sociability burdens women’s lives in different contexts. Here, realist form (i.e., mimetic thick description) meets emplotment strategies by which the felt experience of oppressionarticulates sites of solidarity among different women. The chapter then argues that Die Erlöserin casts the recurrence of this variety of negative affect as vital site for women’s emancipation linking Central European struggles to international ones.
