Catachresis: The Rhetorical Structure of Realism in Gottfried Keller’s “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe” Cornelia Pierstorff University of Zurich Abstract: A ménage à trois gives rise to the complicated plot of Keller’s muchdiscussed novella “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe” (1860, 1865)� Rhetoric provides analytical tools for solving the hermeneutic challenge, in particular, with the concept of katáchresis (abusio)� It forms the primal scene of metaphor because catachresis problematizes the binary operation of substitution as well as the difference between literal and figurative language� In Keller, catachresis does not, however, only have to do with linguistic phenomena� On the one hand, the complex structure of the novella follows, as the analysis of the epistolary correspondence in this essay shows, the logic of catachresis� On the other hand, catachresis is tied to an authenticity effect that Keller reflects on mediologically, namely with the epistolary correspondence� The analysis leads to the central poetological problem of realism, the dilemma of epigonality and also contributes to the current debate on realism� Keywords: Gottfried Keller, rhetoric, catachresis, media, realism The curious story of two letter exchanges in disguise, “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe” is one of the most discussed novellas of the second part of Gottfried Keller’s novella cycle Die Leute von Seldwyla (1873-74)� While the main plot about the married couple Viktor - a�k�a� Viggi - and Gritli Störteler is quickly told, the novella consists of heterogeneous scenes and events and is also peppered with numerous short anecdotes that leave one wondering what they actually have in common� These passages add to the novella’s narrative disparity, a quality that scholars have often noted, though usually with regard to the clash between the first and the second halves of the story� The supposedly happy ending when Gritli remarries and starts a new family after her divorce from Viggi in the second half of the novella has often been read as a kind of counternarra- 474 Cornelia Pierstorff tive to the first half (e�g�, Swales 148; Honold, “Leute” 77)� But regardless of the disparities between the main plot and the anecdotes as well as between the first and second halves of the novella, the different parts play into a common logic, a logic that provides, as I will argue, a specific perspective on the broad topic of realism� This logic leads to the field of rhetoric, more particularly, to the trope of catachresis� Keller introduces this trope in one of the anecdotes, and that is where I would like to start my reading of the novella� The anecdote follows directly after Viggi first discovers Gritli’s cunning trick� Because she can’t express her love in her own words, she copies her husband’s affected love letters as if they were from her and sends them to her surprised neighbor� She then copies the sentimental letters in which her neighbor confesses his love for her and sends them to her husband as answers to his letters� This results in a lively, constant correspondence� Viggi’s discovery of her trick marks a turning point in the plot� After locking his wife in the basement in the heat of the moment, he tries to sort out his thoughts and, fraught with anger and grief, sets off to town� Seeking culinary comfort in the local tavern, he falls victim to the mockery of some well-respected citizens of Seldwyla, but it is due to his outward appearance and not, as he thinks, because of his wife’s epistolary infidelity� The focal point of this small episode of misunderstanding is not, oddly, Viggi himself but his fancy hat� While taking no further interest in Viggi’s condition, the other citizens are particularly bothered by his fashion choice, because, as the narrator explains, “wenn sie auch jede Mode, sobald sie im Zuge war, alsobald mitmachten, so konnten sie die verfrühten Erstlinge derselben nie leiden und hüteten sich überhaupt vor dem Allzuzierlichen und Närrischen” (394)� 1 To disparage this avant-garde import from abroad, they decide “den hohen runden Männerhut Hornbüchse (boîte à cornes) zu nennen” (394) based on an unusual name from a “joke” that one of them learned in Paris� From a rhetorical perspective, a common expression is substituted here with an uncommon and even inappropriate one� While such a trope is called katáchresis in Greek, the Latin translation is abusio, which refers in German to Mißbrauch and is as such in the title of the novella� Keller’s use of the participle mißbraucht in the title is ambiguous because the term can refer to both the “misuse” (of things or objects) and the “abuse” (of people)� Alexander Honold has recently pointed out the connection between rhetorical catachresis and the novella’s main theme (2018, 278)� What is most intriguing about the substitution of names for the hat is not the fact that Viggi, unaware of what they are referring to, interprets the expression Hornbüchse as the German Bockshorn and so takes it as reference to his being fooled by a trick; most intriguing is rather how the mockers are retaliating with like for like by literally transferring, from Paris to Seldwyla, a foreign expression Catachresis 475 for a foreign hat that has also been imported from the outside world� As we are told, the renaming process is not limited to a single substitution; the catachresis is rather only the last link in a chain that unfolds an entire paradigm of more-orless felicitous metaphorical expressions: “Seither sagten sie statt Deckel, Angströhre, Ofenrohr, Schlosser, Läusepfanne, Grützmaß, noli me tangere, Kübel, Witzschale, Filz und dergleichen für jede Art Hut nur Hornbüchse” (394)� After a few hours of suffering, Viggi flees from the tavern, drunk and miserable, yet the narrator leaves no doubt that in this anecdote, the hat was the real victim, as Viggi has to set straight “sein armes mißhandeltes Hütchen” (394)� The narrator’s retroactive evaluation reframes the initial scene of catachresis as one of misuse and even abuse� Both Viggi and the people of Seldwyla misuse the hat: Viggi misuses it by transferring it out of its original context and wearing it in a place where it is considered improper; the Seldwylans abuse it by renaming it with an insult, laying bear its nature as an improper transfer; and finally Viggi misinterprets their verbal abuse of the hat as a reference to the “mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe�” Thus, the attributive adjective mißhandelt links the verbal abuse of the hat both to the novella’s title and to the two main characters, Viggi and Gritli, who are both considered to be victims of the misused love letters� At the same time, the small anecdote about the hat allows for a different perspective on the main issues of the plot by framing them rhetorically as part of a broader concern about proper and figurative expression� In the following, I would like to show that from a rhetorical perspective, Keller’s novella is much more merciless and cruel than it appears at first sight� Furthermore, the titular Mißbrauch cannot