The lost laugh

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The lost laughing (also: The lost laughing ; working title: Das Sängerfest ) is a novella by Gottfried Keller , which, finished in 1874, appeared in the autumn of the same year as the "keystone" in the second part of the novel cycle The People of Seldwyla at Göschen in Stuttgart. In a letter to Emil Kuh on December 6, 1874, the author wrote: "It contains specific local conditions that everyone in Switzerland immediately recognizes."

A couple - they are Jukundus and Justine - laughs at a marriage crisis. By finding each other again, the couple regains that laughter.

action

1

With its standard bearer Jukundus Meyenthal at the helm, the Seldwyler Men's Choir of the Morning moves through the beautiful summer forest to the shores of an unnamed lake, whose resemblance to Lake Zurich is obvious. At the singing festival on that shore of the lake, the young Jukundus leads his comrades to success in the choirs' competition chants "with a joyful and yet moderate baritone voice". The Seldwyler men will receive a gift of honor from the jury for presenting their entry “Violet Awakening!”. In addition, Jukundus gets to know the beautiful Justine Glor and her family in Schwanau on the shore of the lake mentioned above. The extended Glor family, who have become wealthy in silk weaving , cannot hold a candle to Jukundus. Jukundus lives with his mother in Seldwyla. Their assets brought with them from abroad are almost used up. Jukundus first worked in an engineering office and then in a salesman without success. After all, he had made it to a captain in the Swiss armed forces. With his level-headedness and experience as a seasoned officer, Jukundus can help Lieutenant Glor - one of Justine's brothers - out of an angry dueling mess. Jukundus gets along better with Justine's grandparents, who still live simply, than with Justine's rich parents and proud siblings. They live in their own property on a hill above Schwanau. The area had previously been praised by a traveler named Göthe . Sometimes Justine and Jukundus seek out the two very old, still quite sprightly people.

2

The young couple married and from then on lived in Seldwyla with Jukundu's mother. Jukundus quits military service and becomes a timber dealer. With the associated clear-cutting around Seldwyla, Jukundus felt pangs of conscience. As a thoroughly honest man, the inexperienced new trader is not up to the harsh behavior of business friends. Financially ruined, the considerate entrepreneur Jukundus puts an end to the "tree slaughter" and comes with his Justine to stay with their grandparents on the Schwanau "Hochsitz". Having entered the in-laws' silk weaving business, Jukundus - far too trusting in the rough day-to-day business - fails again financially.

Justine is involved in the “wonderful reform work” of the pastor of Schwanau. The young woman rises to become the “mainstays” of the clergyman. Regardless of this, the pastor preaches unreservedly and openly from the pulpit against Jukundi's views of religion and art. During the sermon nobody can contradict, but afterwards in a smaller circle Jukundus doesn't give in at all. Such controversy, bitterly debated in the presence of the horrified Justine, triggers a falling out between the couple. Gottfried Keller writes: "From that moment on, that graceful and happy smile disappeared from the faces of the two spouses, so completely as if it had never lived in them."

3

Jukundus goes to the state capital and stays with an entrepreneur - that is a former military superior. He waits in vain for a sign of reconciliation from Schwanau. Justine is silent. For the first time, for Jukundus, basic honesty does not become a professional obstacle. The dependent entrepreneur Jukundus now carries out his orders under a superior - as he did in the military. However, he gets lost in politicizing the capital. Jukundus joins informers who target honorable citizens in particular.

A “grim” transatlantic economic crisis finally shakes and ruins the renowned and once so rich House of Glor. Justine leaves Schwanau and wants to work as a teacher in the state capital.

4th

Gottfried Keller surprises the unprepared reader in the last of the four chapters with the deus ex machina Ölweib, a “Sibyl of Defamation”. What is meant is the side story of Glorschen, deeply religious silk weaver Ursula and her hardworking daughter Agathchen. In contrast to the other, more calculating silk weavers, Ursula has an understanding of the crisis-ridden capitalist family Glor. Ursula quits voluntarily and goes to the state capital with her daughter. The silk gentleman Glor, however, assigns the ladies a little house as accommodation, which is also inhabited by the olive woman. Conflicts - not with the meek, gout fragile Ursula, but rather with their visitors - can not be long in coming: Curious how Jukundus is, after all, he is looking for - with a "directory to blackening worthies people " in your pocket - that of his Political friends often quoted Ölweib. The arriving Justine visits her friends Ursula and Agathchen. After a while, Justine is disappointed by Ursula, who has a reputation for being a saint.

