This book is about the power of narrative realism as a critique of the ideology of inwardness in the German-speaking world. It answers the question: What kind of truth about reality does German literary realism enable us to see, and what kind of transformation does that vision require and effect?
Introduction 1. Realism, the Narrative Self, and the Legacy of German Idealism 2. Representing the Real: Gottfried Keller's Der grüne Heinrich 3. Refusing the Real: Wilhelm Raabe's Der Hungerpastor 4. German Realism after 1870: Literature, Philosophy, and Human Selfhood 5. Wilhelm Raabe, Pfisters Mühle the Reality of Inwardness 6. Wilhelm Raabe, Die Akten des Vogelsangs the End of Inwardness 7. Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest Realism, Empathy, and Identity 8. Theodor Fontane, Irrungen, Wirrungen Realism and Transfiguration 9. The Limited Whole: The Realism of History in Der Stechlin and Vor dem Sturm 10. Conclusion