solely be ascribed to the character of Viggi, nor is it expunged in the second half of the novella� Rather, the entire novella is characterized by Mißbrauch; that is, catachresis organizes not only the correspondence but the entire novella� A catachrestic model makes it possible to elucidate the central conflict more precisely and to reconsider the relation between the two halves� The second half does not offer any compensation for an initial misuse or abuse; instead, it continues, radicalizes, and completes the abusive, catachrestic logic that the first half sets in motion� The first part of this article outlines the concept of catachresis as the basis for the following parts in which I track the catachrestic logic of the novella itself: in the rhetorical structure underlying the characters’ exchange of love letters, in the structure of the letters themselves and their epistolary mediology, and in the relation between the novella’s first and second halves� Finally, I explore how the concept of catachresis can offer new insights into the poetological question of realism� The concept of catachresis refers not just to a trope but to an entire complex of issues that go beyond linguistics and stylistics� At first glance, the variety of 476 Cornelia Pierstorff rhetorical definitions offered are so divergent that a general systematic outline seems difficult if not impossible� Particularly with regard to the status of catachresis within the rhetorical system, the definitions reveal even diametrically opposed views about whether or not catachresis is a trope� As inconsistent and contradictory as these definitions seem, they are symptomatic of the fundamental semantic problem addressed by the concept of catachresis: the conditions of the possibility of any act of (re)signification (Posselt, Katachrese)� This fundamental problem forms the actual core of the concept� Consequently, only considering the different definitions together allows the structure of catachresis to come into view� The first step to investigating the concept of catachresis here is thus not to trace it back to the sources of classical rhetoric but to consider its key parameters as provided by a current reference work� In his entry to the Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik, Uwe Neumann defines it as follows: “C[atachresis] literally means, just like the Latin term abusio, ‘improper use�’ C[atachreses] compensate linguistic deficiencies with a figurative, inappropriate expression when a literal term is not available” (Neumann 911, emphasis in original)� 2 Catachresis compensates for the lack of a proper expression� But this compensation comes with a price� It is only with a figurative and inappropriate expression that this lack can be offset; hence the itname: improper use or abuse (abusio)� Since catachresis necessarily presupposes, at least within the framework of the history of language, the lack of an expression, it is a case of “necessary metaphor” (Neumann 911)� Neumann’s derivation of the concept of catachresis from its communicative function rather than from its effect leads him to a second, equally common definition: catachresis also designates instances when the originally compensatory function of a necessary metaphor has yielded to a purely lexical function through habituation� In other words, it is an instance of “dead metaphor” (Neumann 911)� As such, catachresis forms its own counterpart within this small narrative of the history of language� Through the course of the recurring improper, figurative use, a kind of reordering takes place that permanently fills the initial lack of a proper expression� As a consequence, the original figurative character of the expression is no longer consciously available (Neumann)� The figurative and the proper become indistinguishable� While Neumann’s first two definitions of catachresis focus on phenomena that do not belong to figurative language and so are not part of ornatus, his third definition frames catachresis specifically as a trope: Strictly speaking, c[atachresis] can only be called a trope when it is not necessary and is actually used consciously and with an intended effect� This is the case when c[atachreses] appear without the existence of a linguistic lack and when they suppress Catachresis 477 a very available linguistic expression because it is too weak or because a greater effect can be achieved through the catachrestic expression� (Neumann 911) Only when there is a preexisting expression does the semantic transfer entail an operation of substitution, which brings another relation into play: that between the substituted proper expression and the figurative substitute� By also referring to semantic transfers that substitute for a preexisting expression, catachresis becomes precariously similar to other figures of substitution� As the quote shows, Neumann’s attempt to distinguish this understanding of catachresis as a trope from metaphor remains vague� But if we change the criterion used to differentiate catachresis as a trope from other nonfigurative instances of catachresis, we can say that it is defined qualitatively and not quantitatively� The semantic transfer involved in catachresis violates rules of usage in such a way that is “not accepted by the linguistic community” (Neumann 912) and approaches metaphor� Of course, this criterion outlines catachresis within a model of communication that falls short of describing poetic language (Neumann)� Neumann’s synopsis of catachresis leads simultaneously to the margins and to the core of rhetoric� Although each of these three cases of catachresis describes disparate phenomena in different scenes of language usage, they all possess a common structure: the structure of catachresis� To grasp this structure, catachresis must be regarded with its conceptual double, metaphor, since they are so closely intertwined� As Patricia Parker demonstrates in “Metaphor and Catachresis,” this has always been the case, at least ever since Quintilian introduced catachresis into his system of tropes and figures: “[…] Catachresis is found where there was previously no word, Metaphor where there was a different word” (Parker 61)� On this basis, he argues, “[t]he whole genus of Metaphor must be distinguished” (Quint� 8�6�35)� 3 But even though Quintilian draws a clear line between metaphor and catachresis, he also blurs that line by discussing catachresis twice, both as a subcategory of metaphor and as a concept opposed to metaphor (Parker 63-64; Posselt, Katachrese 133-140)� While this at first seems contradictory, it is actually, according to Parker, the core of what characterizes catachresis: its definition is paradoxically based on the differentiation between proper use and figurative use that it first creates (Matuschek and Urban)� Catachresis thus addresses the central rhetorical difference between proper and figurative expressions, and it does so at a number of junctures in the system of rhetoric� But as such, it also questions the very basis of any semantic transfer, since it dissolves the idea of a fixed order of language and reveals the dynamic process of linguistic history� At