Landscape in Theodor Storm's Novellen : an aspect of the development of Strom's descriptive style into poetic realism

Theodor Storm is regarded as a leading exponent of the Poetic Realism movement in nineteenth century Germany, and is also popular as an author renowned for his love of his native region of Schleswig-Holstein. This study aims to explore how the landscape depicted in Storm's narrative fiction contributes to the assessment of him and his intentions as a Poetic Realist author.;After a summary of the concepts behind Poetic Realist writing and an investigation of the Novelle, its main vehicle, a selection of Novellen are analysed, incorporating works from Storm's early fiction and Marchen, deemed by many as direct descendants of Romantic prose, through to his last Novelle, regarded as one of the finest pieces of Poetic Realist writing.;We contest hypotheses that Storm's early work is strongly founded in Romantic or Biedermeier writing, for both his ideologies and his narrative style are fundamentally different from those of his forebears. Though much criticised for producing mere "Bilderreihen", Storm handled themes uncharacteristic for the age, commenting on them beneath the surface of his idylls. We ascertain that the landscape plays a fundamental role in enabling him to write such tales accessible on two levels.;As Storm's works mature, the themes in the early narratives are developed and Storm examines questions pertinent to the whole of mankind's existence. 'Unpoetic' topics are transformed; man's solitude and insignificance become blindingly apparent in the environment by which he is surrounded. The landscape symbolises the threats to his very being.;The study concludes that Theodor Storm's own perceptions about literature concur with those popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century; but uniquely, the landscape by which he was surrounded enabled Storm to fulfil his own criteria and to develop into a Poetic Realist delving to depths explored by no other of his time.