Popular Culture Review
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“biographies that act like novels, far from erasing the borderline between
biography and fiction, bring the line that separates them more clearly into view”
(11). The many recent novels falling into the category described by Cohn do
their part to lull the reader into accepting fiction as fact. Again, it is precisely
this fictional presentation of fact that is so popular. In the conclusion to her
study, Ina Schabert reminds the reader: “Both fictional and factional biographies
are based on the facts of history and of an individual’s life, and both, in the
sense that they are constructs made up from the facts, are fictions” (13).
Shabert’s caution seems to legitimize a genre that has been criticized by
historians, biographers, and literary critics.
In any case, readers of “faction” ignore the warnings, and this sub
category of the historic novel is very popular in Europe, Great Britain, and the
United States. Book clubs in Germany now discuss whether or not Ortheil’s
Goethe is a sympathetic figure, and in the U.S and U.K. they ponder Fitzgerald’s
use of humor in her portrayal of the Hardenberg family. Although some readers
will certainly be inspired to read Goethe and the early Romantics, many more
will not. These German men of letters have entered the twenty-first century
empty-handed, so to speak, without the baggage of their oeuvre. Perhaps
knowledge of Goethe will be limited to his idiosyncratic behavior in Rome as
seen through Beri, whereas Novalis will be remembered fondly as Fritz, who
sucked his coffee through white bread. Whether these fragmented and intimate
cameos are appropriate—we are after all dealing with some of Europe’s largest
literary figures—is disputed among those with the proper credentials, and
ignored by those looking for an interesting and enjoyable read. In any case,
Faustinas Kiisse, The Blue Flower, and Caroline unterm Freiheitshaum blend
fact and fiction and the resulting atmosphere is attractive to readers. Whether
readers have lost their imaginations as some critics of this type of literature
argue, or whether its popularity is indicative of some sort of modem trend
towards voyeurism, it seems to be here to stay.
The Citadel
Katya Skow
Notes
1All translations of primary and secondary literature are my own.
2 For longer quotations I put my English translation in the main body of the article. The
original German text then appears in the endnote.
Wilhelm [Schlegel] liebkost das Bandchen. Sie sieht ihm frohlich zu.
So liebt sie ihn direkt. . . Friedrich [Schlegel] rutscht auf dem Stuhl
in stetig steigender Erregung hin und her. Dann reifit er seinem
Bruder jenes BSndchen aus der H and. . . Novalis steht mit Schelling
dort am Biicherschrank. Sie suchen was Bestimmtes—und konnen es
nicht finden. . . Tieck reifit die Tiir auf, schwenkt ein “Athenaum.”
Heureka, ihr Freunde, es ist erschienen am Tag des Herm! (118-19).
3 “PfafFe . . . da regte sich die protestantische Erbsiinde, und mir wollte das bekannte und