Political realism and the fantastic romantic German liberal discourse and the Sámi in Theodor Mügge’s novel <i>Afraja</i> (1854)

Cathrine Theodorsen

doi:10.7557/13.1350

Authors

Cathrine Theodorsen Faculty of Humanities, University of Tromsø

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/13.1350

Keywords:

Tysk, Theodor Mügge, Afraja, travel writing, adventure stories,

Abstract

The novel Afraja, written by the German author and liberal Theodor Mügge and published in 1854 provides an opportunity to explore connections between travel writing and adventure stories from the perspective of one of Germany's most popular writers of the nineteenth century. The focus of my discussion in this paper is to explore the implications of the meeting between a fictional Sámi, living in the exotic North and a Danish aristocratic adventurer whose attitudes reflect the discourse of Mügge's politically liberal views. Additionally, Mügges fiction sketches out different images of the Sámi.

Author Biography

Cathrine Theodorsen, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tromsø

Cathrine Theodorsen is a postdoctoral scholar, affiliated to the project Arctic Discourses at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Tromsø. Her main research interests are Austrian literature (Wiener Moderne, Elfriede Jelinek) and 19th-century German travel writing (Theodor Mügge). Her doctor thesis ("Leopold Andrian, seine Erzählung Der Garten der Erkenntnis und der Dilettantismus in Wien um 1900") was published 2006.