Vom Schreiben zum Erzahlen: Eine textgenetische Studie zu Theodor Fontanes 'L' Adultera'.(Book Review)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-JUL-04

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Vom Schreiben zum Erzahlen: Eine textgenetische Studie zu Theodor Fontanes 'L' Adultera'. By GABRIELE RADECKE. (Epistemata: Wurzburger wissenschaftliche Schriften, 358) Wurzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2002. 345 pp. 49.50 [euro]. ISBN 3-8260-2052-9 (pbk).

Gabriele Radecke's book begins with the question 'Wie entsteht poetische Fiktionalitat?'. What follows is more modest: a scrutiny of the production of a single literary text, L'Adultera, in its successive phases up to its publication, first in serialized form (1880), and then in book form (1882). In view of the copious documentation available in the Berlin Stadtmuseum and the Theodor-Fontane-Archiv, one chapter ('Unter Palmen') is chosen as the object of a case study. The work in question, Fontane's first novel of Berlin society, fictionalizes a well-known contemporary scandal that has subsequently generated a large amount of biographical comment, so that the author also finds herself engaging with this, even if only to demonstrate the limits...

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