Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 201 Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s Nachsommer Franziska Schweiger University of Colorado Boulder Abstract: Adalbert Stifter’s 1857 novel Der Nachsommer is associated with this Realist concept of language. However, in the last 25 years, modern interpretations of the novel demarcate the boundary between signifier and signified and call into question the symmetry between language and reality. This article presents a rereading of Nachsommer that challenges the juxtaposition of the Realist and Modern interpretations of the text. Drawing on Latour’s concept of “network” as an ambivalent structure, forging discrepancies and interdependencies, the meticulous description of objects in Nachsommer creates a moment of alienation enabling new combinations of seemingly separate elements. This double gesture expands into questions of epistemology and language in Nachsommer and in doing so redefines the position of the modern individual in the world� By tracing the double movement of the network, this essay highlights the modern quality of the text in the weaving gesture that simultaneously separates and rearranges seemingly disparate elements, such as humans and things, nature and culture, and Realism and Modernity� Keywords: Stifter, Nachsommer, Realism, Modernism, Latour, Network, Materiality Wie wird es sein, wenn wir mit der Schnelligkeit des Blitzes Nachrichten über die ganze Erde werden verbreiten können, wenn wir mit derselben Geschwindigkeit und in kurzer Zeit an die verschiedenen Stellen der Erde werden gelangen können und wenn wir mit gleicher Schnelligkeit große Lasten werden befördern können? Werden die Güter der Erde da nicht durch die Möglichkeit des Austausches gemeinsam werden, daß alles allen zugänglich ist? Jetzt kann sich eine kleine Landstadt und ihre Umgebung mit dem, was sie hat, was sie ist und was sie weiß, absperren: bald wird es aber nicht mehr so sein, sie wird in den allgemeinen Verkehr gerissen werden. Dann wird, 202 Franziska Schweiger um der Allberührung genügen zu können, das, was der Geringste wissen und können muß, um so vieles größer sein als jetzt. (Stifter, Nachsommer 227-28) Adalbert Stifter’s Nachsommer (1857) has been canonically associated with Bourgeois Realism, and with the epoch’s procedure of Naturbeschreibung � 1 Today, the novel marks an exemplary case of the Realist desire to reconcile the disintegration of the human individual from her environment. Located at the threshold of a new world, characterized by acceleration, globalization, emerging markets and technologies, the meticulous description of the natural environment in Stifter’s prose attempts to linguistically grasp and contain the external world, which gradually exceeds the intellectual scope of human beings. Nachsommer, in particular is known for successfully restoring the Allberührung between disintegrating entities and “attain[ing] this mediation between self and world” (Swales 97)� Yet, in the last twenty-five years, Stifter scholarship has emphasized a modern dimension in the work of the Austrian writer� Understanding Allberührung through the lens of Jean Paul Richter as “touching the universe,” an act of transgression and disintegration, reveals irrecoverable chasms behind the curtain of idyllic nature that Naturbeschreibung can no longer reconcile� 2 This process of alienation, which is concealed but not recovered by nature description, occupies recent discussions of Stifter’s work. Elisabeth Strowick, for example, characterizes Stifter’s narrative strategy as “nicht heilend […], sondern heillos” (78). 3 In the juxtaposition of Realism and Modernity, two contradictory readings of Stifter’s prose become manifest. While Realism presupposes a direct relationship between language and an extralinguistic reality, it is precisely this Realist disposition of the linguistic representability of reality that Modernity calls into question. By excluding the extralinguistic referent, language loses its referential function and thus turns self-referential. No longer able to grasp the world around the individual, language becomes prone to the suspicion that it is no more than an arbitrary system of signs, running parallel to the extralinguistic world and lacking a direct relation to its phenomena. 4 The referential qualities of language are thus mere illusions, which conceal that which they ought to reveal. These two approaches are related insofar as Realist interpretations understand the linguistic mastery of matter as a last act of resistance toward the progressing disintegration of humans and things. Yet, the modern interpretations of the novel reflect on Naturbeschreibung as the husk of this former unity, which at most conceals, but no longer restores, meaning and thus only emphasizes modern qualities of the text. The relationship between Realism and Modernity is therefore one of mutual rejection—first diverting Modernity, and second unmasking Realism. In contrast to this delimiting gesture, which sets apart the Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 203 Realist from the modern interpretation and vice versa, the term Allberührung , which lays at the heart of the novel’s vision of Modernity, collapses the Realist and the modern notion of language into one word. The former produces a horizontal interconnectedness between the human individual and her environment, and the latter, in the vertical sense of touching the universe, reproduces the fragmentation of the former unity between internal and external world. 