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Popular Culture Review
circles “als wollte er sich die ganze Stadt Rom als Liebhaber und Freund
prasentieren” (7) [as if he wanted to present himself to the entire city of Rome as
a lover and friend]. As in Fitzgerald’s novel, the scene is vividly presented,
immediately providing the reader with a private glimpse of the famous man.
In Caroline unterm Freiheitsbaum (1988) [Caroline under the Freedom
Tree], Brigitte Struzyk also fictionalizes the lives of famous German literary
figures. She gives the eponymous heroine’s perspective on several German
romantics, with whom she comes into contact or is intimately liaised. In this
scene Struzyk reflects the excitement surrounding the publication of the first
Athenaum, the programmatic journal of the early Romantics.
Wilhelm caresses the little volume. She watches him happily.
Like this she actually loves him . . . Friedrich shifts around on
his chair in constantly growing excitement. Then he grabs that
little volume from his brother’s hand. . . Novalis is standing
there at the bookshelf with Schelling. They are looking for
something specific—and can’t find i t . . . Tieck rips open the
door, swinging an “Athenaum.” Eureka, friends, it has come
out on the day of the lord!2
The scene is one of casual camaraderie, and Struzyk’s prose reflects the energy,
youth, and friendship of this group of Germany’s young Romantics.
This fictionalization of historical figures using contemporary
documents, varyingly referred to as faction, fact-based fiction, documenta