Models of Nature and Landscape Description: Their Sources and Functions in the Canonization of Late Eighteenth Century German Prose-Fiction

The appearance of nature and landscape descriptions as a literary convention in late eighteenth-century German prose-fiction is presented here as a test case for discussing repertoire formation in cases where the literary institution undergoes transformation. Descriptions of Nature have long been established as a literary device par excellence, especially with regards to corpora which bear a "Romantic" imprint. As a rule, these descriptions are discussed either in structural analytical terms, such as means of focalization, and of symbolic or metonymic representation of a character's state of mind, or in more general terms, as a reflection of the philosophical idea of Nature. At any rate, the historical perspective is rejected by such discussions, or its relevance is reduced to the highly abstract notion of Zeitgeist: variations in the conventional specifics of descriptive passages may be considered of little importance as long as they yield to certain thematic or structural generalizations. In opposition to all this, the notion of models and cultural repertoire suggests a shift of focus to the context of text production, assumming that textual features are subject to institutional constraints and demarcations (say, the limits of "descriptive" options recognized in a certain cultural milieu as appropriate for literary use). From this viewpoint, looking for models of description will be the search for rules/norms of textual organization regulating the generation of texts, in view of their institutional affiliation. Accordingly, the leading questions here are how this repertoire was formed and how it functioned in the given literary field. Descriptions of landscape and Nature appeared in literary prose fiction (ranging from novels to short stories) towards the end of the eighteenth century, particularly in works associated with "Romantic" tendencies, so as gradually to become, in the following generations, a solid convention in "artistic" prose-fiction. Such descriptions, however, did not seem to occur, as a rule, in the majority of the period's popular fiction (notably "the popular novel" - the Trivialroman). Furthermore, it emerges that even in texts with the most obvious artistic aspirations, this convention - for all its intensive exploitation by some of them - was eventually not an imperative. This point seems to be most revealing, since it suggests that in the context of the literary production of the time, such descriptions were only an optional convention, yet obviously a rather distinguished one. Since in terms of timing, the appearance of these descriptions more or less coincided with the gain in status of prose writing (the culmination of which was the explicite effort by the Early Romantics to canonize the novel), questions concerning this linkage seem inevitable. My contention is that in view of this historical context, these descriptions functioned more than anything else as markers of "literary distinction" (i.e., of "artistry," refinement, intellectual and imaginative depth, and above all - prestige of canonical tradition), which was attributed to prose fiction at the time. I thus propose to examine the crystallization of this model went hand in hand with attempts to canonize the novel, and what were the sources which facilitated this model's availability for playing such a role. Let me start by an analysis of examples. The eighteenth century provides us with abundant "descriptive writing." Generally speaking, these descriptions tend to range from a "prosaic" factual topographical description to a conventionalized "lyrical" description of Nature. Compare, for instance, the following passages: Let me sketch briefly the two different descriptive patterns (for further examples see appendix). First, although their stocks of reported items partly overlap (mountains, hills, rivers, woods, trees and bushes are common in both, often with the addition of valleys, grass, flowers, the …