5 The term Allberührung merges these two oppositional meanings and thereby undermines the boundaries of these conceptualizations. Drawing on the double gesture of Allberührung , this essay will examine the points of contact between the Realist and the modern reading of Nachsommer with regard to the excessive description of materiality in the novel. First, I will discuss how the elaborate description of things in Nachsommer simultaneously provokes a moment of alienation and an opportunity for recombination. By drawing on Latour’s concept of “network” as simultaneously separating and connecting, I argue that Nachsommer employs this double gesture as a way to reconceptualize the hierarchical structure of a problematic one-directional subject-object relationship. This reciprocity between seeming opposites interlaces the spheres of action and influence of Freiherr von Risach and expands into questions of epistemology and the concept of language in Nachsommer . In a second step, I discuss how the encounter between the protagonist Heinrich and his mentor Risach manifests in the collision of two epistemologies. Heinrich attempts to scientifically categorize, measure, and master the material world and hierarchically reconcile a problematic subject-object relationship under the authority of natural sciences. Risach recognizes science as an artificial system that cannot restore a lost integrity but generates points of intersection between human and nonhuman actors. The formal implications of this redefinition of the subject-object relationship will be addressed in a third and final section. As such, the foregrounding of materiality in Nachsommer reveals a concept of language that is transparent for an extralinguistic world and simultaneously materially resistant and thus undermining the contrasting concepts of language at stake in the juxtaposition of Realism and Modernity. Modernity challenges questions of epistemology and language as narrative attempts to create a meaningful relationship between the human individual and her environment. By collapsing the distinction between nature and culture, humans and things, and Realism and Modernity, I will show that Nachsommer presents an alternative concept of Modernity. This integrative version of Modernity not only mourns the loss of an intuitively reciprocal relationship between the human individual and her environment but further acknowledges the potential for radically new combinations of these disintegrated elements. 204 Franziska Schweiger 1. Risach’s Networks Risach’s artificially constructed networks become visible early in the novel, when the protagonist Heinrich experiences a fusion of nature and culture caused by an inventive window construction� Seeking shelter from a brewing storm, and invited as a guest into the home of the elder Freiherr von Risach, Heinrich rests in the guestroom of the house, where a strange feeling confuses him: “Es war mir nehmlich als sitze ich in einem stillen Walde” rather than inside a house (Stifter, Nachsommer 55). Examining the room, he is repeatedly puzzled when noticing the remarkably fresh air, the complete absence of any household noises, and the chirping of wild birds which commonly only inhabit the unspoiled nature of remote mountain ranges ( Nachsommer 55-56). Heinrich concludes that the voices of wild birds generate an acoustic illusion in the otherwise silent room, which together with the fresh air create the sensation of being outside rather than inside a room. The nodal point of this strange outside-inside experience is an uncommon window construction, more specifically “ein zarter Flor von weißgrauer Seide” filtering dust and preventing the entry of small insects, while at the same time keeping the air circulating in the room ( Nachsommer 55)� The fresh air and the sound of the birds are bodiless. As incorporeal phenomena, they rely on the diaphanous qualities of the silkscreen to travel into the room and create a seemingly outside experience. Understanding this permeability as “Auslöschung des Außenraums und die Inszenierung einer durch reine Immanenz geprägten Lebenswelt” (Finkelde 8) reveals parallels to the Romantic threshold ( Schwellensituation ). However, in contrast to the Romantic threshold, which opens and reconnects the domestic and cultural sphere of the house to the instinctual and sensual realm of nature, the window screen in Risach’s guest room maintains the separation between indoors and outdoors. 6 Moreover, by filtering “Fliegen und Staub,” the material qualities of the silk screen protrude, emphasizing it as the mediator, and prevent it from fading in the desire for integration ( Nachsommer 55). Thus, the simultaneity of material resistance and permeability presents the delicate silk screen, according to Begemann, as “eine Art ‘strukturellen Knoten’ […] in dem sich gegenläufige Linien punktuell verknüpfen, ohne deswegen ihre unterschiedliche Bewegungsrichtung aufzugeben und in irgendeiner Weise zu einer ‘Einheit’ zu gelangen” (Begemann, Welt 329). Inside and outside, nature and culture are simultaneously separated and brought in contact by the artificial construction of the silkscreen. The structure of these Knotenpunkte , which point by point connect opposites without leveling out differences, extend into the perpendicular threads of the screen itself. As such, these intersections (which literally inter-sect) appear on a material level, namely Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 205 in the recognition of the silkscreen and the structural implications of the grid. 7 In contrast to Begemann’s deconstructivist approach to Nachsommer , which challenges the notion of unity, the flickering perspective between separation and connection, as well as minute material details and the screen as a whole, challenges