Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1976 The ultM iple Perspective in Wilhelm Raabe's Third-Person Narratives of the Braunschweig Period. Irene Stocksieker Di maio Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Di maio, Irene Stocksieker, "The ultM iple Perspective in Wilhelm Raabe's Third-Person Narratives of the Braunschweig Period." (1976). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2957. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2957 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48100 j DI MAIO, Irene Stocksieker, 1940- I THE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVE IN WILHELM RAABE'S THIRD-PERSON NARRATIVES OF THE BRAUNSCHWEIG PERIOD. [ The Louisiana State University and ) Agricultural and Mechanical College, j Ph.D., 1976 I Literature, modern I Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVE IN WILHELM RAABE'S THIRD-PERSON NARRATIVES OP THE BRAUNSCHWEIG PERIOD A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Foreign Languages by Irene Stocksieker Di Maio B. A., Vassar College, 1962 M. A., The University of Chicago, 1965 August, 1976 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author of this study wishes to express her appreciation to Professors Thomas DINapoli and Renate Bialy for their guidance and helpful criticism. Special thanks are extended to Professor Selma Zebouni for her suggestions. Finally, the author acknowledges her indebtedness to Professor Volkmar Sander, whose inspired teaching awakened her interest in German literature, and whose scholarship led her to this study of Raabers works. il TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................ 1 Chapter 1. THE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVE............................ 9 Point of View Theory.............................. 10 Theory on Multiple Point of V i e w .................. 38 The Multiple Perspective .............. 47 Comparison of the Multiple Perspective in First-person and Third-person Narration ........ 48 2. MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVE IN WILHELM RAABE'S THIRD- PERSON NARRATIVES OF THE BRAUNSCHWEIG PERIOD .... 52 Structural Devices ................................ 53 Narrative D e v i c e s ......... 76 3. ANALYSES OF THREE BRAUNSCHWEIG W O R K S ...................113 Der D r a u m l i n g ...................................... 113 Das Horn von W a n z a .................................. 135 Kloster Lugau .................................... 174 CONCLUSION.................................................... 207 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................ 212 H i ABSTRACT Recent criticism of the works of Wilhelm Raabe notes the gradual emergence of perspectival narration, a technique which culminates in Raabe*s works of the final, Braunschweig, period. The term "multiple perspective” in criticism is usually synonymous with the term "multiple point of view.” A systematic Investigation of Raabe*s narratives of the Braunschweig period, however, leads to the conclusion that the multiple point of view as created by multiple narrators is but one way the multiple perspective is achieved. The concept of multiple perspective, as used in this study, includes not only multiple point of view, but also the levels and dimensions added to a work by humor and irony, symbol, quotations and certain treatments of time and space. The use of the multiple perspective is attributable to Raabe*s increasing suspicion of the third-person narrator who makes his point of view absolute. The critic Eduard Klopfenstein contends that the multiple point of view is more fully developed in Raabe*s first-person narratives of the Braunschweig period because the authorial narrator, is eliminated. The present study demonstrates that the third-person narrator, need not, and frequently does not, detract from the multiple perspective. The narrator's presence adds yet another point of view which either contradicts, relativizes or complements that of the characters. Often the narrator relativizes his own position. If the multiple perspective is central to Raabe*s technique of the Braunschweig period, and the third-person narratives outnumber the first-person narratives by two to one, then the third- person narrator would seem to be significant for the multiple perspective. Moreover, point of view is but one of the absolutes which have come into question. Symbols, which are traditionally universal become ambiguous, and fixed phenomena, such as time and space, become relative to the observer. This study begins with a survey of point of view theory, including theory on the multiple point of view. Then the concept of the multiple perspective is developed to include not only point of view, but other structural and narrative devices as well. Chapter Two demonstrates with examples drawn from the works of the Braunschweig period the various techniques Baabe employs to create the multiple perspective. In the final chapter, three works— Per Draumling (1872), Das Horn von Wanza (1881), and Kloster Lugau (1895)— are analyzed in detail to show how the various devices of the multiple perspective reveal the general disparities, contradictions, and questioning of absolutes which came about in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The multiple perspective reflects not only the subjectivity and the flnlteness of man's perceptions, but also the . relativity of all he does perceive. Reality, which is relative, stands in contrast to the ideal, which is absolute. This absolute becomes ever more suspect in the Braunschweig works. These same formal elements which state the problem— man's sense of inadequacy and entrapment in an increasingly complex, unfathomable world— offer the beginning of a solution. Irony serves as a corrective, and humor helps man recognize the equal validity of diverse opinions and approaches to life. Through the devices of the multiple perspective the narrators in Raabe works gain freedom from the inhibiting aspects of literary tradition. Furthermore, the narrators are free to choose a variety of positions, attitudes toward subject matter, and techniques. Finally, the multiple perspective effectively reflects the simultaneity of life and presents a broad and varied picture of reality. INTRODUCTION Recent criticism of the works of Wilhelm Raabe (1831-1910) notes the gradual emergence of perapectival narration, a technique which culminates in Raabe*s works of the Braunschweig period (1870-1902).'* The term "perspectival narration" (perspektivisches Erzahlen) generally means that a work contains multiple narrators, including, in a first-person narrative, the narrating and the expe­ riencing "I." The term "perspective" is then often synonymous with the term "point of view"; therefore, the multiple perspective in criticism usually means the multiple point of view. After a system­ atic investigation of theory on point of view and narrative technique in light of Raabe's narratives of the Braunschweig period, this writer has concluded that the multiple point of view, as created by multiple narrators,