@article {Strakovsky344, author = {Yevgenya Strakovsky}, title = {Trauma and the Promise of Modernity in Gottfried Keller{\textquoteright}s Dietegen}, volume = {110}, number = {3}, pages = {344--363}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.3368/m.110.3.344}, publisher = {University of Wisconsin Press}, abstract = {This article draws attention to Dietegen, a critically understudied novella by Switzerland{\textquoteright}s foremost 19th century novelist, Gottfried Keller, in order to re-evaluate the German realists{\textquoteright} engagement with modernity. Challenging a tradition of formalist interpretations, this close reading demonstrates that Dietegen is a psychologically precise and highly complex portrait of child abuse and its traumatic impact on long-term development. The novella{\textquoteright}s portrait of trauma ultimately broadens into a parable of social progress. The repeated failure to recover from and transcend a violent past serves to question the limits of social reform, asking whether the ideals of modern society have the power to generate a sustainable future free of oppression. (YS)}, issn = {0026-9271}, URL = {https://mon.uwpress.org/content/110/3/344}, eprint = {https://mon.uwpress.org/content/110/3/344.full.pdf}, journal = {Monatshefte} }