the notion of uniformity� The silk fabric consists of a densely woven mesh of perpendicular threads. This oppositional nature is the essential component of the woven textile, which transforms the individual threads into a complex network. In doing so, the grid depends on the orientation between vertical warp and horizontal weft and creates a unity. However, this unity is one that in the sense of Allberührung oscillates between horizontality and verticality, transparency and materiality, and nature and culture, identity and difference. The hybrid quality of the woven screen recalls Bruno Latour’s concept of “network,” which unfolds relational threads between seeming opposites and as such “deploys instead of unveiling, adds instead of subtracting, fraternizes instead of denouncing, sorts out instead of debunking” (3, 47). Latour uses “network” to show how modern categories of thought are in fact not strictly separated, but intricately interwoven and related to one another. In We Have Never Been Modern , he presents a reconfiguration of Modernity that relies on this structure of the “network” in order to render visible conglomerates of composites, “entirely new types of beings, hybrids of nature and culture” (10). Just like the diaphanous window screen in Risach’s guestroom, the network initially facilitates movement between seemingly separate elements, such as nature and culture, inside and outside. However, Latour’s description of the network as a tool mediating exchange between categorical boundaries mirrors this structural quality back onto the network itself. This means that the network, simultaneously transparent and materially resistant, ultimately submits itself to the reconciliation of oppositions that it initially facilitated. Even as the network enables movement, this movement remains bound to the network’s very own structure. In order to mediate, the network must be inserted between categories. 8 By forging discrepancies and interdependencies, the concept of network here appears as an ambivalent structure, which literally interlaces contrary categories. Like the woven grid of the silkscreen, the diaphanous qualities of the network on the one hand enable exchange between nature and culture; while on the other hand, the recognition of the network itself intervenes between inside and outside. It depends on the focus: either one looks at the screen or one looks through it. Thus, the material qualities of the window screen in Risach’s guest room oscillate between transparency and opacity. In doing so, the screen mediates, but also interpolates between inside and outside and quite literally presents such a Latourian “network.” 206 Franziska Schweiger Like the self-reflexive moment of the network in Latour’s argument, the recognition of Risach’s networks relies on a moment of alienation, which allows for the materiality of an object to protrude. During Heinrich’s stay in the guestroom, the unique external character of the room and the uncommon window construction create such a moment of alienation, revealing the interconnectedness of two entities that seem distinct, but are actually joined. Initially, the perception of the silkscreen originates from Heinrich’s uncanny impression of the “Dunkelheit und mithin Annehmlichkeit,” evoked by the strange atmosphere in Risach’s guestroom (Stifter, Nachsommer 56)� The outside character of the room disrupts his expectations and brings the window into his field of perception. While the window view offers only the disappointingly ordinary panorama of garden and sky, “ein Anblick, den ich wohl schon sehr oft gehabt hatte” ( Nachsommer 55), its construction repeats Heinrich’s initial strange experience of the double movement (familiar / unfamiliar). Since its upper parts do not open into the room, “wie das gewöhnlich der Fall ist,” its materiality protrudes and “ein zarter Flor von weißgrauer Seide” becomes visible ( Nachsommer 55)� 9 This sequence of moments of disruption and alienation is an integral element of Stifter’s seemingly idyllic prose. In Narration und Geschlecht: Texte, Medien, Episteme , Elisabeth Strowick addresses the “fürchterliche Wendung der Dinge,” which “vernichtet” the protagonist of Stifter’s short story “Granit” whose tarred feet contaminate the inside of the clean familial home with traces from the outside ( Bunte Steine 23)� Strowick shows how this monstrous turn of everyday things destabilizes oppositions such as “rein / unrein,” “innen / außen,” “eigen / fremd,” which eventually infests the narrative structures itself (76). Instead of reading the short stories as tales of reconciliation, Strowick’s reading of “Granit” identifies a profound disintegration of traditional structures of narration and genre. In Nachsommer , the uncanny atmosphere of the guest room presents such a monstrous turn of things. But unlike Strowick’s understanding of disintegration as “heillos” and irreversible, Nachsommer reveals the potential for a recombination of these disintegrated objects into networks (78). The unfamiliarity of the familiar brings forth the materiality of the window screen and the fine mesh of silk reveals its physical qualities: “Die Luft konnte frei herein strömen, Fliegen und Staub waren aber ausgeschlossen” ( Nachsommer 55). Through the detailed description of its material qualities, the silkscreen becomes materially visible as a nodal point which interlaces opposites and hence artificially manipulates the qualities of the room: insects and dust particles get caught in the fine silk threads, while air and sound travel through. Under the microscopic perspective of Nachsommer , the overall experience of Risach’s guest room manifests as a