Topik als Verfahren kultureller Selbstvergewisserung: Zur Aktualisierung rhetorischer Stoff-Findung bei Fontane und Raabe

Inventio as a technique of organizing knowledge and text production became obsolete after 1800 because of its orientation to cultural knowledge. However, the same orientation motivated the revival of topical inventio in late realism: the novels of Fontane and Raabe revive topical techniques of invention and remembrance as methods of cultural self-affirmation, demonstrating the power of realistic narrative for cultural analysis.