PrefaceThis project was started in 1991. Its main objective is to work out a new perspective on the genre of the german historical novel. By new perspective we mean the consideration of the entire genre i.e. we go far beyond the canon of the historical novel as it has been defined so far. To be able to do so it was and still is necessary to apply statistical methods when analysing and interpreting these novels, since we have to cope with thousands of them.
The bibliography and the database
Before we started our project there have been suggestions as to the actual/real number of historical novels published between 1770 and 1945. However, with the exception of Hartmut Eggert <1> no one had ever really tried to find out most accurately. Therefore, our project aims to record all historical novels that were published originally in german language between the end of the 18th century and 1945. The key-criteria of our definition are: a) the text has to be a novel (fictionality, prose, at least 150 pages) and b) the plot must be situated in a time before the author was born (so historical investigations were necessary for the author to write it: cf. Schabert <2>).
By using all kinds of biobibliographical reference books, catalogues of large libraries (like National Library Vienna, Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin, Göttingen, British Library), microfiche-editions (Saur, Corvey) and literary magazins we were very successful: by now we have been able to record more than 6300 novels.
German Historical Novels 1780-1945
Researchers in this field and persons generally interested in this subject will have easy access to our data since we have installed the WWW-database The German Historical Novel. Additionally to the records of the 6.300 novels you will also find referencies to the authors, to book-reviews and to new editions in this database. Further, more than 4.000 book-scanns are part of the database as well. Especially prefaces, frontpages, specimens copperplate prints and book-reviews are integrated.
The new perspective on the historical novel
Contrary to social history and sociology there are no preliminary studies in german literary history based on hard empirical methods. Therefore, our first step was to develop viable methods for the statistical representation of our survey of the historical novel. Information about the plot of the novel, the authors, the distribution, the reception in the literary public etc. were gathered, coded and put into a statistical software-programme.
First results were published in our study "Gewinner und Verlierer. Der historische Roman und sein Beitrag zum Literatursystem der Restaurationszeit". This study represents a sample of our procedure.
At present we are working on a comprehensive study about the german historical novel from 1770 to 1945. It will be published in 1998.
<1> Eggert, Hartmut: Studien zur Wirkungsgeschichte des deutschen historischen Romans 1850-1875. Frankfurt a. Main: Klostermann 1971 (= Studien zur Philosophie und Literatur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts 14).
<2> Schabert, Ina: Der historische Roman in England und Amerika. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchgesellschaft 1981 (= Erträge der Forschung, 156), S. 4.
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