The wanderer motif in nineteenth century German literature

Abstract

The following study is conceived as a survey of the wanderer motif in 19th century German literature. The interpretive method used is a modified version of New Historicism, a method described in detail in the Introduction. This study shares with that method a concern with the historicity of all discourse, including literary texts. However, the interpretive approach used here differs from New Historicism in respect of a key methodological assumption, namely that literary texts function as commentaries rather than as documents of particular historical eras and cultures. It is argued that literary texts possess in virtue of their aesthetic form and reflexivity a capacity to interpret their cultural context that sets them apart from other text types. The study isolated a number of texts in which the motif is a significant element of composition, the selection being dictated by the aim of getting as wide a distribution as possible across the period of interest, and of identifying the motif in the widest possible range of functional contexts. Attempts were then made to draw inferences about the role of the motif as intertextual element and its contribution to the culturally interpretive function of the texts in which it was situated.