The Bourgeois as Hero

^BAVAILABLE FOR FIRST TIME IN U.S. ^RThis work is a highly original analysis of how the bourgeoisie created themselves as the heroes of the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is a systematic study of bourgeois literature which clearly shows the integral relationship between a social class and the ideals projected in its literary works. The idea of the bourgeois as hero is pursued through a brilliant reading of the major texts of classical German literature. The author focuses on opposing literary forms: epic and novel in Jean Paul's Titan; poetry and prose in Goethe's Bridegroom; tragedy and comedy in Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. Schlaffer links these forms to bourgeois preoccupations with love, work, honour and money to show how the interests of the bourgeoisie as a class underpin and subvert its idealistic literary aspirations. This challenging new analysis demonstrates how literature can be used to interpret social structure, and also how the influence of social structure can generate deviation and ambivalence in literary themes and forms. In The Bourgeois as Hero, Schlaffer has produced a major new synthesis of sociology and literary theory in a manner similar to Luk*cs. It will be of great importance for students and academics, in modern languages and literature, literary theory, sociology and cultural studies. Contents: Introduction; 1 Epic and Novel. Action and Consciousness. Jean Paul's^R Titan; 2 Poetry and Prose. Love and Labour. Goethe's Bridegroom; 3 Tragedy and Comedy. Honour and Money. Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm; 4 Conclusions and Method. Pre-Bourgeois Heroism in Burgeois Society. Problems of Socio-Historical Interpretation; Notes; Index