The Grimms' Kinder
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The Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen as a Product of Modernity Tama Te Puea Braithwaite-Westoby A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts At the University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand 5 May 2015 Abstract In this thesis I investigate the extent to which the Brother Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM) can be considered as a document of modernity. This gives ground to argue that over the course of more than forty years between 1810- 1857 this collection underwent a series of editorial changes, which might be perceived as a consequence of modernity. This line of inquiry involves investigating the concept of modernity in the socio-cultural context of late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century Germany. In essence, I understand modernity as a conceptual shift from old Europe to the emergence of the modern era, which occurs at a time during which the KHM were created. Focussing on the concept of modernity may yield new insight into the field on the Grimms’ Märchen and the period in which they were written. In particular, I wish to explore how the Grimms’ Märchenbuch may have functioned as a product of this shift. In the first instance, the story began in 1806 when the Brothers Grimm conceived the KHM under the shadow of the Napoleonic wars (1799-1814). The wars and other events around this period forced many to harbour more flexible views of the world than ever before in order to deal with the growing awareness of contingency, transience, loss of certainty and perpetual change. My thesis therefore aims to validate the claim that modernity may have played a vital role in shaping the Grimms’ views of the world and thus their Märchen. ii Acknowledgements For the writing of this thesis, I would like to thank and acknowledge the contribution of numerous friends, family members and colleagues, without whom this thesis would not have ever made it to completion. First, I must mention my supervisor Dr. Simon Ryan, who has been extremely supportive of my work. A big thank you to Dr. August Obermayer, who read my thesis so thoroughly and gave me such excellent feedback, spurring me on to do the final chapter needed (an analysis of some Grimms’ tales). In general, I would like to thank the staff and especially the secretaries of the Languages and Cultures Department, who have always been so friendly and ready to help me out whenever I had a question or query. Thank you so much to my family: my brothers and especially my Dad and Mum. Thanks to Mum for keeping me positive and Dad for letting me rattle of all the information that would come into my head about my research. Thanks also to my partner Anja for her patience. Thanks to all the friends who have shared my thoughts, told me theirs, drank many coffees and beers with me and of course been with me for all my extra-curricular endeavours. Last but not least, thank you to the DAAD for funding my research trip to the Humboldt-Universität of Berlin in 2012. This trip allowed me to gain vital first hand accounts of the Grimms’ original work, liaise with professors and students of the Grimms and attend several conferences in my field. A particular highlight was to be in Kassel, Germany, for the International Grimm Congress on the 20th of December 2012; exactly 200 years after the Grimms published their very first version of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iv Notes on Abbreviations and Citations ..................................................................... vii Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 At the Heart of the Matter ................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Template of the Approach ................................................................................................ 4 1.3 Historical Preamble: Eighteenth-Nineteenth Century Germany ...................... 13 Part One: Modernity as a Departure Point ............................................................. 21 Chapter Two: Conceiving Modernity ........................................................................ 21 2.1 Introduction: What is Modernity? ............................................................................... 21 2.1.1 Kant’s Answer, Foucault’s Response ................................................................................. 21 2.1.2 Baudelaire’s Modernity ........................................................................................................... 24 2.1.3 Paradigm Shifts: the Need for Philosophy ...................................................................... 25 2.2 Perspective: Der transformative Augenblick and the Institution of Art .......... 28 2.2.1 Der transformative Augenblick ............................................................................................. 28 2.2.2 Out of Art came Modernity .................................................................................................... 31 2.3 Sattelzeit, Volksdichtung: Mobility Literature and the Modern Concept of Culture ......................................................................................................................................... 33 2.3.1 New Expectations and Experience ..................................................................................... 33 2.3.2 The Roots of Volksdichtung ................................................................................................... 36 2.3.3 Authorising Cultural Identity as a Response to Crisis? .............................................. 40 2.3.4 Musäus and the Volksmärchen der Deutschen ............................................................... 43 2.4 Voices of Modernity .......................................................................................................... 45 2.4.1 Mediation and Hybridity ......................................................................................................... 45 2.4.2 National Epic Literature and the Rhetoric of Authenticity ...................................... 48 2.4.3 Experts in Volksdichtung ......................................................................................................... 50 Chapter Three: The Importance of Reading and Writing Networks in the Aufklärung to the Romantik ........................................................................................ 53 3.1 Introduction: Networks of Means ................................................................................ 53 3.2 Book Production in the Eighteenth century ............................................................ 56 3.2.1 Rising Book Consumption ...................................................................................................... 56 3.2.2 New Genres for Women? ........................................................................................................ 58 3.2.3 Newspapers and Journals ....................................................................................................... 61 3.3 Literature for Children of the Eighteenth-Nineteenth Centuries ..................... 62 3.3.1 The Modern Child in the Biedermeier ................................................................................ 62 3.3.2 The Changing Nature of Children’s Literature .............................................................. 63 iv 3.3.3 The Emergence of Märchen as Children’s Literature ................................................. 66 3.4 The Educational Turn, Muttermund and the Kernfamilie .................................... 70 3.4.1 The Educational Turn: Pestalozzi, the German Nation .............................................. 70 3.4.2 Love, Mothers, and their (independent) Voice ............................................................. 75 3.4.3 A New Family Institution: the Kernfamilie ...................................................................... 79 Part Two: The Romantik, Märchen, Modernity ..................................................... 82 Chapter Four: Biography and the Literary Formation of a Nation ................. 82 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 82 4.2 The Early Years of the Brothers Grimm .................................................................... 83 4.2.1 The Beginning .............................................................................................................................. 83 4.2.2 Switching to Sachen Märchen ............................................................................................... 85 4.2.3 Under Napoleon .......................................................................................................................... 87 4.2.4 The Foundation For All Later Studies ............................................................................... 90 4.3 The Makings of an International Success (1811-1829) ....................................... 93 4.3.1 Expanding the Network .........................................................................................................