stake is nothing less than the possibility of signification, specifically, of figuratively transferring signifiers without endangering the order of language (Parker 70-71; Posselt, Katachrese 478 Cornelia Pierstorff 133-140)� Catachresis offers a specific perspective on every type of language use by revealing how the order of language has always been in danger and by negating ultimate conscious and intentional control over language use� This is why catachresis received considerable attention in postmodern literary theory, particularly in deconstruction� 4 What is particularly relevant for reading Keller’s novella is the structure of catachresis: the way in which the fiction of a primal moment of language (again, Quintilian’s influence) develops and, as it were, crystallizes in three consecutive yet intertwined stages (Posselt, Katachrese 77-95)� First, catachresis is an act of semantic transfer necessitated by a lack of available expressions; it is a necessary metaphor� Catachresis thus represents the lie of metaphor as such, as it first gives rise to the binary difference between proper and figurative expressions, which both makes figurative language possible and qualitatively regulates it� Second, as a misuse or even abuse of signs, catachresis is the reverse of metaphor in this binary division� It brings to light the vulnerability of signification in the moment of semantic transfer� As an explicit error (vitium) - a “bold metaphor” - catachresis awakens deeper concerns about the very difference between literal and figurative language� Lastly, catachresis is the end or the death of metaphor� As a dead metaphor, it captures the final moment of resignification, when ambiguity is reduced to unequivocal meaning� In this regard, catachresis marks the expulsion of proper expression from the rhetorical model and its transformation into pseudo-proper expression� Catachresis therefore cannot be defined as a single type of phenomenon elaborated by Neumann with one of three cases in his article� Catachresis is rather defined, on a higher level, by an inherent narrative structure that, first, links all three stages of catachresis and, second, defines and controls the transfer of signifiers by constantly reassessing the relation between proper expression and figurative expression� Compensating for the lack of an expression with a different but neighboring expression is not only the standard definition of catachresis since Quintilian - “lend[ing] the nearest name to things that have no name” (Quint� 8�6�34) 5 - this also summarizes the central conflict in Keller’s “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe” with uncanny accuracy� After all, it is precisely Gritli’s inability to express herself in the correspondence with Viggi that drives her to compensate with the sentimental effusions of their neighbor Wilhelm� The narrator leaves no room for doubt that Gritli lacks expressive talent, noting this explicitly throughout the course of the educational program that Viggi subjects her to (Honold, Tugenden 261-269; Tebben)� The key phrase that Gritli does not know what to say (373, 375, 380) links an entire series of educational scenes and emphasizes the futility of this educational program� After the initial regimen of reading and Catachresis 479 cultured conversation repeatedly falls flat, Viggi changes course, forcing her into an artificial letter exchange in which it is sternly required “Empfindungen und Gedanken in Fluß zu bringen! ” (377)� Gritli does not know how to fulfill her husband’s demands: Mit diesem Briefe in der Hand saß sie nun da und las und wußte nichts darauf zu antworten� […] [Es] fehlte ihr für die neue Anregung, die sie hinzufügen sollte, jeder Einfall, oder wenn sich einer einstellen wollte, so blieb er weit hinter den küssenden Sternen und hinter der Urbejahung zurück […]� Sie ging mit dem Briefe auch in den Garten und ging auf und nieder, in immer größerer Angst befangen; […] Da fiel ihr Blick auf das Gärtchen eines Nachbarhauses, welches von ihrem Garten nur durch eine grüne Hecke getrennt war, und plötzlich verfiel ihre Frauenlist auf den wunderlichsten Ausweg, welchen sie auch, ohne sich lange zu besinnen und wie von einem höheren Licht erleuchtet, alsobald betrat� (380) Gritli’s “wunderlichste[r] Ausweg” mirrors the logic of catachresis, that is, a trope whose function is to compensate for the lack of an expression� Indeed, just as catachresis transfers an already present expression to a new semantic situation, Gritli remedies her expressive lack by literally transferring the letters Viggi sends her onto another piece of paper: “Sie ging also hin und schrieb den Brief ihres Mannes ab und zwar dergestalt, daß sie einige Worte veränderte, oder hinzusetzte, als ob eine Frau an einen Mann schreiben würde” (381)� It becomes apparent that while the letters she receives back from Wilhelm meet without doubt the quantitative requirements to compensate for Gritli’s lack of expression, a successful transfer additionally requires diligent care regarding the quality of the letter� Gritli similarly transfers Wilhelm’s responses and addresses them to Viggi by transcribing them “mit den nötigen Veränderungen” (384)� Both the structure of catachresis and its relation to metaphor provide an excellent model for grasping Gritli’s double act of transfer� While the initial situation between Gritli and Viggi sheds light on the compensatory function of catachresis - in which a neighboring expression is transferred to fill in for an expressive lack - Gritli’s correspondence with Wilhelm and, by extension, Viggi additionally activates the logic of metaphor: an already existing expression is transferred from one place to another to amplify the power of expression� Viggi intends for a metaphorical dynamic to keep the exchange in motion, a dynamic in which every letter tries to find a way to express his love through language that is more literal than literal use itself� Ironically, he pursues this dynamic regardless of the fact that his own letter is brimming with worn-out metaphorical expressions - dead metaphors - such that the metaphorical dynamic he aims for seems rather like a desperate attempt at resuscitation (Augart 204-205)� But by bringing Wilhelm into the dynamic, Gritli changes its logic� Gritli not only 480 Cornelia Pierstorff serves as the communicative switchboard operator (Augart; Krüger-Fürhoff) but also introduces a further metonymical substitution into the tropological circulation of letters: Gritli metonymically forwards the letters from the third position, the position of the “parasitic” neighbor, which frees her from being obliged to answer her husband directly (Yang 137-138)� With this metonymic expansion, the lack serves not only as the initial motivation for the circulation of letters; the compensatory function, the catachrestic base, is rather also maintained as a constitutive factor, though it is of course concealed out of necessity� Despite the effective dynamic of amplification, which keeps the correspondence going, Gritli’s transferring of the letters is vulnerable� They run the risk of violating discursive rules� For