D. Worlds Apart
III. Narrative Reflections
emotion, rather than these components being drawn from whatever an individual’s personal experience happens to be. Thus, the more detail and development present in the preliminary narratives of a text, the more opportunity the author has to influence the emotional response generated by the narrative as a whole.
The extent to which something is perceived as meaningful increases in proportion to its degree of interconnectedness with other mental data, which is precisely what the network of specific details in Brigitta provides. Something that is well-connected, by relating either to a large number of other data, or to a datum that is rated as highly important within the overall hierarchy of the mind, becomes meaningful by extension. Emotions play an important role in these
meaning networks, since they are the mechanism for hierarchizing cognitive information: the greater the emotional intensity attached to a cognition, the higher its perceived importance is.22 An intense emotion experienced at the end of the novella is thus part of a two-part reinforcement of meaningfulness: the preparatory narratives provide the conditions for the ending to be
meaningful and therefore emotionally intense, and the emotional intensity, in turn, underlines the significance of the themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, thereby priming them to be re- evaluated and perhaps upgraded in the overall order of the mind’s belief system. In this way, an effectively affective literarary text can gain access to the mind’s internal mechanisms for making sense of the world.
sind, und deren Grund wir nicht in Schnelligkeit hervor zu ziehen vermögen. Sie wirken dann meistens mit einem gewissen schönen und sanften Reize des Geheimnißvollen auf unsere Seele.”
(411) The narrator indicates his awareness of these half-understood operations, then goes on to re- create for the reader just such a one in his text.23 The issue is presented here as a mystery of sorts, but it is important to note that the phrase “nicht sogleich klar” implies that the ignorance does not persist: these “things and relationships” eventually do become clear — namely, over the course of the story.24 The phrase has multiple applicabilities: the character of Brigitta is not immediately clear to the Major, and vice versa; the relationship between the two main
protagonists is not immediately clear to the narrator; and the connection between the different storylines presented by the narrator is not immediately clear to the reader. The presence of these parallels on multiple levels — between protagonists, narrator, and readers — is a part of the overall narrative strategy whereby Stifter provides the structural prerequisites for readers to share in experiences that are conveyed through the text. The mirroring of the characters’ situation in the reader creates the potential for empathy and thus gives an experiential insight into the phenomenon laid out by the narrator at the beginning of the novella. A further parallel between the characters’ situation and that of the reader involves the tempo of the story, which is also alluded to in this passage: “Schnelligkeit” as well as Langsamkeit play a major role in how
23 For a thorough analysis of the narrator’s strategies of divulging and withholding information and how these affect the reading experience, see Stefanie Kreuzer, “Zur ‘unerhörten’ Erzähldramaturgie einer realistischen Novelle: Adalbert Stifters ‘Brigitta’ (1847),” Der Deutschunterricht 59, no. 6 (2007). Gunter H.
Hertling discusses names and the significance of them being withheld (“Adalbert Stifters ‘Brigitta’ (1843) als Vor-‘Studie’ zur ‘Erzählung’ seiner Reife: ‘Der Nachsommer’ (1857),” Jahrbuch des Adalbert-Stifter-Instituts des Landes Oberösterreich 9/10 (2002/2003): 27).
24 Ulrich Dittmann notes that Stifter constructs his story less naively than the narrator’s opening remarks about the “kindliche Unbewußtheit” (412) of literature might lead the reader to believe (“Brigitta und kein Ende. Kommentierte Randbemerkungen,” Jahrbuch des Adalbert-Stifter-Instituts des Landes Oberösterreich 3 (1996): 27f.).
characters perceive each other and also in how the reader experiences the narrative, which will be discussed further in the next section.25
The narrator, on the one hand, acknowledges the mysteriousness of human emotional dynamics, and on the other hand, makes a modest and tentative assertion that literature has a relevance in the exploration of these dynamics. As part of his introductory reflections, the
narrator considers the claims of psychology — in nineteenth-century terminology, “Seelenkunde”
— versus the claims of literature:
Die Seelenkunde hat manches beleuchtet und erklärt, aber vieles ist ihr dunkel und in großer Entfernung geblieben. Wir glauben daher, daß es nicht zu viel ist, wenn wir sagen, es sei für uns noch ein heiterer unermeßlicher Abgrund, in dem Gott und die Geister wandeln. Die Seele in Augenblicken der Entzückung
überfliegt ihn oft, die Dichtkunst in kindlicher Unbewußtheit lüftet ihn zuweilen;
aber die Wissenschaft mit ihrem Hammer und Richtscheite steht häufig erst an dem Rande, und mag in vielen Fällen noch gar nicht einmal Hand angelegt haben.
