Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy

Download or read book Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy written by Jeffrey L. Sammons and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of German fiction about America in the 19th century concentrates in detail on three writers: Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl, 1793-1864), an escaped Moravian monk who came to New Orleans in 1823 and during the 1830s and 1840s wrote the first major German novels about the United States; Friedrich Gerstacker (1816-1872), who, among his many experiences in America as a young man, lived as a backwoodsman in Arkansas and who later produced a large body of fiction, travel reportage and emigration advice; and Karl May (1842-1912), who, though he knew nothing about America beyond what he could read in books such as those by Sealsfield and Gerstacker, wrote famous adventure storties set in an imginary West and became the best-selling writer in the German language, whose sales by now have exceeded 100 million volumes.