Ideología y estética de la novela corta: una lectura social de Die Judenbuche, de Annette von Droste-Hülshoff

Abstract

The attempts to consider the works of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff from a social point of view have mostly emphasised, in a unilateral way, the influences of the class and the geographical milieu. Consequently, the interpretations have overlooked a utopical dimension that is always present in her works, and that is rendered through a complex symbolism and a number of elements proceeding from the pagan and Christian traditions — though translated into the language of Romanticism. An inquiry on the relationship of Droste with the romantic anticapitalist tradition (and, especially, with the so-called «Heidelberg Romanticism») allows to understand more accurately the social meaning of her works and, notably, of Die Judenbuche.