Secret society novel

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The secret society novel is from the second half of the 18th century, especially in the German literature known and extremely popular genre of the novel , which as a by-form of adventure - gothic novels has developed. The genre emerged in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, at a time when a large number of secret societies , societies and orders actually appeared, and reached its preliminary climax in the decades between the French Revolution and Vormärz . Above all, the experience of the revolution in France - which was perceived by some as being controlled by secret societies - contained an unbelievable potential for imagination, which gave the impetus to literary engagement with the secret societies of the time.

The secret society novel takes up this imagination about the true being of things. Similar to the robber and detective novels that developed at the same time , the secret society novel gains its tension from the confrontation with the mystery, crime and conspiracy with which the hero is confronted.

Emergence

Friedrich Schiller , who had previously worked on the topics of conspiracy and intrigue in the dramas The Conspiracy of Fiesco in Genoa (1782) and Don Karlos (1787), published his only novel in Thalia from 1787 to 1789 , Der Geisterseher. From the papers of Count von O ** . With this work, Schiller is considered an essential founder of the genre; its elements of the mysterious reappear in later authors. Other important pioneers of the genre are Wilhelm Friedrich von Meyern with Dya-Na-Sore or Die Wanderer (1787) and Carl Friedrich August Grosse with Der Genius. From the papers of the Marquis C * von G ** (1792), the latter, however, already strongly influenced by Schiller. Many other titles were created in quick succession, including a. Heinrich Zschokke's secret society novels Abällino der große Bandit (1793) and Die Schwarze Brüder (1795) and Christian August Vulpius ' Aurora (1794), with which the genre gradually begins to decline into - so-called - trivial literature .

A number of works of romantic literature, such as the early novels by Ludwig Tieck , Jean Paul's The Invisible Loge (1793) and, in particular, ETA Hoffmann's collection of novels The Serapion Brothers (1819/21) brought the secret society novel into the 19th century. For a detailed analysis of society, Karl Gutzkow designed his novel Die Ritter vom Geiste (1850) based on the secret society of the same name. The conspiracy motif, which, under the influence of the political circumstances of the time, also mixed with the motif of the murder of tyrants , also influenced Achim von Arnim's unfinished Die Kronenwächter (1817). The fabric continued to be productive; both satirically treated in Theodor Gottlieb von Hippels Kreuz- und Querzüge des Ritters A – Z (1794) about Freemasonry , then also in the 20th century in the youth literature about the time of National Socialism in Martin Selber's Die Grashütte (1967, West German edition under the Title Secret Courier A ).

literature

  • Ralf Klausnitzer: "Invisible hand. On the history of the imagination of secret societies in the pre-romantic era and with Ludwig Tieck". In: Markert, Heidrun: Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) . Bern 2004 pp. 71–112
  • Michael Titzmann: "Structures and rituals of secret societies in literature around 1800 and their transformation in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister years of training". In: Denise Blondeau: Jeux et fêtes dans l'oevre de JW Goethe . Strasbourg 2000 pp. 197-224
  • Michael Voges: Enlightenment and Secret . Tübingen 1987
  • Rosemarie Nicolai-Haas: "The beginnings of the German secret society novel". In: Ludz, PC : Secret Societies . Heidelberg 1979. pp. 267-292
  • Rosemarie Nicolai-Haas: The tower society in Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship years: On the history of the secret society novel and the novel theory in the 18th century . Bern 1975
  • Marianne Thalmann: The trivial novel of the 18th century and the romantic novel. A contribution to the history of the development of secret society mysticism . Berlin 1923, reprint Nendeln 1967
  • Walter Bussmann: Schiller's “Ghost Seer” and his continuers. A contribution to the structure of the secret society novel . Dissertation. Goettingen 1961