'Juerg Jenatsch': Die Kindheit als Spiegel der Zukunft.

摘要

Besides many poems and novellas, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898) wrote the story of Jürg Jenatsch, his only novel. It is based on a well known part of Swiss history, in which a clergyman becomes a knight in order to fight for his country. With the Thirty Years' War in the background, Meyer portrays the Protestant Jürg Jenatsch as a man whose love for his country is so great that he is willing to murder and betray for its independence. What comes in his way during his quest to free the Veltlin is his love for Lucretia Planta, the daughter of the local leader of the Catholic Spanish party.;This thesis deals with the novel's prophetic elements, which Meyer has deliberately included in certain symbols, dialogues and descriptions of landscapes. It focuses upon the second chapter of the first book, childhood memories recalled by a friend, Heinrich Waser. This chapter narrates essentially three episodes, Lucretia's pilgrimage to Jürg at school in Zürich, the reactions to her visit and finally an even earlier tower incident told by Lucretia's father, Pompejus Planta. Through these episodes, each of which is analyzed closely in a separate chapter of the thesis, the reader is able to anticipate many of the characters' future conflicts through the narration of their earlier actions and words.