Macht ist nicht nur stets auf Kommunikation angewiesen, um sich durchzusetzen und erhalten zu konnen, sondern bereits selbst Ergebnis eines kommunikativen Prozesses. Um diesen Zusammenhangen genauer auf die Spur zu kommen, bedarf es einer neuen kulturhistorischen Perspektive. Der vorliegende Sammelband zeigt anhand einer Vielfalt von Fallstudien zur europaischen Geschichte von der Antike bis in die neueste Zeit, welche faszinierenden Aspekte auf diese Weise hervortreten konnen: Legitimationsstrategien, Anspruche auf hochste Throne, Zugang zum Ohr des Konigs, Theorien kommunikativen Umgangs mit Untertanen, wissenschaftsdisziplinare Exklusionen, Machtzuschreibungen in der Erziehung, Macht und Ohnmacht in der religiosen Kommunikation, literarische Verarbeitungen im Hinblick auf das Todesurteil und den Krieg."

The articles in this volume live up to their declared aim to squarely approach the works of Jeremias Gotthelf (1797-1854) from the perspective of literary scholarship. They take an international angle on aesthetic, genre typological, theological, political and socio-historical aspects of his oeuvre. Outdated and erroneous verdicts are refuted, Gotthelf is regarded against the aesthetic and cultural-historical backdrop of his age and compared with other European authors. The major insight gleaned from this is that his work is not merely the expression of an effort to contribute to the popular education and the politics of his day but can stand as the literary achievement of a major realistic narrator. The volume rounds off with a bibliography and detailed indexes of persons, works and subjects.

From a historical and systematic perspective, the study analyzes various approaches to the literary portrayal of historical events. Historical prose narratives by 19th century Swiss authors (J. Gotthelf, G. Keller, C.F. Meyer) are examined both in their relationship to contemporary historiography and in the context of a national 'mythology' disseminated by patriotic drama. The aim of the investigation is to point up the complementary and cohesive aspects of literary prose, historiography, and national literature, while casting light on their function in connection with the evolution of an 'inner' nation in the age of historicism.