Upon realizing how deficient my German was, I decided to focus my orca report not on how the American trancendentalists affected German gehkulture, but on how American transcendentalists were influenced by german writers

Bardin, Courtney

Brewer, Dr. Cindy

BYU ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University)

Journal of Undergraduate Research Volume 2013 Issue 1 Article 819 9-20-2013 Bettina von Arnim and the Importance of the Female Flaneur in Germany Courtney Bardin Brigham Young University Dr. Cindy Brewer Brigham Young University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur  Part of the German Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bardin, Courtney and Brewer, Dr. Cindy (2013) "Bettina von Arnim and the Importance of the Female Flaneur in Germany," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 819. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/819 This ORCA is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Undergraduate Research by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact ellen_amatangelo@byu.edu. Bettina von Arnim and the Importance of the Female Flaneur in Germany SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 BY ADMIN Courtney Bardin and Dr. Cindy Brewer, German Department Upon realizing how deficient my German was, I decided to focus my orca report not on how the American trancendentalists affected German gehkulture, but on how American transcendentalists were influenced by german writers. More specifically I was to focus on how Bettine von Arnim influenced Emerson and his colleagues. This angle would allow me to analyze English literature instead of picking through German references translating word by word. This happened to be a convenient change as with more research I learned that American writers were much more likely to be influenced by German writers than the other way around. Thus I skipped merrily on to Austria to continue research only to discover that there were no English references there to be had. I perused the internet instead. I printed off an English translation of Bettine’s book, Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child, which was a heavy stack of paper indeed, and began reading. Meanwhile, during an exploration of Viennese side streets I came across a little nick-nack store that had a good stack of books for sale. Flipping through them I noticed a familiar name, Bettine. Looking closer I saw that it was the very Bettine that I was researching. I had stumbled upon a small book of her letters, some of which I recognized as German versions of letters that I had read in my copy of Goethe’s Correspondence. Though this was not a terribly significant nor helpful find, it made me realize that Bettine was much more widely known among German scholars than American. A few searches on the Austrian National Library Database confirmed this to me. Unfortunately, my German was only microscopically improved and I could not do these sources justice by trying to read them. With mounting frustration I decided to postpone my research until I was back in America. In the interim I read Bettine’s book and others’ commentary of it. The book was alternately inspiring and tedious. From commentary I learned that most of the letters were embellished and altered to better suit the writer’s fancy. For example, in order to make Bettine’s passion for Goethe, a married man, more palatable she portrayed herself at a much younger age. While there are a variety of interesting adventures contained in the letters, there is also an overabundance of esoteric departures and philosophical fluff, not to mention the excessive and cloying praise and adoration of Goethe. …but the story of Gunderode and her suicide is a small masterpiece. After a wonderful tour of Austria and surrounding countries I headed back home to America just in time for Christmas. I received a much requested biography of Emerson as one of my gifts and promptly began reading it. Not long thereafter I discovered that Emerson spent most of his time reading books and that there were hundreds, if not thousands of authors who had influenced his writing. If there was any among them who was more influential than the others it was Goethe and not Bettine. Though it is true that the American transcendentalists were heavily influenced by German writers, Bettine was just one among many. FILED UNDER: COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES, GERMAN AND RUSSIAN, ORCA-2005  1Bardin and Brewer: Bettina von Arnim and the Importance of the Female Flaneur in GerPublished by BYU ScholarsArchive, 2024

Bettina von Arnim and the Importance of the Female Flaneur in Germany

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Bettina von Arnim and the Importance of the Female Flaneur in Germany

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