Private Lives in the Public Sphere examines the Bildungsroman in
the context of the rapid changes that affected the German literary
revolution that made up for its belatedness in its rapidity and
scope. The nature and quantity of reading material produced, the
social status of the writer, and the reading habits of the public
changed dramatically within a few decades. At the beginning of the
century the new texts that appeared at the annual book fairs were
primarily written in Latin and devoted to theology. By the end of
the century the number of new publications each year has increased
almost exponentially, with the novel leading the way. This new
institution of literature constituted an important part of what
Jurgen Habermas has termed the "public sphere," a forum for public
debate in which members of the middle class, although still limited
in their direct access to political power, could at least begin to
articulate their problems and formulate their hopes. The
Bildungsroman emerged during this period.
This study focuses on moments of literary self-consciousness in
the Bildungsroman as reflections on the rapid transformation of the
German literary institution. The novels are viewed as examples of
what Patricia Waugh has called "metafiction," that is, "fictional
writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention
to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the
relationship between fiction and reality." By concentrating on the
interaction between literary form and institutional context in
these novels, it becomes possible to mediate between the extremes
of those who would view literature as a mere reflection of
historical conditions and those who would maintain the purity of
the aesthetic object. Literature in this view neither re-creates
reality nor does it escape reality; instead, it transforms reality,
and the Bildungsroman is the genre that examines this
transformation.
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