Realismus als Fürsprache: Leopold Komperts Ghettogeschichte als Problem der Realismusforschung ( Der Min )
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article develops a theory of literary realism as a form of advocacy (Fürsprache). It begins with Rüdiger Campe’s work on the rhetoric of “Fürsprache,” exploring its potential for a realism-theoretical discussion of the problem of representation, using Leopold Kompert’s ghetto stories as an example. The essay introduces the core issue through the paratexts in which Kompert speaks for the Jewish ghetto to a Christian audience. The main analysis focuses on Kompert’s story Der Min (1854), which exemplifies the phenomenon of auto-affection as a key challenge of “Fürsprache,” using the subject of courtship in the ghetto. According to the argument developed in the article, viewing realism as advocacy allows for 1. a more precise understanding of the literary-historical shift from the Vormärz period to poetic realism, and 2. a detailed, historically grounded description of major realistic innovations in literary techniques (such as free indirect speech and modes of immersion), which aim both to depict social diversity and to engage readers in the narrated world.
Author: Roman Widder
Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7128914900