Recognizing Reality
German Realism and the Mediation of Presence
Will be published approx. on 15. September 2026
Book
Hardback
200 pages
979-8-89948-059-1 (ISBN)
Description
Reveals how literary scenes of recognition stage the process of coming to know reality
In this deeply researched and thought-provoking study, Jessica C. Resvick traces nineteenth-century German realist writing's paradoxical investment in mediated accounts of the world and the direct, unfiltered experience of reality. Focusing on the motif and operation of recognition in its Aristotelean sense, Resvick examines self-reflexive narratives in which the authors struggle to resolve this tension between the media they choose and the immediacy they hope to create.
Through close readings of key works by canonical authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Annette von Droste-Huelshoff, and Adalbert Stifter, Resvick demonstrates the medially influenced and historically contingent ways in which they represent reality. Each chapter focuses on a different form of recognition, reconstructing the techniques that allow these authors to generate an effect of presence. Exploring the history and poetics of knowledge exchange, Recognizing Reality: German Realism and the Mediation of Presence expands on recent media histories of realism, examining the material bases for realist aesthetics while also investigating media's epistemological accomplishments, and astutely elaborates the role of recognition as a medium-specific tool.
In this deeply researched and thought-provoking study, Jessica C. Resvick traces nineteenth-century German realist writing's paradoxical investment in mediated accounts of the world and the direct, unfiltered experience of reality. Focusing on the motif and operation of recognition in its Aristotelean sense, Resvick examines self-reflexive narratives in which the authors struggle to resolve this tension between the media they choose and the immediacy they hope to create.
Through close readings of key works by canonical authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Annette von Droste-Huelshoff, and Adalbert Stifter, Resvick demonstrates the medially influenced and historically contingent ways in which they represent reality. Each chapter focuses on a different form of recognition, reconstructing the techniques that allow these authors to generate an effect of presence. Exploring the history and poetics of knowledge exchange, Recognizing Reality: German Realism and the Mediation of Presence expands on recent media histories of realism, examining the material bases for realist aesthetics while also investigating media's epistemological accomplishments, and astutely elaborates the role of recognition as a medium-specific tool.
Reviews / Votes
"Beautifully written in clear precise prose, theoretically sophisticated but jargon free, this book impresses on every page with its original research and argument. It makes incisive interventions into multiple scholarly discourses, especially the contemporary focus on the material medial conditions of production for nineteenth-century literature and how these become self-consciously formative in the works themselves. Still, what impresses most are the many brilliant close readings of the engaged texts to be found throughout. I found myself marveling time and again at the fresh insights Resvick's detailed and inventive analyses brought to light." -Eric Downing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Resvick's immensely insightful study is a crucial work of scholarship for anyone attempting to gain a historical understanding of the veneration of immediacy that marks contemporary cultural production. In addition to reinvigorating the study of German realism, Recognizing Reality also offers broad theoretical reflections on literary and media studies that will engage scholars across the humanities." -Jason Groves, University of Washington
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Evanston
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
14 b&w halftones
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
979-8-89948-059-1 (9798899480591)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jessica C. Resvick is an assistant professor in the Department of German Language and Literatures at Oberlin College.
Content
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Mediated Recognitions
1. Recognition Between Drama and Prose: Otto Ludwig's Adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's "Das Fraeulein von Scuderi"
2. (Mis)Recognizing the Jew: Annette von Droste Huelshoff's "Die Judenbuche" and Adalbert Stifter's "Abdias"
3. Provincial and Global Recognitions: Adalbert Stifter's "Die Narrenburg"
4. Pygmalionic Recognitions: Gottfried Keller's Das Sinngedicht and "Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe"
5. Recognition out of Time: Wilhelm Raabe's Stopfkuchen
Coda: Recognition Terminable and Interminable
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Mediated Recognitions
1. Recognition Between Drama and Prose: Otto Ludwig's Adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's "Das Fraeulein von Scuderi"
2. (Mis)Recognizing the Jew: Annette von Droste Huelshoff's "Die Judenbuche" and Adalbert Stifter's "Abdias"
3. Provincial and Global Recognitions: Adalbert Stifter's "Die Narrenburg"
4. Pygmalionic Recognitions: Gottfried Keller's Das Sinngedicht and "Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe"
5. Recognition out of Time: Wilhelm Raabe's Stopfkuchen
Coda: Recognition Terminable and Interminable
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index