Ego, initiative, and socialization in three novellas by Stifter : variations of a common thematic interplay, and an analytical model for Bunte Steine

Adalbert Stifter's collection of six novellas published in 1853 as Bunte Steine has kept critics searching for a unifying compositional and/or interpretive principle ever since. The crux of the problem has been to reconcile the theoretical statements by the author in his famous "Vorrede" and other non-fiction writings with the narrative variety and apparent disparity in and among the works themselves.

This study has approached the problem from an interpretive orientation which is broad-based and objectively formulated enough to encompass both the theory and artistic practice manifest in Bunte Steine. The methodology used combines the thoroughness and detail of a single-work analysis with the scope and breadth of a comprehensive Stifter monograph. The result is a passage-by-passage, comparative and contrastive analysis of three of the collection's members traditionally critiqued as being patently dissimilar.

The outcome of this procedure is the identification of a thematic common denominator in the novellas "Granit," "Kalkstein," and "Katzensilber" which takes the form of a consistent narrational interplay among the universal human dynamics of ego, initiative, and socialization. Each of the three works considered manifests a narratively distinct variation of this interplay, which is developed by a particular arrangement of a common compositional repertoire of structural and stylistic elements including the use of inner and outer narrative frames and connotative grammatical modes and word selection.

It can be concluded from this dissertation that the analytical orientation and methodology developed here are applicable to the collection as a whole, and that they provide a needed basis for an appreciation of Bunte Steine as the enduring and unified work of literary art that it is.