carefully orchestrated assemblage of disintegrated elements. The uncanny nature of Heinrich’s experience reveals the material Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 207 qualities of everyday objects down to a microscopic level ( Fliegen and Staub ) and thereby emphasizes the hybrid character of the room as an artificial composition that oscillates between minute elements, like insects and dust particles, and wholes, such as the room. Nachsommer undermines the notion of an undamaged totality while simultaneously acknowledging the combinability of individual parts. This process of a disruptive experience forcing the material perception of things and revealing what might be called their hybrid nature interlaces all of Risach’s spheres of influence and activity and makes it possible to characterize him as a Latourian networker. As such, in the sense of Allberührung , Risach implements simultaneously a modern and a Realist concept of materiality. One such example is the act of putting on yellow felt slippers and meticulously cleaning the shoes before entering a room. Urging Heinrich to follow his example, Risach undermines the very purpose of a floor, which is to provide a surface to step on ( Nachsommer 52, 54, 86, 94). As a result, the floor disintegrates into its material components, and the surface structure, color, and light reflexivity of the marble protrude, described in great detail: Der Fußboden war aus dem farbigsten Marmor zusammengestellt, der in unserem Gebirge zu finden ist. Die Tafeln griffen so ineinander, daß eine Fuge kaum zu erblicken war, der Marmor war sehr fein geschliffen und geglättet, und die Farben so zusammengestellt, daß der Fußboden wie ein liebliches Bild zu betrachten war. ( Nachsommer 86) The disintegration of the floor into its material components advances to the degree at which the fine lines between individual tiles become visible. However, these individual components simultaneously merge into “ein liebliches Bild” ( Nachsommer 86). The interplay of the material qualities of color and structure interacts in such a way that the joints begin to blur and the image of a coherent whole arises. This double gesture originates from the cautioning against stepping on the floor, which Risach explains: Ihr werdet euch wundern, daß in meinem Hause Theile sind, in welchen man sich die Unbequemlichkeit auflegen muß, solche Schuhe anzuziehen; aber es kann mit Fug nicht anders sein, denn die Fußböden sind zu empfindlich, als daß man mit gewöhnlichen Schuhen auf ihnen gehen könnte, und die Abtheilungen, welche solche Fußböden haben, sind ja auch eigentlich nicht zum Bewohnen sondern nur zum Besehen bestimmt, und endlich gewinnt sogar das Besehen an Werth, wenn man es mit Beschwerlichkeiten erkaufen muss� ( Nachsommer 94) As the materiality protrudes, the double gesture of the network, oscillating between the individual marble slabs and the picture as a whole, becomes visible. 208 Franziska Schweiger The fragmentation of the floor into its material components is repeated in the detailed description congealing the narrative and corrupting the signifying function of language� The arbitrariness of the language system in relation to the extralinguistic world appears when reducing the concept of floor from begehbar to besehbar ; it is one letter that makes all the difference. Parallel to the meticulous description of the marble, language disintegrates into its material components and reveals its own material qualities. As Eva Geulen has pointed out, Stifter’s meticulous descriptions of things bezeichne[n] weit über das realistische Theorem der Verklärung hinaus, das Maß, in dem sich das Erzählen buchstäblich vergegenständlicht, bis im Extremfall das gegenständliche Material der Literatur, Worte und Buchstaben beschrieben und besprochen werden� (Geulen 35) However, the reassembly of these individual elements into a picture puts the modern materialization of language in perspective. While the one-dimensional signifying function of language disintegrates, it simultaneously opens up the possibility for new combinations: the floor shape-shifts into a picture, which restores a sense of form and meaning. From this angle, the shambles of meaning are recollected in the form of a painting. As the content of this picture remains unclear it reinforces an order beyond the mimetic function of the image� The assemblage of the marble slabs into an image recreates meaning where it first appears lost. However, in contrast to Finkelde, who identifies Risach’s collections as an attempt to recreate an unbroken whole and the “Marmorboden eine Marmorsammlung ohne Zwischenraum,” the careful reader notices that the joints remain visible (Finkelde 9). The perspective oscillates between details like the color, texture, and opacity of the marble and the picture, which Risach, in Latour’s “networking” fashion, manipulates with a clear sense for the interconnectedness and reciprocity of the material qualities. The ambivalence between floor and picture, Modernity and Realism, create the flickering image of the hybrid which simultaneously separates and combines. This hybridity, which Risach consciously stages and employs by engineering complex networks of human and nonhuman actors, stands in contrast to Heinrich’s approach to his material environment� 10 2. Epistemologies: Heinrich versus Risach While Risach’s network knowledge enables him to move effortlessly between categories, such as inside and outside, culture and nature, and Realism and Modernity, Heinrich grapples with the disintegration of human being and nature by forcing connections in the form of scientific hierarchies. After having Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 