RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Theodor Fontane: Biologism and Fiction
JF Monatshefte
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 376
OP 401
DO 10.1353/mon.2014.0071
VO 106
IS 3
A1 Thomas, Christian
YR 2014
UL http://mon.uwpress.org/content/106/3/376.abstract
AB In his novels, Fontane treats mythical and scientistic biologisms, which informed the popular imagination of Wilhelminian Germany, as fictions based in culture. The assumption of the animal nature of man gave rise to determinist and materialist views. Fontane's narrative depictions expose such biologisms as essentializing, reductionist fictions that unduly exclude cultural factors and turn a blind eye to human potentials and positive social tendencies. In refunctioning romantic myth, poeticizing science, and emphasizing sympathy/social instincts, Fontane, through narrative perspectivization, promotes counter-fictions that project a more positive image of nature and humanity, as well as a vision for science. (CT)