this reason, Gritli continuously has to make subtle adjustments to disguise the catachresis underlying them� The most central of these adjustments is to the gender of the voice in the letters (Augart 202)� In rhetoric, gender, labeled sexus, is one of the subcategories that specify the loci a persona along with many other categories such as family (genus), ethnicity or culture (natio), political affiliation (patria), and age (aetas) (Lausberg §- 376)� If one considers gender rhetorically as part of the loci a persona, an error in the expression of gender would clearly mark a mistake� Yet even with such adjustments, Gritli’s letters constantly run the risk of revealing their misuse or Mißbrauch as copies, which would invert the apparently metaphorical structure of exchange and expose its catachrestic basis� The first time Gritli forwards Viggi’s letter marks the most vulnerable point in the exchange, which is highlighted by how the narrative is overly preoccupied with the question of the letter’s authenticity and, at the same time, leaves no doubt about its inauthenticity� The letter Gritli slips to Wilhelm through the hedges arouses his suspicion: he is at first pleasantly surprised but then does a double take because he finds the letter “etwas kurios und töricht geschrieben” (383)� The problems Wilhelm experiences in interpreting the letter reveal another error of transfer besides Gritli’s Mißbrauch� By interpreting the letter in a certain way - he shouts: “Das ist wahrhaftig ein Liebesbrief! ” (382) - Wilhelm erroneously takes it to be something it is not: an authentic testimony of love, even though Gritli stated clearly to him that “es handelt sich um einen Scherz” (382) (Böhm 30)� In this initial scene, Gritli’s catachrestic copying of the letter goes hand in hand with Wilhelm’s misinterpretation of it: while the letter has been metonymically and improperly sent to Wilhelm, he interprets himself as its actual addressee, which allows him to evaluate the letter as authentic� It is this first act of misunderstanding that instates the catachrestic disguise and allows further “safety measures” to be effective in keeping the exchange going� In this regard, Gritli not only catalyzes a homosocial correspondence between Wilhelm and Viggi (Günter 125-135); by continuously veiling its catachrestic Catachresis 481 basis behind a pseudometaphorical structure, she actually fuels its productivity� This productivity requires the letter exchange to pass off as following a metaphorical logic, which even triggers an economic structure� 6 While metaphor is usually the model trope for analyzing economic structures, catachresis provides its own economic model, a model that considers, as Jacques Derrida points out, wear and tear� 7 The success of Gritli’s strategy is evidenced by the increasing frequency, length, and figurative expressions of the letters� Initially completing the circuit in about a week, the letters end up passing between Viggi and Gritli - and by extension, between Gritli and Wilhelm - at a rate of once per day and eventually even twice per day: “So ging denn der Verkehr wie besessen, und an drei Orten häufte sich ein Stoß gewaltiger Liebesbriefe an” (388)� The growing stacks of love letters not only represent sheer growth as a result of the accelerated correspondence, they also translate the pseudometaphorical structure of the letter exchange into a spatial arrangement� This arrangement makes apparent that the additional metonymical substitution Gritli introduces into the exchange’s tropological circulation accounts for its productivity, while the size of Gritli’s stack brings to the fore the catachrestic basis of this productivity� Only when Viggi accidentally discovers Gritli’s transferring of letters does their catachrestic basis come to light� On his way home, Viggi stumbles across Wilhelm’s letters and, what’s worse, his own letters in the wrong place� While entailing far-reaching consequences, this accidental discovery first leads to catachreses that produce mixed metaphors - Viggi calls Gritli “eine Gans mit Geierkrallen” (393) (Honold, Tugenden 278) - and physical violence� Viggi locks Gritli in the basement overnight, and when he lets her out the next day, pale as death and frozen, he kicks her out of the house� This sudden turn to physical violence is not, however, just a reaction to Gritli’s Mißbrauch of the letters but already implicit in the overarching structure of catachresis itself� It signals a loss of control and reflects the collapse of any presupposed distinction between metaphorical and catachrestic expression� As Viggi’s retrospective evaluation shows, the moment of revelation fundamentally alters the plot: Eine Buhlerin mit glattem Gesicht und hohlem Kopfe, zu dumm, ihre Schande in Worte zu setzen, zu unwissend, um den Buhlen mit dem kleinsten Liebesbrieflein kitzeln zu können, und doch schlau genug zum himmelschreiendsten Betrug, den die Sonne je gesehen! Sie nimmt die treuen, ehrlichen Ergüsse, die Briefe des Gatten, verrenkt das Geschlecht und verdreht die Namen und traktiert damit, prunkend mit gestohlenen Federn, den betörten Genossen ihrer Sünde! So entlockt sie ihm ähnliche Ergüsse, die in sündiger Glut brennen, schwelgt darin, ihre Armut zehrt wie ein Vampyr am fremden Reichtum; doch nicht genug! Sie dreht dem Geschlechte abermals das Genick um, verwechselt abermals die Namen und betrügt mit tückischer Seele 482 Cornelia Pierstorff den arglosen Gemahl mit den neuen erschlichenen Liebesbriefen, das hohle und doch so verschmitzte Haupt abermals mit fremden Federn schmückend! So äffen sich zwei unbekannte Männer, der echte Gatte und der verführte Buhle, in der Luft fechtend, mit ihrem niedergeschriebenen Herzblut; Einer übertrifft den Andern und wird wiederum überboten an Kraft und Leidenschaft […]! (392-393) Viggi’s narration corresponds directly to the model of catachresis� He recounts the events in a way that allows its structure to become more pronounced: Gritli’s act of catachrestic transferring - her “deception” - is grounded in her cognitive and epistemic deficiencies� The metaphorical structure of the letter exchange, which elicits effusive language from both Wilhelm and Viggi, is now unmasked as inherently catachrestic, most tersely in Viggi’s image of Gritli as a vampire: “ihre Armut zehrt wie ein Vampyr am fremden Reichtum” (393)� In his account, Viggi even figures Gritli’s catachrestic transferring as an act of real physical abuse: she “dislocates” names and “twists gender’s neck�” In addition to Gritli’s Mißbrauch, Viggi’s own use of language - which resorts to the same worn-out metaphors of an anachronistic code of intimacy (die treuen, ehrlichen Ergüsse) from his letters - shows that catachresis is at work at another level, one that he remains unaware of (Günter 130-131)� The productivity of the two men’s attempts to outdo each other, which transformed Gritli’s expressive lack into figural abundance, is now recognized as having been corrupt from the start� In retrospect, then, a new perspective on the correspondence becomes apparent� Viggi’s reevaluation brings to light how catachresis poses a