Das vegetative in Stifters Nachsommer

The thesis investigates the role of the vegetal world in Adalbert Stifter's novel Der Nachsommer (1857). An historical introduction uncovers the implicit philosophy of botany in the work of its most eminent representative (Linne) and the logic of vegetal metaphors in the philosophy of history (Herder). How and why the cultivation of roses is transformed into a true cult and how gardening becomes a general metaphor extending its branches into the fields of psychology and pedagogy is shown by a detailed analysis of the novel. The strong rejection of any idea of grafting by the author, the controversy surrounding the use of flower imagery in literature, the peculiar beauty of crippled alder tress and the problem of "roots" in the general sense are also discussed. The question of the ethical value of purely ornamental objects is raised