(411–412)
In the original journal version, the introductory reflections were influenced by Jean Paul’s essay Muthmaßungen über einige Wunder des organischen Magnetismus (1814); in the book version, these references have been cut, with the one slight exception of the neighbors’ speculation that the Major used “magnetism” to heal Brigitta of her severe illness (444). The later version was instead inspired by the Lehrbuch der ärztlichen Seelenkunde, which Ernst von Feuchtersleben had published in 1845.26 In keeping with the latter’s greater concern with scientific verifiability, the book version omits mention of unexplained operations such as “Geisterfurcht,”
“Somnambulismus,” “Elektrizität,” and premonitions of death.27 Nevertheless, in a more
convincing if less concrete manner, since these phenomena no longer have quite the same aura of
25 See page 137.
26 The influence of Jean Paul and Feuchtersleben on Brigitta is discussed in Ulrich Dittmann, “Brigitta.
Erläuterungen” in Stifter, Werke und Briefe, vol. 1.9, 321f.; as well as Christian von Zimmermann, “‘Brigitta’
— seelenkundlich gelesen. Zur Verwendung ‘kalobiotischer’ Lebensmaximen Feuchterslebens in Stifters Erzählung,” in Adalbert Stifter: Dichter und Maler, Denkmalpfleger und Schulmann; neue Zugänge zu seinem Werk, ed. Hartmut Laufhütte and Karl Möseneder (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1996).
27 Stifter, Werke und Briefe, vol. 1.2, 211f.
the unexplained, the narrator touches on the gap between the explanatory abilities of scientific research and the way individuals experience mental realities — a gap which still exists today, manifesting itself, for example, in the context of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging).
This type of brain scan measures relative blood flow in different regions, with increased
circulation implying increased neuronal activity. However, its use in cognitive studies in order to draw conclusions about the connections between mental operations and specific brain regions has been criticized for falling into the cum hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy, in which
correlation is assumed to prove causation.28 In addition, poor experimental design calls into question conclusions drawn from the deceptively compelling colored brain diagrams generated from fMRI scans; for example, the tasks given to experiment participants in order to ‘locate’
emotions are often unacceptably reductionistic or make indefensible assumptions about how people ‘typically’ react to a given stimulus.29 Studies have shown — in this case unambiguously — that within the (undamaged) human brain, all areas are active at all times.30 Without providing any specific or profound information about the nature of heightened activity relative to base activity levels, brain scans cannot lay claim to anything more than superficial conclusions about the connection between emotions and physiology. Just as, in Stifter’s time, scientific inquiry into the nature of the human mind was fraught with difficulties, so it is to this day. Introspective
28 “What is not possible, even when great care is taken, is for imaging to have a revolutionary effect on cognitive psychology.” Christopher Mole and Colin Klein, “Confirmation, Refutation, and the Evidence of fMRI,” in Foundational Issues in Human Brain Mapping, ed. Stephen José Hanson and Martin Bunzl (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010), 110. On the fallacy of drawing reverse inferences about cognitive processes from activated brain regions, see Russell A. Poldrack, “Can cognitive processes be inferred from
neuroimaging data?” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10, no. 2 (2006): 60f.
29 For some examples of criticism leveled at experimental design, see Jean-Baptiste Poline, Bertrand Thirion, Alexis Roche, and Sébastien Meriaux, “Intersubject Variability in fMRI Data: Causes, Consequences, and Related Analysis Strategies,” in Foundational Issues in Human Brain Mapping, ed. Stephen José Hanson and Martin Bunzl (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010).
30 See, for example, Craig E. L. Stark and Larry R. Squire, “When Zero Is Not Zero: The Problem of
Ambiguous Baseline Conditions in fMRI,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 98, no. 22 (2001):
12760; as well as Mole and Klein, “Evidence of fMRI,” 103: “Neuroimaging is a noisy business, and the brain is a noisy place.”
reflection on the narrative structures of mental reality was and still remains the only fruitful means of exploring certain questions which are of great importance to an existing individual.