Justine happened to meet her Jukundus in Ursula's dwelling. The spouses fall on each other's necks. The laughter doesn't want to come back yet. At first the couple walk side by side “in deep seriousness”. But then in Schwanau, uphill on the way to Justine's grandparents, “the smile that was lost returns to their faces”. They hug and kiss. Jukundus demands of his wife that she should immediately pronounce the word with which she insulted and expelled him after the argument about matters of faith. The "rough love" Justine obediently repeats "Lumpazi!" And secretly regrets the earlier attachment to the "cleric". From then on, the couple lived happily in the city and had two children. Son and daughter are called Justus and Yukunde.

The pastor of Schwanau “was then glad to be able to enter into a secular business through Jukundi's mediation, in which he proved to be much more sophisticated and useful than Jukundus himself had once done in Seldwyla and Schwanau; because he, the pastor, did not easily believe what someone told him. "

Testimonials

  • On January 6, 1873, Gottfried Keller wrote to Adolf Exner that the story was "very moral".
  • Gottfried Keller does not contradict Vischer's criticism (see below) in a reply of June 29, 1875, but admits "tendentious, boring paintwork" and names Lang's failures from the pulpit against the anti-clerical text.

reception

Statements from the 19th century

  • In 1874 in the “ Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung”, Friedrich Theodor Vischer criticized the local color, which could be difficult to understand for non-Swiss people.
  • Auerbach (review of June 10, 1875 in the " Deutsche Rundschau ") attests to the clean and credible execution and "refreshes" himself with the portrayal of the religious and the political. However, some things are applied too thickly; for example the incidents around the olive woman. Auerbach praises Keller for having placed the emphasis on drawing the characters. Because someone else might have painted the processes in silk weaving instead.
  • The text was discussed on September 30, 1879 in the feature section “A lasting war of revenge” in the “ Neue Zürcher Zeitung ”.

Recent comments

  • The " Wegelied ", sung by Jukundus in the forest at the beginning of the first chapter, is taken by Sprengel as an "optimistic, transfigured" passport for the republican Swiss democrat Gottfried Keller.
  • Certain passages of the text elaborate on questions of faith . Ermatinger writes about Gottfried Keller's beliefs: "For him there was no longer any personal survival, and on the question of the existence of God he restricted himself to the confession of ignorance." Some interpreters, for example Neumann, use Feuerbach as Gottfried in this context Keller's mission statement: Uncompromising criticism of religion bring the dead Humanitas back to life.
  • Kaiser criticizes “the thin novelistic framework” and “the diffuse”. With the diffuse he places his finger on an open wound. What is meant is the discrepancy between the Meyenthal-Glor family history and the massive social criticism.
  • The speaking family names of the two main characters - Meyenthal and Glor - stand for "beautiful nature and social status [Glor (ia)]". Lumpazi means "depraved guy" and could be associated with Lumpazivagabundus .
  • Böning points to symmetries, to complementary elements in the entire collection. When the first text is placed against the last text in the collection, “the lost pout” stands out against the “regained laughter”. Gottfried Keller overloaded the text with Justine's religiosity and Jukundi's political errors and confusion.
  • Schilling quotes Gottfried Keller's characterization of Seldwyla as the place “in which no one has ever come across a green branch”. The author took the olive woman as the scapegoat of Swiss society, represented by the Seldwylers, who were "corrupt, unsuccessful, scheming and above all mediocre".
  • Breitenbruch mentions other leading passages: Fritz Behrend (Berlin 1937), Walther Hahn (“The Modern Language Quarterly”, 22 (1961)), Larry D. Wells (“ The German Quarterly ” 46 (1973)) and Jean Marie Paul (Études germaniques 36 (1981)).

literature

First edition

  • The lost laugh. In: The people of Seldwyla. Stories by Gottfried Keller. Second increased edition in four volumes. GJ Göschen'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1874

Used edition

  • The lost laugh. P. 499–595 in: Thomas Böning (Ed.): Gottfried Keller. The people of Seldwyla. German classic publisher in paperback. Volume 10, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-618-68010-4 (corresponds to "Gottfried Keller, all works in seven volumes" (at the same place of publication by the same editor))

Secondary literature

  • Bernd Breitenbruch: Gottfried Keller. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968 (1998 edition), ISBN 3-499-50136-8
  • The lost laugh . S. 156–165 in: Bernd Neumann: Gottfried Keller. An introduction to his work. Athenäum Verlag, Königstein / Ts. 1982 (AT 2170), ISBN 3-7610-2170-4
  • The right ending - the lost laugh. P. 132–135 in: Diana Schilling: Keller's Prosa. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-631-34190-3 . At the same time dissertation from the University of Münster (Westphalia) in 1996
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century . Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1
  • The "keystone" of the cycle. The lost laugh. P. 94–99 in: Rolf Selbmann: Gottfried Keller. Novels and short stories. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2001 (Klassiker-Lektüren Vol. 6), ISBN 3-503-06109-6

