Charles Sealsfield (1793-1864)
After the publication of a first collection of essays concerning the German-American author Charles Sealsfield (d.i. Carl Anton Postl; “Charles Sealsfield: Perspektiven neuer Forschung”. Ed. Alexander Ritter. Wien: Praesens-Verlag, 2004) there is a second scholarly publication available:
Charles Sealsfield: Lehrjahre eines Romaciers 1808-1829. Vom spätjosphinischen Prag ins demokratische Amerika. Ed. Alexander Ritter. Wien. Praesens-Verlag, 2007 (SealsfieldBibliothek 5) 320 pages. Several illustrations.
The book contains 14 essays on various topics dealing with the early period of Sealsfield's life as a monk and cloister-secretary of the “Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Sterne” (Prag). The contributions comprise essays on the reception of the US during the year before 1848 in Germany and Sealsfield's travelogue “Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika” (1827; Volker Depkat, University of Regensburg), the contemporary periodicals in Austria and their possible reader Sealsfield (Primus-Heinz Kucher, University of Klagenfurt), the lecture of aesthetics at the Prague University (Tomas Hlobil, University of Parg and Olomouc), science and nationalism in Bohemia and the “Vaterländisches Museum” (Claudia Schweizer, Wien), the philosopher Bernard Bolzano and his student Sealsfield/Postl (Kurt F. Strasser, University of Salzburg), Prague and censureship (Michael Wögerbauer, Prag), freemasonry (Dieter A. Binder, University of Graz) and Josephinism (Eduard Beutner, University of Salzburg), theory narrations after 1820 and their influence on Sealsfield (Gustav Frank, University of Nottingham), contemporary theory of the novel (Wynfried Kriegleder, University of Wien).
Further essays deal with Friedrich Spielhagen's “Deutsche Pioniere” (Jeffrey L. Sammons, Yale University), Sealsfield's “The Cabin-Book” (Gabriela Scherer, PH of Heidelberg), with his early years in the US (1823-1826) and his changing of identity (Alexander Ritter, University of Hamburg), and some observations on the periodical “Carniolia” (Laibach, 1838-1844; Mira Miladinovic Zalaznik, University of Laibach). The book is concluded by an actual Sealsfield-bibliography for the years 2004-2007 (Alexander Ritter).
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Priv.Doz.Dr. Alexander Ritter (Universitaet Hamburg, Germanistik II)
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