209 left his father’s house and the cultural order of his hometown, he finds himself confronted with the sheer overwhelming variety of natural objects. Over the course of the novel, Heinrich seeks to master the overabundance of natural phenomena by collecting, measuring, painting, and drawing. Understanding these methods as “produktive Aneignung für das Individuum,” Heinrich’s interest in things first and foremost speaks of his desire to claim ownership and mastery over his material environment (Gamper 371). Following Brinkmann, the conglomeration of material objects is symptomatic of the disintegration of subject and object. A world in which subject and object no longer constitute an organic whole thus links the individual’s desire to find her place in the world to the question of how to engage with and master the otherness of an objective reality (Brinkmann 229). Heinrich’s approach therefore mirrors the Realist impulse “dieser Wirklichkeit habhaft und ihr gerecht zu werden und dies nicht nur im Hinblick auf die gewissermaßen wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis, sondern im Hinblick auf ihre […] existenzielle Erkenntnis und Bewältigung” (Brinkmann 229). Heinrich’s scientific endeavor to categorize and contain his environment according to botanical categories is thus symptomatic of a deeper desire to existentially grasp the material world, which gradually begins to exceed the scope of the individual. Here language functions as a tool to reestablish such a sense of mastery over the nonhuman world: the objects that resist the physical acquisition by the collector are rendered portable by description. Heinrich explains, “Von solchen, die ich nicht von dem Orte bringen konnte, wozu besonders die Bäume gehörten, machte ich mir Beschreibungen, welche ich zu der Sammlung einlegte” ( Nachsommer 32). In Heinrich’s collection, a description of the tree is equivalent to the physical object. Linguistically, the space between the sign and its extralinguistic referent collapses. Heinrich utilizes description as a tool to grasp ( begreifen ) and internalize ( verinnerlichen ) that which dimensionally exceeds the capacities of the subject. In a world where the individual and her natural environment no longer constitute an organic totality, description compensates for this experience of alienation, as it establishes the pseudo-integrity of scientific ownership between the describing subject and the described object. The juxtaposition between Heinrich and Risach must be understood as a juxtaposition between two forms of knowledge: Heinrich’s self-understanding as “[b]einahe eine Art Naturforscher” and Risach as Latourian networker ( Nachsommer 51). Upon Heinrich’s first arrival at Risach’s house, these two epistemologies collide in a controversy about the weather. Heinrich believes that the empirical data of his meteorological instruments predicts a storm, which Risach firmly rejects ( Nachsommer 117). Heinrich relies on the direct correlation between the empirical data created by his instruments and the environment. By considering the weather as an atmospheric phenomenon, Heinrich seeks to 210 Franziska Schweiger scientifically grasp the universe in a vertical understanding of Allberührung � 11 Similar to his botanical inquiries, his approach rests on the notion that the environment is graspable in form of scientific data. In both cases, Heinrich assumes the complete overlap between the sign and the referent. However, similar to Heinrich’s failed attempt “alle [Pflanzen][g]attungen zu sammeln,” his trust in the accuracy of his data weakens ( Nachsommer 32). As a result, Heinrich’s misdiagnosis of the weather calls into question the human ability to find meaning in the world. While scientific data initially suggests an unambiguous access to the world that exceeds the grasp of the human individual, Heinrich’s false conclusion reveals the ambiguity of the signs of the instruments, which in this case grasp at nothing. Even more than Heinrich’s collection of plants, his meteorological prediction challenges a concept of knowledge based on “eine[m] systematischen Zugang zu den Dingen […], der sich einer von den Naturwissenschaften bezogenen Methodik verdankt” (Gamper 370). As Heinrich’s attempt to systematically access and master the environment through meteorological data fails, the scientific methods reveal their arbitrary nature. Instead of rendering the world meaningful, the scientific approach produces confusion and only furthers the disintegration between humans and things that it initially sought to reconcile� In contrast to Heinrich, Risach does not take the empirical data at face value. His interest in the reciprocal connections between seemingly disintegrated parts distinguishes his scientific endeavors from Heinrich’s claim of comprehensiveness, which justifies mastery. Risach shows awareness for the problematic subject-object relation that underlies the necessity for knowledge as a mediator between humans and things: Der Mensch stört leider durch zu starke Einwirkungen, die er auf die Nerven macht, das feine Leben derselben, und sie sprechen zu ihm nicht mehr so deutlich, als sie sonst wohl könnten. Auch hat ihm die Natur etwas viel Höheres zum Ersatze gegeben, den Verstand und die Vernunft, wodurch er sich zu helfen und sich eine Stellung zu geben vermag� ( Nachsommer 120) As the immediate connection between the human individual and nature has become problematic, reason appears as a means of compensation for the individual to find her place in the world. For Risach, this place is not the superior position of the scientist who owns his environment through of scientific