It's Not Easy Being Green: The Failure of Abstract Art in Gottfried Keller's Der grüne Heinrich
Issue Date
2016Author
Meyertholen, Andrea
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This article revisits the art and artists of Gottfried Keller’s Der grüne Heinrich, a novel concluding with a conservative stance against artistic innovation, in order to explore how pre–twentieth-century literary fiction advanced the development of unconventional modes of artistic expression such as abstract art. Through comparative analysis of two fictional artworks described in the novel, I argue that Keller’s nineteenth-century bildungsroman preconditions radical twentieth-century art forms by establishing the self-awareness of the artist as necessary for the creation of unorthodox artworks. This investigation of cross-medial exchange emphasizes the cultural work performed by literature in furthering and fostering innovative visual media.
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Citation
Meyertholen, Andrea. "It's Not Easy Being Green: The Failure of Abstract Art in Gottfried Keller's Der grüne Heinrich." German Studies Review 39 .2 (2016): 241 - 258.
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