threat to metaphor as such: it destabilizes the positions that expressions are transferred between, making them ambiguous� The pile of letters - previously kept in three separate places but ultimately tossed together by Viggi - symbolizes this ambiguity nicely� By renarrating the episode of the correspondence, Viggi also intervenes in this ambiguity, so Gritli is not the only one who distorts and alters positions� In his retrospective analysis, Viggi too both inverts and perverts the positions of the true husband (der echte Gatte) and the seduced lover (der verführte Buhle) when he suspects that Gritli’s foremost desire was to titillate her lover with the meagerest billet-doux� Like Wilhelm, who misinterpreted Gritli’s letter to be a truthful love letter - “wahrhaftig ein Liebesbrief” (382) - Viggi mistakes the figurative for the literal and thereby affirms Wilhelm’s misinterpretation� Precisely this inversion of positions and perversion of content unfolds the disruptive potential of catachresis� As we have seen, the exchange of letters follows a catachrestic and metaphorical logic� That is why catachresis provides a model for understanding the ambivalences produced in the letter exchange� But the role of catachrestic Mißbrauch Catachresis 483 is not restricted to the tropological circulation of letters between the novella’s characters� The structure of catachresis is also reflected within the letters themselves� Not only does the novella’s mediologically staged recoding of authenticity in letters lead to an uncertainty of authenticity as such, it also illustrates the text’s broader catachrestic logic� At first, it is certainly Viggi’s concern for successful metaphorical expression that defines the structure of his correspondence with Gritli� In his first letter, he even draws up strict rules to shield the letters’ content from the trivial details of everyday, domestic, and conjugal life, though he does not entirely prohibit Gritli from writing about such quotidian affairs� He will allow them to be discussed in postscripts that should be attached to each letter on a separate slip of paper: “NB� Wir wollen die geschäftlichen und häuslichen Angelegenheiten auf solche Extrazettel setzen, damit man sie nachher absondern kann� In Erwartung Deiner baldigen Antwort, Dein Gatte und Freund Viktor” (379)� With this strict policy of containment for domestic affairs, each of the two thematic regions - romantic love and the everyday - has its topologically “right place” on the material pages of the letters� 8 As Heinz Drügh has elaborated, letters in general possess a material topology that reflects epistolary codes (99-100)� What also becomes clear in Viggi’s first letter to Gritli - the only one that the novella cites in full - is that both thematic regions correspond to distinct linguistic registers and rhetorical standards� While the postscript’s purely communicative standard precludes metaphorical expression, the case is exactly the opposite in the letter itself: its standard is aesthetic; in order to make a similar point, Julia Augart speaks of the division between aesthetics and reality (207-208)� In this regard, the topological division of the letters also corresponds to the rhetorical distinction between literal and figurative expression� Since catachresis is the concept that links a purely communicative use of language with figurative language, it reveals literal or proper language to be a construct of different standards (Posselt, Katachrese 112-117, 133-140)� This shift becomes essential for reevaluating what is the more important and proper part of the letters, a reevaluation that is set in motion by the collision of rhetorical concepts and the epistolary code� More interesting than the opposition itself, however, is Viggi’s attempt to stake out precise boundaries between the two regions: a necessary step to facilitating and protecting the productivity of metaphor� The letters’ structure thus maps onto a clear epistolary code, one that feeds on the poetic code of intimacy from Empfindsamkeit, even if it is clearly marked as anachronistic from the start� Following Klaus-Dieter Metz’s 1984 study Der Brief in Gottfried Kellers Dichtung, scholars have elaborated the ways in which Viggi not only invokes a sentimental code but also misuses or even abuses it to achieve his own ends� 9 Scholars have also shown how Gritli’s trick turns Viggi’s 484 Cornelia Pierstorff strategy against him� As Irmela Marei Krüger-Fürhoff has recently elaborated, Viggi’s own idea that Gritli should imitate his letters first sets the novella’s ironically doubled Mißbrauch in motion� Indeed, Gritli fulfills his initial demand that she “merke auf den Ton und Hauch in meinen Briefen und richte Dich danach” (377) but in a way that radically inverts and perverts his actual intention, which in turn allows her to take an emancipated and active role (Krüger-Fürhoff 236)� 10 This dynamic particularly plays out, as Metz has shown, in the postscripts, which serve as the actual motor of the letter exchange and also give Gritli a space for developing her own poetics: a realist poetics of the everyday� Since the narrative techniques Gritli employs in the postscripts are very similar to the anecdotal insertions that characterize the novella as a whole, one can conclude, following Metz, that the narrator prefers this poetics and dismisses the other as in bad taste (Metz 90)� 11 But what is at stake in the letters goes beyond individual characters and their strategies since the structure of the letters also reflects the structure of catachresis� It is not only the anachronism of the epistolary codes of Empfindsamkeit but also the catachrestic structure of the letters that reveals the promise of authenticity at the core of those codes to be an empty promise� As Krüger- Fürhoff observes, the language in the postscripts exposes the language in the main section of the letters to be shallow and fake (234)� 12 Interpreting the catachrestic structure of the letters can take this argument even a step further, since the postscripts do not just function to supplement the figurative but “disguised” expressions in the letters with expressions that are literal or “undisguised�” The postscripts rather disclose how this very distinction is itself an effect of catachresis� As Keller’s novella shows, this authenticity effect is rooted in an ambiguity: the difference between the figurative expressions in the main section of the love letters and the literal mode of expression in the postscripts chiastically inverts how the epistolary code ascribes authenticity to the love letters and casts postscripts as irrelevant� Put in rhetorical terms, postscripts are meant to contain what is “out of place” or improper� But by revealing the figurative language of the letters to be inauthentic, the postscripts parasitically claim authenticity for themselves and inverse the relationship (Yang 136; Günter 133)� Consequently, authenticity is only possible in what the epistolary code views as separate from the proper and actual part of the letter: the postscript, a supplementary space divorced from the letter as letter� At this