explanations. Instead, the moment of self-reflection reveals a more flexible network, one which informs Risach’s forecast, “die auf eine genaue Betrachtung der Handlungen der Thiere gegründet ist” and as such “mehr Anhalt gewähr[t], als die aus allen wissenschaftlichen Werkzeugen zusammen genommen.” Small animals and insects, the elder man explains, would be “die besten Wetterkenner” Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 211 ( Nachsommer 121). Like Heinrich, Risach too follows the scientific method of collecting empirical data. Unlike Heinrich, however, Risach’s method reveals its integrative character. In contrast to Heinrich’s understanding of empirical data as a tool to grasp and own the world, for Risach the scientific sign indicates relationships and enables him to realize more complex interdependencies of the world� 3. Language When approaching the controversy about the weather as “eine komplexe Leseszene” (Begemann, “Titelblatt” 18), the issue of the scientific interpretation of signs appears on the linguistic level. Both science and language rely on a system of signs which are meant to restore a sense of meaning and orientation in the world and to mediate between the human being and her material environment. Heinrich’s assumption of complete overlap between scientific data and meteorological phenomenon can be transferred to a Realist concept of language, which presumes the linguistic graspability of extralinguistic phenomena. The concept of language corresponding to Risach’s understanding of scientific data is specified in his passion for antiquities. As the old man introduces Heinrich to his wood workshop and team of cabinetmakers, he explains that as well as refurbishing old objects, they also produce new ones, inspired by, but not imitating, the past ( Nachsommer 298). Yet, in order to prevent the confusion between antique pieces of furniture and these new objects, which only appear to be old, Freiherr von Risach marks the latter with a small placard. He explains: “Damit aber niemand irre geführt werde, ist an jedem solchen altneuen Stücke ein Silberplättchen eingefügt, auf welchem die Thatsache in Buchstaben eingegraben ist” ( Nachsommer 298). Risach labels his furniture in such a way that language refers to an extralinguistic reference point and prevents deception, that might be caused by an unmediated encounter of things. Akin to Heinrich’s botanical descriptions, language here reveals its structuring qualities enabling a meaningful engagement with categorizable objects. In this signifying function, language appears transparent as it points to an extralinguistic object. Much like the diaphanous qualities of the silk screen, which allow for a seemingly unmediated circulation of air and sound, the material qualities of language pass unnoticed� This structuring concept of language is however immediately undermined by the neologism “altneu” ( Nachsommer 298). The paradoxical coinage repeats the disruptive moment of Heinrich’s unfamiliarity with the window’s construction and reduces meaning to absurdity. Just as this startling effect discloses the material resistance of the silk screen, the nonsensical adjective “oldnew” 212 Franziska Schweiger reproduces this element of alienation on a linguistic level. The opposites “old” and “new” cancel out the meaning of the word and reveal the material skeleton of language, letters and words, which recalls Eva Geulen’s argument. “Stifters exzessive Beschreibungen,” she argues, “gelten bei näherem Zusehen vorrangig nicht einem Gegenstand, sondern das Beschreiben wird beschrieben und so selbst ein Gegenstand” (Geulen 34). But unlike modern approaches to Stifter’s poetological concepts suggest, Nachsommer presents this disintegration of language into its material components as an intermediary step. 12 Breaking open rigid units of meaning, “oldnew” simultaneously reveals the possibility for new linguistic combinations, which artificially create a new and hybrid vantage point to the world. In light of its etymological origin, text becomes tangible as an interwoven textile pattern, as a tightly woven mesh of language, which is permeable to the extralinguistic world and simultaneously materially resistant� The concept of language which is simultaneously transparent for an extralinguistic world and materially resistant reveals a new concept of Bildung in Nachsommer , which no longer describes the formation of an individual but of the individual as a conscious member of a network. Starting after the peak stage of character formation, Stifter’s Bildungsroman addresses the formation of relational structures around the individual. This manifests in the trajectory of the novel, which begins inside the clearly structured sphere of the parental home, structured according to the patriarchal value: “[j]edes Ding und jeder Mensch […] könne nur eines sein, dieses aber muß er ganz sein” ( Nachsommer 11). This worldview, which structures Heinrich’s childhood, has linguistic implications. It reveals the parental home as a sphere dominated by an unambiguous concept of language, presupposing the direct correspondence between the referent and the sign. As Heinrich leaves the paternal house and the cultural sphere of his hometown, this concept of language becomes problematic. Heinrich’s confrontation with the overabundance of the local fauna and his resultant effort to contain and categorize it reveals “daß nach meiner Beschreibung andere Pflanzen in eine Gruppe zusammen gehörten, als welche von den Pflanzenkundigen als zusammengehörig aufgeführt wurden” ( Nachsommer 32). The destabilization of the relationship between signifier and signified reinforces Heinrich’s