„Ist es etwas, das man wissen muß?“

Abstract

Based on the idea that the homosexuality of certain historical figures is often revealed in slightly veiled ways in Fontane’s work, this article investigates the function of such allusions and figurations on the structure, character configuration and meaning of Fontane’s Cécile and Der Stechlin and discusses the effects of the discourse on ‘sexually pathological’ phenomena in the literary text. In both novels, this topic possesses a central significance which only reveals itself against the background of contemporary ‘knowledge’.

Keywords

• Fontane
• gender
• homosexuality
• Rosa Bonheur
• Prince Heinrich of Prussia