point, catachresis shifts to a different narrative level: from a strategy of the novella’s characters to the logic of its own narrative structure� Except for Viggi’s first letter, which itself stages the difference between the competing modes and media of expression, the love letters are not reproduced in their entirety� Indeed, after the second letter, only the postscripts are presented, pri- Catachresis 485 marily the ones circulating between Viggi and Gritli but also, in reduced form, ones sent between Gritli and Wilhelm� This exclusive reproduction of the postscripts has often been read as putting the focus on the characters’ reaction to the letters (Augart 206-207; Böhm 31)� But I propose that this shift from letters to postscripts be interpreted as following the logic of catachresis� The letters themselves have become gaps in the text� Precisely this abandonment of the actual letters in favor of the postscripts illustrates the narrative’s shift to proper, nonmetaphorical expression� By exposing the process of reclaiming authenticity as based on a structure of catachrestic transfer, the narrator confirms the postscripts’ claim to authenticity and also performs that same claim (Günter 128; Yang 136)� But at the same time, this shift unmasks authenticity as artificial, disclosing its false bottom� This authenticity, which at first glance opposes the catachrestic logic of the letter exchange, is ultimately catachrestic in its own right - and certainly not authentic� In the authenticity effect produced by the narrative presentation of the postscripts, catachresis moves from structuring the letter exchange to the level of the narration itself� The catachrestic shift from letters to postscripts thus prefigures a much more expansive authenticity effect: that of the novella’s second half� From this perspective, the narrative events presented in the second half - Wilhelm’s solitary “purification,” Gritli’s and Wilhelm’s slow reengagement resulting in a prototypical happy ending - seem to be nothing less than the meticulously choreographed staging of a proper use of secondary origin� If one interprets the problem of Mißbrauch as restricted to the characters’ strategies and ulterior motives in the correspondence, the second half of the novella is bound to be read as breaking with the first half in almost every way� In this sense, the second half is usually considered to offer a counternarrative that rights the wrongs of the first half (Böhm 31-32; Swales)� Since one character (Viggi) in particular is responsible for the Mißbrauch in the novella, the scholarship has largely followed the narrative’s own judgment of him and sometimes reads almost like a criminal record: Viggi torments his wife, Gritli, with a harsh education, tries to exploit her for poetic and economic gain, and when he finds out about her trick, he also physically abuses her� In this respect, Gritli’s alleged misuse of the love letters could be considered a just response to Viggi’s own program (e�g�, Honold, Tugenden 273)� Thus, the second half of the novella - in which Viggi marries the gluttonous Kätter Ambach, and Gritli eventually finds her way to the penitent and reformed Wilhelm - has been read as a kind of correction to or compensation for the first half, even as an instance of “poetic justice” (Swales 151); in rhetorical terms, it is viewed as the triumph of the literal and authentic over the figurative and inauthentic� 13 486 Cornelia Pierstorff What has remained unnoticed is how much narrative effort is necessary to mediate this supposedly authentic love� This mediation process already begins in the letters themselves and so appears to be an effect or continuation of the letters’ catachrestic structure� The epistolary division into love letters and supplementary slips directly reflects a division in how the characters address each other� As Viggi’s first letter shows, the letters and postscripts are addressed to different recipients� In the letter itself, Gritli is addressed as “Teuerste Freundin meiner Seele” but in the postscript as “liebe Frau! ” (379)� This double address indicates competing functions the characters need to fulfill and continues for the rest of the exchange� Viggi later even imposes the use of pseudonyms for the love letters - “Kurt v[om] W[alde]” (385) for himself, and “Alwine” (388) for Gritli - while they continue using their actual names in the postscripts� Yet the characters still manage to subvert this strict division repeatedly� In his very first letter, for instance, Viggi combines both modes of address into a single signature in the postscript: “Dein Gatte und Freund Viktor” (379, my emphasis)� By combining both roles corresponding to the double address in his letter to Gritli - “Freundin” and “Freund”, “Frau” und “Gatte” (379) - into one signature, he transgresses the strict division of the letters he established� Only retroactively does he fix his violation of the rules, or rather he instructs Gritli to edit the letter accordingly� In contrast, a similar catachrestic transfer of names remains uncorrected in Gritli’s correspondence with Wilhelm; indeed, this is actually constitutive of its success: “und sie unterschrieb die Briefe an Viggi mit Alwine, diejenigen an Wilhelm mit Gritli” (388)� Not only do the characters’ competing names violently cut across and frustrate the established boundaries between the newly assigned authenticity of the literal and the unmasked inauthenticity of the figurative, they also silently and surreptitiously reorder the novella’s constellation of characters� On the one hand, Viggi reserves the name “Gritli” for the postscript, that is, for the realm of everyday authenticity and conjugal roleplay� On the other hand, the catachrestic use of “Gritli” in her letters to Wilhelm causes this same authentic name to drift into the realm of the inauthentic� The carefully controlled domains of authenticity and inauthenticity thus end up switching� This prefigures Gritli and Wilhelm as the novella’s authentic lovers, which is, of course, an effect of the catachrestic transferring of the names� What the second half of the novella then narrates is nothing other than a cover story that seeks to hide the catachresis behind its pseudo-authenticity� Any apparent authenticity in the letters is ultimately a product of resignification, a merely conventional effect: something figurative taken to be literal� So it is only at first sight that Viggi’s and Gritli’s mediated, inauthentic love is replaced by the immediate, authentic love of Gritli and Wilhelm, as their “magical” encounter on the path - both being pulled together “[w]ie an einem Drahte Catachresis 487 gezogen” (433) - is often read� 14 This scene is, of course, overloaded with a sense of immediacy and also ironically broken, not least by the comparison to “zwei Hölzchen, die auf einem Wasserspiegel dahin treiben” (433), which strongly recalls the proverbial Holzweg that leads nowhere� These techniques do not serve as a means of ironic distancing and satire; in their ambiguity, they allow the catachrestic structure to be in effect and to be fissured at the same time� Gritli and