Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy

This study of German fiction about America in the nineteenth century concentrates in detail on three writers: Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl, 1793–1864), an escaped Moravian monk who came to New Orleans in 1823 and wrote the first major German novels about the United States; Friedrich Gerstacker (1816–1872), who, among his many experiences in America as a young man, lived as a backwoodsman in Arkansas and who later produced a large body of fiction, travel reportage, and emigration advice; and Ka