desire to grasp his environment graphically, linguistically, and scientifically in the form of meticulous data collections. Against the backdrop of the destabilization of the subject-object relation and Heinrich’s resultant desire to recreate meaning in his material environment, Risach provides an exemplar for successfully operating in this environment. By consciously employing the rupture between humans and things in order to reveal the material qualities of objects, he rearranges and recombines these individual elements into unnatural but intriguing and highly functional Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 213 constellations, thereby highlighting the reciprocal relationship between humans and things. Risach’s networking manifests in a new concept of language that, pushed to the limits of its representational function, reveals its own materiality. However, against all expectations, the loss of the signifying qualities of language does not result in the complete disorientation of the human being. Instead, the concept of language allows for a reconfiguration of the critical subject-object relationship that Heinrich grapples with. Risach’s networking skills show how the loss of meaning enables the possibility for new linguistic creations. This hybrid concept of language presents a new point of contact between the individual and her environment that manifests in fluid constellations of opposites. This juxtaposition between Heinrich and his mentor Risach structures the novel from their initial encounter, and the resultant controversy about the weather establishes Risach as an authority and mentor figure for Heinrich ( Nachsommer 49, 50). Hereupon, the novel can be read as the protagonist’s growth (under Risach’s instruction) as a conscious and mature member of the assemblage of life. This progress can be measured in Heinrich’s successful forecast at the end of the novel, as well as in the revelation of his name ( Nachsommer 87, 237). As the name is revealed, Heinrich becomes an individual. However, his individuality is not established in the hierarchical manner which he initially pursued, but rather as an actor embedded in a network of things. Heinrich’s successful prediction of the weather shows that he now can read and interpret the ambiguous signs of his environment in a meaningful way and demonstrated his newfound recognition of his place in a greater assemblage. Notes 1 For further discussion of the realist qualities of Stifter’s works see Arndt, Downing, and Preisendanz. 2 See Jean Paul: “[D]as ganze geistige Universum wird durch die Hand des Atheismus zerprengt und zerschlagen in zahllose quecksilberne Punkte von ichs, welche blinken, rinnen, irren, zusammen- und auseinanderfliehen, ohne Einheit und Bestand. Niemand ist im All so sehr allein als ein Gottesleugner - er trauert mit einem verwaiseten Herzen, das den größten Vater verloren, neben dem unermesslichen Leichnam der Natur, den kein Weltgeist regt und zusammenhält, und der im Grabe wächset; und er trauert so lange bis er sich selber abbröckelt von der Leiche. Die ganze Welt ruht vor ihm […]; und das All ist die kalte eiserne Maske der gestaltlosen Ewigkeit” (274-75). Here, the anonymous All functions as an antipode to the totality of the Universum and as a metaphor for the modern loss of meaning and belonging of the human individual� 214 Franziska Schweiger 3 Begemann’s Die Welt der Zeichen: Stifter Lektüren and Geulen’s Worthörig wider Willen. Darstellungsproblematik und Sprachreflexion in der Prosa Adalbert Stifters mark a turning point in predominantly Realism-oriented Stifter scholarship. Regarding the disintegration of language in Stifter’s prose see also Schiffermüller and Strowick. 4 Friedrich Nietzsche discusses the modern skepticism about the signifying function of language in the essay “Über Wahrheit und Lüge im Aussermoralischen Sinne”: “Was ist das Wort? Die Abbildung eines Nervenreizes in Lauten. Von dem Nervenreiz aber weiterzuschliessen auf eine Ursache ausser uns, ist bereits das Resultat einer falschen und unberechtigten Anwendung des Satzes vom Grunde” (878). 5 The vertical interconnectedness implied in the term Allberührung has been discussed by Arndt and Broderson: “Der Beginn der Industrialisierung, das Aufkommen eines ‘allgemeinen Verkehrs’, einer “Allberührung” des Waren- und Wissensstromes, in den der Mensch ‘gerissen’ wird, bindet den Körper in neue Zusammenhänge ein, die den Anthropos nicht mehr zum Mittelpunkt haben, sonder ihn anderen Zweckregimen unterstellen” (8). 6 Pikulik explains the Romantic resolution of the threshold’s double gesture with regard to Novalis’s Heinrich von Ofterdingen (222-27). 7 Juliane Vogel’s essay “Stifters Gitter: Poetologische Dimensionen einer Grenzfigur” discusses the flickering image of the grid in Stifter’s Nachsommer . On the one hand, the grid, a structuring device borrowed from painting, provides a “Zeichen gegen die ‘semiotische Verunsicherung’” of a world growing in complexity (46). On the other hand, the grid in its material structure becomes the object of interest itself, whereby it “weist einer auf die Autonomie des Zeichens und nicht mehr auf die Nachahmung gegründeten Kunst den Weg” (51)� 8 Latour’s definition of “nonmodern” creates a self-reflexive moment, in which the material resistance of the network is revealed: “A nonmodern is anyone who takes simultaneously into account the modern’s constitution (separation) and the proliferation of hybrids that the constitution (separation) rejects and allows to proliferate” (emphasis mine) (47). 