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Abstract:
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This thesis focuses on the anachronistic poacher -hero figure in late nineteenth -century German literature . Historian Hobsbawm has suggested that the symbolic endurance of "noble robber" figures (of which we can view poacher -heroes as a subset ) takes place in an ideal imaginary "stripped" of the "local and social framework" (2000 , 143 ) . My thesis shows , in multiple examples across multiple genres , that in fact the poacher -hero is uniquely available for re -contextualization and renewal of social relevance , even under changed social and economic circumstances . The poacher -hero is not only a device for making statements about the past , but also for expressing claims on the future . It is perhaps this dynamism that makes the poacher -hero excellent carrier for different kinds of social critique as well . In my first chapter , I give a brief historical overview of the period and the motif . In the second chapter , I show how the poacher and his rural context are brought into contact with urban , imperial themes . In the chapter I read two novels , Der verlorene Sohn (The prodigal son , 1884 -1886 ) and Quitt (Even , 1890 ) , and the play Waldleute (Forest people , 1896 ) thematically to show how upward social mobility is associated with and adapted to the poacher figure . In the third chapter of the thesis , I examine narrative strategies and their employment in the construction of a socially critical viewpoint in Der verlorene Sohn and Quitt . I show how both high and low literary works , intended and written for different audiences , achieve similar results in their positioning of the poacher -protagonist through different narrative structures . This convergence shows the malleability of the societal frame for the poacher -hero . Finally , in the fourth chapter , I show regional adaptations of the motif , by examining different versions of a folk ballad "Das Jennerweinlied" ("The Jennerwein song" ) . This thesis furthermore shows how study of a motif can be used to bring together a diverse group of roughly contemporary texts . Viewing these texts in relationship with one another brings into question the scholarly focus on certain texts at the expense of others . |