Overview

In late nineteenth-century Germany, the onset of modernity transformed how people experienced place. In response to increased industrialization and urbanization, the expansion of international capitalism, and the extension of railway and other travel networks, the sense of being connected to a specific place gave way to an unsettling sense of displacement. Out of Place analyzes the works of three major representatives of German Realism-Wilhelm Raabe, Theodor Fontane, and Gottfried Keller-within this historical context. It situates the perceived loss of place evident in their texts within the contemporary discourse of housing and urban reform, but also views such discourse through the lens of twentienth-century theories of place. Informed by both phenomenological (Heidegger and Casey) as well as Marxist (Deleuze, Guattari, and Benjamin) approaches to place, John B. Lyon highlights the struggle to address issues of place and space that reappear today in debates about environmentalism, transnationalism, globalization, and regionalism.

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9781441133403

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Reviews

On the whole, the book provides excellent insight not only into the development of the phenomenon of place but also to late realism more generally. It is a strong contribution to the vein of criticism that sees in late realism a response to the realities of modernity, rather than a retreat from them. -- Katra Byram, Ohio State University Pacific Coast Philology 'In German realism, [...] place, as a source of identification and meaning, gives way to space as a site of external control and lost individuality.' This concluding statement of John B. Lyon's book on German realism aptly summarizes the results of this important study. Lyon contributes to our more nuanced understanding of German realism by foregrounding the modern aspects of realist prose. [...] In stimulating such thinking, Lyon's book will take its place next to other substantial American studies of nineteenth-century German literature by scholars such as Russell Berman, Robert Holub, and Eric Downing. -- Peter C. Pfeiffer, Georgetown University German Quarterly

Author Information

John Lyon is Associate Professor in the Department of German at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is the author of Crafting Flesh, Crafting Self: Violence and Identity in Early 19th Century German Literature (Bucknell University Press, 2006).

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