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In this context, Neumann brings in his more detailed review (Neumann, p. 157, 1. Zvo) “Das wiederfinde Lachen” as an appropriate title. But - so Neumann's summary - Keller had already chosen the title appropriately, because at the end of the final novella of the Seldwyla cycle, Jukundus has to bow to the new era with its unscrupulous business practices, which has long since dawned (Neumann, p. 164, 3rd Zvu) .
  2. ↑ For Schwanau, Gottfried Keller used “Goethe's statements on the town of Stäfa on Lake Zurich as a template” (Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 842, 2nd Zvu). The “ cloud cuckoo home ” Seldwyla (according to Hannelore Schlaffer , quoted in Schilling, p. 135, 1. Zvu) should therefore be thought of, after all that has been said, in the area in which Goethe in 1775 and 1779 “extremely cultivated possessions” (quoted in Böning in Commentary of the edition used, p. 843, 10. Zvo).
  3. ↑ According to Ermatinger, Gottfried Keller and that pastor had the German Heinrich Lang , who was a migrant after the revolution of 1848 , in mind (Bönisch in the commentary of the edition used, pp. 830–833).
  4. ↑ Gottfried Keller thinks - according to Neumann (Neumann, p. 161, 7th Zvo) - something completely different; namely the “ Democratic Movement ” around the lawyer Friedrich Locher (1820–1911), who at the time pushed an “anti-capitalist campaign” against the influential politician Alfred Escher . As a result, social measures that were unusual for the time were implemented in 1869 . Gottfried Keller's personal dismay at these times can be seen in the text passages in question and the narrative as a whole is not particularly well received (Neumann, p. 161, 12. Zvu). Incidentally, Gottfried Keller advocates a society that wants to retain private property (Neumann, p. 162, 13th Zvu).
  5. ↑ These informers include, in Gottfried Keller's opinion, “depraved, unfaithful and punished little officials, fraudulent agents, idle merchants and bankruptcies, misunderstood jokers and sand leaders [in Gottfried Keller: Wichtigtuer] of various kinds” (edition used, p. 558, 3. Zvo). Sprengel (Sprengel, p. 251, 18. Zvo) calls their actions "pseudo-democratic movement".
  6. ↑ Schilling (Schilling, p. 134, 1. Zvo) speaks more aptly of a "Diabola ex machina".
  7. ↑ According to Neumann (Neumann, p. 162, 1. Zvu), Jukundus is also disillusioned by an olive woman who neither respects privacy nor private property.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 621, 6. Zvo
  2. ^ Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 630, 14th Zvu and p. 666, Sigel B (reference to vol. 4, 258 pages) and also Neumann, p. 156, 9th Zvu
  3. ^ Reference in Selbmann, p. 94, 5th Zvu, to the letter from Emil Kuh of December 6, 1874 mentioned below
  4. ↑ quoted in Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 630, 11. Zvu
  5. ^ Böning in the edition used, p. 645, 15. Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 528, 12. Zvo
  7. ↑ Sprengel (p. 251, 15. Zvo) speaks of a “reform theological movement”.
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 550, 6. Zvo
  9. ↑ Selbmann, p. 96, 19. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, pp. 563, 16. Zvo and p. 568
  11. ↑ see also Neumann, p. 160, 8. Zvo
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 595, 4th Zvo
  13. ↑ quoted in Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 626, 19. Zvu
  14. ↑ Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 632 above
  15. ^ Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 641 below
  16. ↑ Auerbach, quoted in Böning in the edition used, p. 643
  17. ^ Böning in the commentary of the edition used
  18. ^ Sprengel, p. 566, 4th Zvu
  19. ↑ Selbmann, p. 96, 9th Zvu
  20. ↑ Ermatinger, quoted in Böning's comment of the edition used, p. 833, 3rd Zvu
  21. ^ Neumann, p. 160, 16. Zvu
  22. ^ Kaiser, quoted in Selbmann, p. 95, 14. Zvo
  23. ↑ Neumann, p. 164, 13. Zvu and also Sprengel, p. 251, 18. Zvu
  24. ↑ from the "Handlexikon zur Literaturwissenschaft" (Diether Krywalski (Hrsg.)), Quoted in Neumann, p. 157, 13. Zvo
  25. ^ Neumann, p. 164, 13. Zvo
  26. ^ Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 652 below. See also Erika Swales (Oxford 1994), cited in Selbmann, p. 95, 22. Zvo
  27. ^ Böning in the commentary of the edition used, p. 824 below
  28. ↑ Edition used, p. 513, 3rd Zvo
  29. ↑ Schilling, p. 135, 6. Zvo
  30. ↑ Breitenbruch, p. 184 middle
  31. ↑ engl. Modern Language Quarterly
  32. ↑ Edition used, textual delivery, p. 666 middle, Sigel B