Fr 1090 Aspects of Modern German Literature in Translation 2007-08
FR 1090 ASPECTS OF MODERN GERMAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
Seminars: Theodor Fontane,Effi Briest
For seminar discussion you are split into four smaller groups, A B C & D. Please reflect in advance of the seminar on the aspects of the text for the relevant worksheet tasks; come prepared to discuss them for the first 25 minutes in your small group (A, B, C, or D) before reporting on your findings to the rest of the seminar group.
WEEK TWO Wednesday 11.00 – 12.30
Chapters 1-4In this first seminar each of the four groups will receive a chapter to discuss for 25 minutes before each group in turn presents their thoughts to the whole seminar group.
Group A - Chapter One
Give a close textual reading of how Fontane describes the setting, the house, the garden, the churchyard, the swing, the two women, their work, and their relationship. Analyse the “love story with a hero and a heroine who gave each other up”, and the characters’ interpretations of that story.
Group B - Chapter Two
Effi and the provincial governor. Hiding behind the rhubarb (“bigger leaves than fig-leaves”). In the opening paragraph of the novel the churchyard wall is described as having ‘small-leafed ivy growing along its whole length’. Check in a dictionary the German for ‘Ivy’ and reflect on its similarity to Effi, and the similarity of both to the German pronunciation of Eve (Eva. How is that pronounced in German?). Compare with chapter three: ‘Geert ... a tall slim tree trunk …’ and other similar references in chapters 1-4.
What threads are being set up in the opening stages of the novel?
Look at the different attitudes to the impending marriage, the father’s first appearance and the mother’s ambiguous prophecy.
Group C - Chapter Three
The daughter’s turn, getting along with Briest, modes of address, Briest’s freedom and attitude to officialdom, Innstetten’s response (rejected all forms of superstition entirely?).
Coping with being apart, Berlin, giving up second best.
Group D - Chapter Four
Return to Hohen Cremmen, the overseer and the gardener’s wife, Kleist’s Käthchen von Heilbronn & the ‘moral application’ to I & E. . Briest’s reaction, Effi’s reaction. Sedan Day (= ?).
- “We must be careful how we live, above all because we’re women.”
Effi & Geert: attitudes to marriage, expectations of marriage. Principles, or the lack of them.
WEEK THREE
Small group discussion topics
Group A Fontane described Innstetten as “a splendid person, in no way lacking in that which is necessary in order to be loved”. Do you agree? What is the reader’s reaction to this character at various points in the narrative? Consider in this respect:
- How Innstetten is described before his arrival, how we see him as husband (Ch 6, Ch 20)
- Innstetten’s response to the letters discovered (Ch 27)
- lengthy discussion with Wüllersdorf re. the duel (chapter 27 pp. 213-216)
- I.’s thoughts on returning from the duel (chapter 29, pp. 221-3
- I.’s reaction to news of his promotion (chapter 35 pp. 258-60)
Group B Fontane claimed that the Chinese “ghost story” (chapter 10) was the pivot of the novel. In what senses might this be true? Why does Innstetten say “I didn’t want to talk about it”? What does it reveal about I. (cf. p.220)? Does it confirm Crampas’ view of Innstetten as a “born pedagogue”?
Group C Some critics view Effi Briest as a powerful exposure of the subordinate status of women in Prussian society, and as therefore eligible for consideration as a quasi-feminist novel. What are the arguments for and against his view? Does it take sufficient account of the complexity of Effi’s character, her actions and motivations?
Group D How might we characterise the stance of the narrator? Is this a detached, omniscient narrator, or an interventionist one – and where does he notcomment? Consider the relative amounts of attention given to each major character, the extent to which the reader is provided with insights into their psychological motivation, as well as any evidence of editorial ‘moralising’. What kind of a novel is Effi Briest: realist, naturalist?
NB Page numbers may not refer to your edition – use chapter numbers as reliable way to identify key passages (also in presenting and illustrating ideas for the seminar group).
Secondary literature on Effi Briest
To acquaint yourselves with critical readings of Effi Briest you can access the Warwick German Studies Web on-line module bibliography, where you can get details of essays, articles and books on the text, and, in some cases, on-screen copies of the articles themselves.
To do this, go to:
then to: Now search the bibliographies
and type in : Effi Briest.
Books
A.R.Robinson Theodor Fontane: An Introduction
Stanley Radcliffe Effi Briest (Grant & Cutler Study Guides)
Helen Elizabeth Chambers, Supernatural and Irrational Elements in the Works of Theodor Fontane Stuttgart, 1980.
William L. Zwiebel Theodor Fontane, New York, 1992
Alan Bance Theodor Fontane: the Major Novels, Cambridge, 1982
H. C. Sasse Theodor Fontane. An Introduction to the Novels and Novellen
Articles
Edith H. Krause, “Desire and Denial: Fontane’s Effi Briest”, The Germanic Review, Vol. 74, 2, Spring 1999. 117-129
Brian Holbeche, ‘Innstetten’s “Geschichte mit Entsagung” [“love story with a hero and a heroine who gave each other up”] and its significance in Fontane’s Effi Briest’, German Life and Letters 51:1, October 1987, 21-32
Marcia Baron, ‘Was Effi Briest a victim of Kantian morality?’, Philosophy and Literature, April 1988 Vol. 12, 1.
Jeffrey Schneider “Masculinity, Male Friendship and the Paranoid Logic of Honor in Theodor Fontane’s Effi Briest”, The German Quarterly 75.3 (Summer 2002), 265-281
Erika Swales, “Private Mythologies and Public Unease: on Fontane’s Effi Briest” Modern Language Review 75 (1980) 114-23
For additional bibliography of English sources, see FR109 web page: