New approaches to Theodor Fontane

the long version

"This collection of essays offers eight perspectives on the novels and essays of Theodor Fontane (1819-1898). While Fontane scholarship has primarily focused on the "objective" portrayal of nineteenth-century German/Prussian culture and on the authenticity with which his work supposedly mirrors social reality, this collection investigates rhetorical and communicative patterns in his works that call this mirroring effect into question, emphasizing the difficulty - and ultimate impossibility - of "realist" representation."--BOOK JACKET.