Romanticism, Realism and the Lines of Mimesis
Seiten
2026
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
9781399506519 (ISBN)
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
9781399506519 (ISBN)
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Examines the role occupied by the senses and the self in approaches to literary mimesis in nineteenth-century European literature
Since Plato’s Republic, mimesis — the artwork’s tacit claim to reflect or imitate real life — has faced a near-constant stream of assaults, being accused of naturalising a supposedly uncomplicated relationship between world and fiction. Lines of Mimesis offers a revisionary account of mimesis. Specifically, it proposes a rethinking of the representational attitudes of two literary schools usually understood to be at odds with one another — Romanticism and Realism — through close readings of writings and drawings made by two figures usually taken to be proponents of those schools respectively: E. T. A. Hoffmann and Honoré de Balzac. Across these readings, Dickson argues that a more capacious understanding of mimesis is achieved when we understand it to pertain not to the reduplication of objects in the world, but to a negotiation of the subject’s sensory entwinement with those objects. This new understanding can, in turn, more closely illuminate an artwork’s own reflections on its relationship to the world, shedding light on the entanglements and crossovers between Romanticism and Realism.
Since Plato’s Republic, mimesis — the artwork’s tacit claim to reflect or imitate real life — has faced a near-constant stream of assaults, being accused of naturalising a supposedly uncomplicated relationship between world and fiction. Lines of Mimesis offers a revisionary account of mimesis. Specifically, it proposes a rethinking of the representational attitudes of two literary schools usually understood to be at odds with one another — Romanticism and Realism — through close readings of writings and drawings made by two figures usually taken to be proponents of those schools respectively: E. T. A. Hoffmann and Honoré de Balzac. Across these readings, Dickson argues that a more capacious understanding of mimesis is achieved when we understand it to pertain not to the reduplication of objects in the world, but to a negotiation of the subject’s sensory entwinement with those objects. This new understanding can, in turn, more closely illuminate an artwork’s own reflections on its relationship to the world, shedding light on the entanglements and crossovers between Romanticism and Realism.
Polly Dickson is Assistant Professor in German at Durham University. She works primarily on nineteenth-century literary and visual cultures, with particular interests in realism and in authors’ doodles.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Notes on Abbreviations and Translations
Introduction: Balzac and Hoffman
I: Mimesis
1. Mimesis and the Chiasm
2. A Brief History of Undulating Lines
II: Lines
3. Arabesque: Der goldne Topf and La Peau de chagrin
4. Scribble: Der Artushof and Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu
5. Cross: Die Elixiere des Teufels and L’Élixir de longue vie
Conclusion: Fiction's Pretexts
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 1.1.2026 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 8 black and white illustrations |
| Verlagsort | Edinburgh |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 156 x 234 mm |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-13 | 9781399506519 / 9781399506519 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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