Intertextual explorations of Keller's 'Clothes make the man'

Abstract

This book chapter investigates Keller’s ‘Kleider machen Leute’ in relation to the concept of intertextuality developed by Julia Kristeva in the 1960s. The text is conceived as an intertext which is part of a network of intertextual relationships. We start by briefly reviewing the development of the Novelle genre and discuss the extent to which ‘Kleider machen Leute’ conforms to the established definitions of the genre. Then we examine various intertextual elements in the text, notably proverbs and figures of speech, fables, Bible quotations and influences from works of German literature of the sixteenth century.