Isolation and Death in Stifter's Nachsommer

Abstract

The idyllic harmony that suffuses Stifter's Nachsommer has been widely discussed and analyzed by scholars in the field, but less attention has been given to the undercurrent of sadness, which, in the words of Walter Rehm, is “hidden between the lines.” A new dimension to our understanding of Nachsommer—described by one writer as “inexhaustible in its mystery”—can indeed be added by further probing into the disturbances that lie beneath the smooth exterior of the novel.