44. Figuren und Figurenwelten: Eine Untersuchung zum Erzählwerk von Jane Austen und Charles Dickens [Characters and character worlds: an examination of the narrative prose of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens].

Abstract

The volume traces the ramifi cations of this momentous change by discussing Georgics, local poetry, travel accounts, melodramas, tales, novels and romances from the early 18th century to the1850s ; among the works analysed in detail are Dyer’s Fleece, Jago’s Edge Hill, Wordsworth’s Excursion (Books 8 and 9), industrial melodramas (Walker’s Factory Lad), as well as tales, romances and novels by Jane Marcet, Harriet Martineau, Charles Tayler, G.M.W. Reynolds, Charlotte Elizabeth, Charles Kingsley (Alton Locke), Frances Trollope (Michael Armstrong), Benjamin Disraeli (Sybil), Elizabeth Gaskell (Mary Barton; North and South) and Charles Dickens (Hard Times). The methodological approach is based on the concept of “Funktionsgeschichte”, which was developed by Erwin Wolff, Wolfgang Iser and others; this approach distinguishes itself from others by focusing above all on the way in which literature relates to other discourses, and by emphasising this relational aspect rather than the belief that all literary texts carry “messages” or represent (political) positions: thus Elizabeth Gaskell’s and Dickens’ industrial novels are shown to invite their readers to experience new and differing points of view and, by refl ecting upon them, come to their own conclusions, rather than having to accept ready-made answers from the authors.