Wilhelm’s elaborately orchestrated union thus presents the structurally ultimate stage in the narrative logic of catachresis: the collapse (or rather, the undecidability) of the convention-based distinction between proper use and figurative use� In other words, Gritli’s and Wilhelm’s union forms the third step of catachresis, the transition to dead metaphor and the rise of a secondary proper sense (Posselt, Katachrese 202-208)� At this moment, the threat that catachresis poses to metaphor is resolved� The transition implies, on the one hand, the death of metaphorical expression; on the other, the uncertainty - or even the erasure - of proper use as such, though this uncertainty is concealed by an authenticity effect that lets the figurative appear to be proper� Consequently, the fact that the Mißbrauch from the first half of the novella tends to be forgotten is itself a sign that catachresis is in effect� Berthold Auerbach captures this tendency to forget the Mißbrauch in his review of the second part of Keller’s Seldwyla novellas: Die Geschichte der Heimkehr, der Scheidung, der Wiederverheirathung, alles ergibt sich wie selbstverständlich� Und wie dann der Schullehrer sich im Weinbergshäuschen ansiedelt, wie sich Gritli so sauber und frisch heraushebt, das Alles ist so gut gesehen und so in die Schaubarkeit für den Leser gestellt, daß man zuletzt gar nicht mehr an das seltsame Gerümpel denkt, über das hinüber man zu dem anmuthigen Idyll gelangen mußte� (43, my emphasis) By describing his impression of the shift in the narrative, it almost seems as if Auerbach offers a spot-on description of the authenticity effect of catachresis� Even if the cover story lets the novella of Mißbrauch end in a seemingly perfect “true love,” at least on the surface, its catachrestic underbelly shines through and poses a threat to the fragile construct as a whole� This is first and foremost the case with the juxtaposition of the two new couples: Gritli and Wilhelm, Viggi and Kätter� As the first newly formed couple, Viggi and Kätter are more directly connected to the discovery of Mißbrauch� Since Kätter enters the scene almost immediately after the violent breakup, the narrative seems to suggest an even closer connection than a purely consecutive turn of events� As if conjured up by the events, Kätter becomes the embodiment of catachresis itself; she is the result of the revealed Mißbrauch� Her grotesque body is characterized mainly by strained and incoherent figurative language, which is ubiquitous in the narra- 488 Cornelia Pierstorff tor’s extensive description of her� By evoking colliding vehicles, this description seems remarkably close to the image Viggi used to insult Gritli: “eine Gans mit Geierkrallen” (393)� As mixed and farfetched metaphors, these are examples of classical catachresis in the second sense (Honold, Tugenden 278; Posselt, Katachrese 210)� The description of Kätter’s body continues and intensifies this rhetorical technique: first her chin and nose are compared to a house with an oriel window, then her hair is called a “dünnes Rattenschwänzchen” (397) that at the same time behaves like the tongue of a serpent� It is no coincidence that Viggi addresses her as his bold wife (kühnes Weib), which alludes to the definition of catachresis as bold metaphor� Even though or rather precisely because the narration quickly abandons the storyline of Viggi and Kätter to fully concentrate on the other two characters’ union, Kätter’s body maintains its function as the embodiment of catachresis throughout the second half of the novella, and Viggi and Kätter serve both as a reference point and as the prerequisite for the supposedly authentic love� But Gritli and Wilhelm are neither the successful version of Viggi’s failed attempt at educating Gritli nor the better realists as they turn to life instead of art (Honold, Tugenden 289-290; Tebben), rather, the couples form both sides of the same coin, the coin of catachresis� With the shift to Gritli and Wilhelm’s union, the narration itself proceeds catachrestically, as it did before when shifting from presenting the entire letters to the postscripts alone: it hides the fissures that would make the catachrestic base overt� Only traces of the underlying catachrestic logic outlive this shift, irritating and ultimately undermining the pseudo-authenticity of the novella’s second half� But with considerable narrative effort and multiple disguises, Gritli and Wilhelm are finally united� The enormous effort alone already poses a threat to the reception of their love as authentic because it undermines the staging of immediacy (Swales 153-154; Krüger-Fürhoff 238)� And in addition, the union is accompanied by ubiquitous doubt� With these traces, the narrative invites us to search for the breaches behind the overdone happy ending, which, in the end, remains rooted in a tropological substitution� After Viggi unearths the Mißbrauch of the letters, and formal inquiries are raised to discover the guilty party, Gritli and Wilhelm become subject to the other Seldwylans’ nagging doubt: “Niemand glaubte, daß sie ernstlich dem armen jungen Menschen zugetan gewesen sei” (408)� This doubt persists even at the end of the novella, when Gritli and Wilhelm meet on a path in the woods� It in turn makes the scene’s overly elaborate staging - the mutual gazes, the conversation as tying a knot between two people, the idyllic scenery - appear more than anything like a strained search for authenticity� Wilhelm himself is dubious: Catachresis 489 Ungewiß und erschrocken stand er still, und als er nichts mehr von ihr hörte und sah, ging er langsam etwa zwanzig Schritte zurück, und mit jedem Schritte stieg schwärzer der betrübte Verdacht in ihm auf, daß er abermals der Gegenstand einer Posse geworden sei, so abenteuerlich das auch gewesen wäre; denn er konnte sich kaum in seine Stellung als beglückter Liebhaber finden� (436) Ultimately, suspicion haunts the novella’s supposedly happy ending as an uncanny backdrop� The pair’s union and subsequent marriage is nothing less than a Mißbrauch arrested in a state of concealment: a mere concealment of misuse and abuse� Paradoxically, precisely this concealment reveals the structure of catachresis itself, giving it its most radical expression� My reading has shown how catachresis organizes Keller’s novella on different levels: as a linguistic phenomenon and as the model for the letter exchange, for reevaluating the epistolary code, and for the narrative structure of the entire novella� What becomes apparent on all these different levels is a concern for proper and literal use, which ultimately leads to the embedding of catachresis within the broader poetological question of realism� The scholarship has shown how as literary satire, the novella addresses questions of poetic realism regarding, for example, realist semiotics, themes, and motifs, modes of publishing and distribution, and programmatic realism� 15 Catachresis, I want to propose, intervenes in this poetological framework in mainly two respects, which results in a rhetorical version of structural realism (Kammer and Krauthausen)� 16 First, catachresis