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Narrative Senses of Perspective and Rhythm: Mobilising Subjectivity with Werther and Effi Briest

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Mobilities, Literature, Culture

Part of the book series: Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture ((SMLC))

Abstract

This chapter discusses the reading of fiction as an embodied practice that affords mobilised forms of subjectivity. Drawing from narratology, cultural studies and sociology, the chapter outlines the ways narrative perspective modulates distances and sensory perception as well as how rhythms of articulated movements create sensations of excitement and boredom. Two German novels serve as case-studies: Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther employs the form of a socially and geographically isolating existence that overcomes its limited range through literary imagination and communication, while Fontane’s Effi Briest offers a view through the strictly regulated mobilities of an upper-class woman’s everyday life dictated by social expectations and her strives for personal freedom. The chapter concludes by arguing for an aesthetically informed approach to the narrative forms of mobilities as immersive and powerful cultural practices.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of German Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Roman Kabelik

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  1. Roman Kabelik
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Marian Aguiar

  2. School of Literature and Languages, University of Surrey , Guildford, UK

    Charlotte Mathieson

  3. Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Lancaster University , Lancaster, UK

    Lynne Pearce

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Kabelik, R. (2019). Narrative Senses of Perspective and Rhythm: Mobilising Subjectivity with Werther and Effi Briest. In: Aguiar, M., Mathieson, C., Pearce, L. (eds) Mobilities, Literature, Culture. Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27072-8_6

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