Despite the hindrances to understanding emotional dynamics, the narrator insists on their ultimate intelligibility, declaring that there are “reasons” behind them: “Daß zuletzt sittliche Gründe vorhanden sind, die das Herz heraus fühlt, ist kein Zweifel, allein wir können sie nicht immer mit der Waage des Bewußtseins und der Rechnung hervor heben, und anschauen.” (411) He suggests here that a specific form of understanding is needed in order to comprehend the events which he is about to relate — namely, one that makes use of composite processing faculties. The narrator’s reference to the “heart” — the metaphorical seat of the emotions — as well as his claim that the reasons must be “felt out” are indications of an awareness that emotions are composite operations: to ‘feel something out’ suggests not only ‘feelings’ in the sense of emotions but also an operation whereby different facets are taken into account in order to form an overall impression. This notion contrasts with the “scale of consciousness and calculation,”
which would represent that which has been traditionally termed ‘reason’; as I have argued earlier, reason in this sense is a particular type of thought operation that occurs consciously and as a binary comparison, hence the image of the scale.31 This type of precise but pared-down thinking shows up also in the image of “die Wissenschaft mit ihrem Hammer und Richtscheite,” quoted above. These sorts of metaphors suggest a kind of judgment that is clear-cut, as opposed to the less decisive determinations that create suspense in Brigitta. The narrator explains that the mystery of his anecdote relates to the difference between inner and outer beauty:
In dem Angesichte eines Häßlichen ist für uns oft eine innere Schönheit, die wir nicht auf der Stelle von seinem Werthe herzuleiten vermögen, während uns oft die Züge eines andern kalt und leer sind, von denen alle sagen, daß sie die größte Schönheit besitzen. Eben so fühlen wir uns manchmal zu einem hingezogen, den wir eigentlich gar nicht kennen, es gefallen uns seine Bewegungen, es gefällt uns seine Art, wir trauern, wenn er uns verlassen hat, und haben eine gewisse
31 See page 4.
Sehnsucht, ja eine Liebe zu ihm, wenn wir oft noch in späteren Jahren seiner gedenken: während wir mit einem Andern, dessen Werth in vielen Thaten vor uns liegt, nicht ins Reine kommen können, wenn wir auch Jahre lang mit ihm
umgegangen sind. (411)
The language of this passage construes like or dislike of a person as a matter of composite evaluations, which may not be immediately — “auf der Stelle” — transparent, since they depend on the multiple factors that combine to make up the “Art” of a person. Furthermore, if someone is underappreciated even though his value is apparent “in vielen Thaten,” it suggests a situation in which the components for a positive evaluation are present, but the manner in which they are evaluated turns the result in an unfavorable direction. A composite evaluation may not ultimately do justice to the character of the one being evaluated, if, for example, it is swayed by elements specific to the evaluator’s psychological makeup — as is retrospectively implied by the novella in regard to both Brigitta and the Major. By noting that an individual’s evaluation may differ from that of society, the narrator maintains that the qualities that make a person likeable are not objective; and, one could add, neither is the thought operation by which the evaluation is made.
The third section, “Steppenvergangenheit,” also begins with the narrator reflecting on his storytelling method. The order in which the narrator learns the details of his hosts’ history is not the same order in which he presents them to the reader. Most conspicuously, the fictional narrator would not experience the ending as a surprise, since one can infer that he did not know any of the details in “Steppenvergangenheit” when he witnessed the reconciliation: from his perspective, it would simply have appeared as though Brigitta and the Major had finally allowed themselves to give a more open expression to their longstanding affection for one another — only later would he have discovered the other tensions at work in that scene. The discrepancy between the narrator’s versus the reader’s experience underlines the fact that the novella unfolds according to a well-considered narrative strategy, which is also well reflected in the text:
Ehe ich entwickle, wie wir nach Marosheli geritten sind, wie ich Brigitta kennen gelernt habe, und wie ich noch recht oft auf ihrem Gute gewesen bin, ist es nöthig, daß ich einen Theil ihres früheren Lebens erzähle, ohne den das Folgende nicht verständlich wäre. Wie ich zu so tief gehender Kenntniß der Zustände, die hier geschildert werden, gelangen konnte, wird sich aus meinen Verhältnissen zu dem Major und zu Brigitta ergeben, und am Ende dieser Geschichte von selbst klar werden, ohne daß ich nöthig hätte, vor der Zeit zu enthüllen, was ich auch nicht vor der Zeit, sondern durch die natürliche Entwicklung der Dinge erfuhr. (445)
The narrator’s concern that he not reveal details “vor der Zeit” indicates that interventions in the chronology of the story are explicitly meant to create the effect of a surprise twist; not the actual order of events, but rather a narratively — meaning, in this case, emotionally — effective
sequence is employed. This passage also provides further clues to the role of tempo in the story;
here, the third section is functioning as a moment of retardation, since it, as both a flashback and an interruption, delays the arrival of the narrative at the climactic scene.