Else von Ardenne: Historical reality and literary fiction in works by Fontane, Spielhagen, Hochhuth, Brueckner, and Keuler

This dissertation focuses on the literary transformations of a real event in the course of two centuries. Two crucial events in the life of Elisabeth von Ardenne---her extramarital love affair and the death of her lover in a duel through her husband's hand---are at the center of each author's fiction in the 19th century. However, they appear in a very different light in Theodor Fontane's novel Effi Briest and Friedrich Spielhagens Zum Zeitvertreib. Comparisons of the two works in the secondary literature up to now do not trace these differences back to their author's understanding of realism in art and the function of literature which is attempted in this dissertation. What has also been neglected in interpretations of the novels, is to consider the socio-historical background of marriage and the duel, and the conditions of the literary market in which Fontane and Spielhagen published. An investigation of both works in light of these aspects helps to explain Fontane's unwavering popularity and Spielhagen's fall into oblivion.;Of interest is also an analysis of the transformations of Effi Briest at the end of the 20th century in works by Rolf Hochhuth, Christine Bruckner, and Dorothea Keuler. Each author interacts with the well-known pretext in a creative manner. Bruckner remains closest to Fontane's novel, but allows her heroine to find words for her pain and oppression. Hochhuth relies on Else von Ardenne's biography and intends to rectify the perceived distortions of reality in Fontane's and Spielhagen's fiction. He adds another dimension to their works by relating the ritualised expression of violence in the duel of the 19th century to its explosive force in World War II and National Socialism. Keuler's novel is a playful exploration of alternate possibilities for Fontana's characters which focuses on the melodramatic aspects. Fontane's social criticism is lost in her transformation of Effi Briest into a rather shallow love and murder story. In a similar fashion, the aesthetic quality of Fontane's novel which lies in its plurality of voices and viewpoints has given way to Keuler's one version of the 'truth'.