9 This interrupting gesture which forces the material perception of the silkscreen resonates with Heidegger’s distinction between Zeug and Ding and his notion that “die Modi der Auffälligkeit, Audringlichkeit und Aufsässigkeit […] die Funktion [haben], am Zuhandenen den Charakter der Vorhandenheit zum Vorschein zu bringen” (74). 10 One can further consider the unnatural “Wohlbefinden” of the garden, which does not show any signs of natural decay, as an additional example of such a moment of alienation ( Nachsommer 148). The tree trunks in Ri- Networking Matters: Literary Representations of Materiality in Stifter’s “Nachsommer” 215 sach’s garden are laboriously cleansed from moss, leaving “die Rinde […] klar und bei den Kirschbäumen fast so fein wie graue Seide” (150). This artificial perfection of the garden reveals minute details and dismembers the whole tree into its material components while simultaneously revealing its position in a complex ecosystem (152). 11 Excursions into the air and the human grappling with meteorological phenomena are characteristic of Stifter’s work� These instances share a sense of disorientation and alienation from the familiar concept of world. Selge discusses the balloon flight in Stifter’s Der Condor as spatial alienation of the human being from the world, wherein “[d]er objektive kosmonautische ‘Stand’-punkt […] der Standpunkt der Wissenschaft(ler) [ist]” (20). 12 The disintegration of narration has repeatedly been discussed in Stifter scholarship, e.g., Schiffermüller, Strowick. Works Cited Arndt, Christiane. Abschied von der Wirklichkeit: Probleme bei der Darstellung von Realität im deutschsprachigen literarischen Realismus . Freiburg i. Br.: Rombach, 2009. Arndt, Christiane, and Silke Brodersen. "Einleitung." Organismus und Gesellschaft: Der Körper in der deutschsprachigen Literatur des Realismus (1830 - 1930) . Ed. Christiane Arndt and Silke Brodersen. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2011. 7-21. Begemann, Christian. Die Welt der Zeichen: Stifter Lektüren. Stuttgart: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995. —. Begemann, Christian. "Das ’Titelblatt der Seele’: Stifters Gesichter und das Dilemma der Physiognomik." Figuren der Übertragung: Adalbert Stifter und das Wissen seiner Zeit . Ed. Michael Gamper and Karl Wagner. Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2009. 15-43. Brinkmann, Richard. "Zum Begriff des Realismus für die erzählende Dichtung des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts." Begriffsbestimmung des Literarischen Realismus . Ed. Richard Brinkmann. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1969. 223-35. Downing, Eric. Double Exposures: Repetition and Realism in Nineteenth-Century German Fiction � Stanford: Stanford UP , 2000. Finkelde, Dominik. "Tautologien der Ordnung: Zu einer Poetologie des Sammelns bei Adalbert Stifter." The German Quarterly 80.1 (2007): 1-19. Gamper, Michael. "Adalbert Stifter: Der Nachsommer." Literatur und Wissen: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch . Ed. Roland Borgards, Harald Neumeyer, Nicolas Pethes and Yvonne Wübben. Stuttgart: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 2013. 370-74. Ghanbari, Nacim. Das Haus: Eine deutsche Literaturgeschichte 1850 - 1926. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011. Geulen, Eva. Worthörig wider Willen. Darstellungsproblematik und Sprachreflexion in der Prosa Adalbert Stifters. Munich: Iudicium-Verlag, 1992. Heidegger, Martin. Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2001. 216 Franziska Schweiger Jean Paul. "Erstes Blumenstück: Rede des todten Christus vom Weltgebäude herab, daß kein Gott sei." Siebenkäs Blumen- Frucht- und Dornenstücke oder Ehestand, Tod und Hochzeit des Armenadvokaten F. St. Siebenkäs Frankfurt a. M.: Insel Taschenbuch, 1987. 274-80. Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Trans. Catherine Porter. Cambridge, MA : Harvard UP , 1993. Lukács, Georg. Die Theorie des Romans. Berlin: Paul Cassierer, 1920. Nietzsche, Friedrich. "Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne." Die Geburt der Tragödie. Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen I- IV . Nachgelassene Schriften 1870-1873. Kritische Studienausgabe. Ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1999. Pikulik, Lothar. Frühromantik: Epoche-Werke-Wirkung. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1992. Preisendanz, Wolfgang. Wege des Realismus: Zur Poetik und Erzählkunst im 19. Jahrhundert. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1977. Selge, Martin. Adalbert Stifter: Poesie aus dem Geist der Naturwissenschaft � Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1976. Schiffermüller, Isolde. Buchstäblichkeit und Bildlichkeit bei Adalbert Stifter: Dekonstruktive Lektüren. Bozen: Österreichischer Studien Verlag, 1996. Stifter, Adalbert. Der Nachsommer. Adalbert Stifter. Werke und Briefe: Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Ed. Wolfgang Frühwald. Vol. 4. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1997. —. Bunte Steine. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2010. Strowick, Elisabeth. "Stifters ’Poetik des Unreinen’ - Gattungszitation in Granit und Aus dem bayerischen Walde ." Narration und Geschlecht: Texte, Medien, Episteme . Ed. Siegrid Nieberle and Elisabeth Strowick. Cologne: Böhlau, 2006. 73-92. Swales, Martin, and Erika. Adalbert Stifter. A Critical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge UP , 1984� Vogel, Juliane. "Stifters Gitter. Poetologische Dimensionen einer Grenzfigur." Die Dinge und die Zeichen. Dimensionen des Realistischen in der Erzählliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts . Ed. Sabine Schneider and Barbara Hunfeld. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008. 43-59.