targets a specific combination of realist poetics and semiotics: the idea that proper expression best represents the world (Berndt and Pierstorff)� By providing a model based on the radical withdrawal of any original proper use, catachresis leads to deontologizing proper terms� In this sense, proper use is always already a proper use of secondary origin; in essence, this is the semiotic conclusion of Derrida’s analysis of catachresis (57)� The structure of catachresis thus indicates two different but intertwined paths for realist poetics: first, affirming secondary proper use as proper or, second, disclosing the mechanisms of resignification that lead to secondary proper use� Catachresis thus recalibrates the question of literal representation� Keller’s novella mockingly invokes the idea of literal representation (e�g�, Rakow 218-221, 227-229; Tschopp 142-143), such as the waiter’s story of his former life as an author stuck in self-referential writing processes, Viggi’s clumsy attempts to literally record nature, or even Gritli’s anecdotal trivialities (Trivialitäten), which, in the end, are nothing more than prototypical calendar stories� It is thus not surprising that the novella presents realist writing scenes as being more or less empty gestures without “eine Spur Notwendigkeit,” as Keller judges a similar anecdote in a letter to Hermann Hettner 490 Cornelia Pierstorff from July 16, 1853 (DKV 4: 777)� As empty gestures, they complement the shift catachresis introduces to the semiotic base of realist poetics: the shift to a secondary origin for a realist poetics based on the erasure of the origin (Günter 133-135)� Second, and by far more elaborately, the novella explores the potential of catachresis for reevaluating certain dilemmas of Keller’s literary generation� As the anecdote of Viggi’s hat shows, the misuse or abuse of language is cast as a matter of linguistic borders as well as one of historical linguistic development� Within that framework, the concern for proper use is met with regulations that stress the idea of language purity (Posselt, Katachrese 210)� Apart from specific historical events this portrayal refers to - Keller presumably first came up with the idea for a literary satire when he learned about literary societies, as the Junggermanische Gesellschaft, founded with the stated aim to not just form a new Sturm und Drang movement but to keep German language pure (Keller, Sämtliche Werke [HKKA] 21: 778-779; Honold, Tugenden 255-256) - the same dynamics also determine how epigones and, by extension, programmatic realism position themselves within literary history (Rakow 218-220; Theisohn 362)� The problem the poetic realists are confronted with can be captured in rhetorical terms with Quintilian’s contrasting definitions of catachresis and onomatopoeia� While onomatopoeia refers to an original, creative power of language, catachresis is bound to a secondary creativity that is restricted to mere transfers (Quint� 8�6�31-34)� The narrative Quintilian uses to describe the development of the Roman language in relation to that of the Greek language applies to the epigones’ relation to the literary scene around 1800: since any originality in language creation had already been used up by their predecessors, they viewed it as impossible to create any kind of original work - the curse of posterity� Or as Gerald Posselt puts it: “Catachresis is the language of those born second or later� It is the supplement to a lost, original language and to the creative activity of the first humans” (Katachrese 137)� By linking the challenges of the epigones to the concept of catachresis, Keller’s novella maps out a path for poetic realism, though it is a cynical one� While they are bound to repeat and reuse the poetic expressions of their predecessors, catachresis provides strategies for concealing these transfers and casting them as cases of proper use� In this way, a catachrestic realism activates the subversive potential of this trope to its advantage� Nonetheless, as analyzing the structure of catachresis has shown, the proper use of secondary origin produced by catachresis also tends to backfire by leading to the unpleasant insight that in the end, any original proper use has to be doubted� Thus, as a figure of thought that could help German realism claim its own position in literary history, catachresis turns into an act of violence, as it tears down the ground from the admired preceding literary generation� In the Catachresis 491 end, the novella’s outline for a structural realism stays within the framework of literary satire since it is not able to provide a positive self-conception� It is limited to revealing its own preconditions, that is, to using the concept of proper use to resignify authenticity while also effectively undermining the value of authenticity� With analytical incisiveness, Keller’s catachresis exposes the literary political mechanisms of realism that would later be pinpointed in theoretical terms by Roman Jakobson in his earliest essay “On Realism in Art” (1921): while blank in content, the term “realism” is frequently employed to ascribe a certain value of authenticity to different historical constellations, subjects, and stylistic characteristics, always gaining its value in relation to an opposing concept ( Jakobson)� 17 With an analytical sharpness that goes beyond mockery and offers a model for grasping the paradoxes of poetic and programmatic realism, Keller’s literary satire excels at precisely this second level of observation� Translated by Benjamin Dillon Schluter and Anthony Mahler Notes 1 “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe” is cited by page number parenthetically in the text after the following edition: Keller, Gottfried� “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe�” Die Leute von Seldwyla. Sämtliche Werke in sieben Bänden� Vol�-4� Ed� Thomas Böning, Gerhard Kaiser, and Dominik Müller� Frankfurt am Main: DKV, 1989� 364-437� 2 All translations are by Benjamin Dillon Schluter and Anthony Mahler unless otherwise noted� 3 Translation quoted from Quintilian 445� 4 See Plett 45; Parker; Posselt, Katachrese 22-24� 5 Translation quoted from Quintilian 445� 6 See Breithaupt 129-132; Rakow 217-231; Yang� 7 See Derrida; Posselt, Katachrese 25-31; Posselt, “Tropological Economy�” 8 See Augart; Metz; Yang� 9 See Augart; Böhm; Krüger-Fürhoff 233; Yang� 10 See also Theisohn 333� 11 See also Günter 133; Rakow 220-221� 12 See also Augart 206� 13 See, e�g�, Beyer 96; Swales; Honold, Tugenden 289-290; Theisohn 336� 14 See Böhm 28-29; Honold, Tugenden 289-290; Rakow 229-231� 15 See, e�g�, Honold, Tugenden 256-260; Metz; Rakow; Tschopp� 16 See Frauke Berndt’s article in this issue� 17 See Berndt and Pierstorff 11� 492 Cornelia Pierstorff Works Cited Auerbach, Berthold� “Gottfried Keller’s Neue Schweizergestalten�” Deutsche Rundschau 4�1 (1875): 33-47� Augart, Julia� “Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe: Zur Austauschbarkeit von Identität, Geschlecht und Gefühl im Medium Brief�” Gottfried Kellers Die Leute von Seldwyla. 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