SOURCE: “Exchange and Dispossession: Grillparzer's ‘Der arme Spielmann’,” in First Encounters in French and German Prose Fiction: 1830-1883, Peter Lang, 1996, pp. 91-117.

In the following essay, Kappeler explores stylistic aspects of Der arme Spielmann, in particular the effect of the frame story on the novella.

Le «sujet», c'est pour nous (depuis le Christianisme?) celui qui souffre: là où il y a blessure, il y a sujet: die Wunde! die Wunde! dit Parsifal, en devenant par là «lui-mème»;

Roland Barthes¹

Critical attention to Franz Grillparzer's narrative Der arme Spielmann (1847)² has steadily increased in recent years.³ This interest in a text whose protagonist is presented as a pathological failure can be viewed as attempts to pierce the Spielmann's isolating layers and to reevaluate this verdict of failure.⁴ One critic, annoyed at this avalanche of attention to the story, proposes others should leave the text in peace.⁵ Yet, this effort...