Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gottfried Keller And The Fictionalization Of Switzerland, Richard Hacken

Faculty Publications

Gottfried Keller was one of the best-known 19th-century Swiss authors of literary realism. This article compares and contrasts socioeconomic conditions of the Swiss during the Industrial Revolution with those of a counterfeit Switzerland that Keller fictionalized into a decalogy (10 thematically connected novellas) called "The People of Seldwyla." The most frequently quoted titles of the cycle are "A Village Romeo and Juliet" and "Clothes Make the Man."