Homeland novel

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The homeland novel is a genre of trivial literature . It is part of folk literature , which is dedicated to popular reading materials such as notebook novels or edification pamphlets and traditional stories such as fairy tales . As a generic term it includes u. a. the genres village novel, peasant novel or mountain novel.

To the subject

The term “Heimatliteratur” or “Heimatromans” emerged at the end of the 19th century as a countermovement to the urban depictions popular in naturalism and in the course of political developments such as the liberation of the peasants or industrialization . The bourgeoisie is not only gaining social and political importance, but also culturally through the homeland novel. The majority of the authors as well as the readers came from the middle class . The basic motif of almost all native literature is the creation of a counter-world to the urban, civilizational and the criticism of urbanization , industrialization and mechanization . So she contrasted the modernization process of the late 19th century with the ideal world of the village and nature and traditional, moral people. Accordingly, the word “home” in this case almost exclusively describes the rural home - where an undamaged and well-ordered world still existed - but only in exceptional cases the urban one.

Precursors, history and authors

Forerunners of the Heimat novel can be seen in the village stories and peasant novels that emerged in the Biedermeier period . One of the first representatives of the genre is Jeremias Gotthelf (" Der Bauernspiegel " (1837), " Uli der Knecht " (1840)) or Karl Immermann (" Der Oberhof "). They are to be regarded as role models for the novels of so-called “poetic realism” writers, such as: B. (in addition to the above-mentioned) Theodor Storm , Theodor Fontane or Klaus Groth , who strongly coined the term “Heimat” for the genre of Heimatl literature. Also heard Berthold Auerbach to the first generation of authors of local literature, with his " Black Forest Village Stories " and his story " Barefoot " hit the taste of the readers on most excellent and almost triggered a boom in home narratives. Even more successful were Ludwig Ganghofer , who, with millions of copies of his books, provided an often imitated model for the local and mountain novel, or Peter Rosegger , who founded the family magazine “ Heimgarten ” in 1876 - based on the 23 years older model “ Gartenlaube ”.

In the time of National Socialism , the themes and characteristics of the homeland novel and the worldview associated with it were taken up by the " blood and soil literature ". Even if this literature was able to become so popular primarily through the cultural policy of the National Socialist regime, it should be noted that a large part of its lines of thought was already formulated in parts of the previous home literature and has now been ideologically abused and has become a medium of Nazi propaganda .

After the Second World War, however, Heimatromane could live on in the form of booklet novels, Heimattheater, Heimatfilm or later in TV series and develop into a literature of the masses.

Austrian authors such as Hans Lebert (1960: Die Wolfshaut ), Thomas Bernhard (1963: Frost ) and Gerhard Fritsch (1967: Fasching ) developed the genre of the “critical homeland novel” or “anti-homeland novel”, whose protagonists see the rural atmosphere as dull, frightening and experienced threatening. When Reinhard P. Gruber (1973: From the Life Hödlmosers ) the typical elements of the home Romans, by contrast, caricatured in a satirical way.

Style elements

Style elements of the traditional homeland novel apply to both the serious homeland novel before the end of the Second World War and the kitschy , trivial homeland novel aimed at the masses:

  • the disturbance of the village order mostly through the arrival of a stranger who brings unrest into the static structure of the village
  • a closed scene, isolated world (a village surrounded by mountains); Landscapes of longing and natural sites such as the “ German forest ” play a major role.
  • the man tied into the eternal cycle of the year, well represented in " The Year of the Lord " ( Waggerl )
  • the divine order of creation as a fixed temporal order (seasons; cf.Gstrein , one - structuring the year according to tourism seasons)
  • Black and white drawing of the characters
  • the village community as a hierarchically structured, "God-willed" and therefore unchangeable order
  • a "traditional" female role model
  • The happy ending : the original order is restored (acceptance or repudiation / failure of the stranger)

See also

literature

  • Peter Domagalski: Trivial literature. History production reception . Herder, Freiburg 1981, ISBN 3-451-17401-4 , ( studio visuell - literature ).
  • Michael Wegener: The homeland and poetry . In: Gerhard Schmidt-Henkel et al. (Ed.): Trivialliteratur . Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin 1964, pp. 53-65.
  • Karlheinz Rossbacher: Local art movement and local novel. On a literary sociology of the turn of the century . Klett, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-12-392400-9 , ( literary studies - social science 13).

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