Hausfreund: Female and Male Concepts of the Literary Figure in the Writings of Female Authors of Realism

Over the course of the 19th century, the transition from the multi-generational “whole house” to the nuclear family was completed. The shift toward smaller family units and a growing emphasis on privacy increased the significance of relationships beyond the domestic sphere. The literary figure of the Hausfreund emerged to fill this void, acting as a third party alongside the married couple and assuming the former roles of the extended family while facilitating contact with the outside world. At the same time, he displayed ambivalence, serving as both mediator and source of disruption. Not bound by the familial incest taboo, he embodied the potential for erotic transgression, which explains the enduring tension and appeal of the figure. Lexicographical research reveals a semantic shift from “friend of a family” (Grimm, 1854) to “lover of a married woman” in twenty-first-century dictionaries. In realist literature, the Hausfreund appears as a mentor, advisor, and mediator in marital disputes, but also as a parasitic intruder. In the absence of systematic studies on this frequently occurring figure, it is positioned at the intersection of home, friendship, love, marriage, and renunciation. In the works discussed here, the Hausfreund exposes fractures within the bourgeois family and suggests alternative relational structures. His female counterpart, the Hausfreundin, emerges as a counter-image that transcends traditional female roles. Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach integrates bourgeois Hausfreund figures into aristocratic milieus, where they act as mediators between the nobility and the bourgeoisie. Her work is characterized by positive, stabilizing protagonists. Louise von François portrays self-assured women who assume responsibility for home and family, including the rare female Hausfreundin who becomes owner and head of the house in Die letzte Reckenburgerin. In Eine Formalität, the transformation of the Hausfreund into husband reflects social dysfunction within the nobility, corrected by female rationality. E. Marlitt most explicitly links the motif to social and political critique. Her older female characters act as mentors and protectors, while negative Hausfreund figures appear as sexually aggressive or clerically corrupt, as in Die zweite Frau. The three authors under consideration here depict the rare transition from benevolent to transgressive Hausfreund as destructive and leading to disaster. Their texts thus anticipate the works of authors such as Fontane, Mann, and Keyserling, who represent the end of the literary motif and the transition to modernism. In realist literature, the Hausfreund functions as a structural principle that transcends the interpretation of an individual character. He marks breaks in the structure of the nuclear family, addresses the instability of marriage and gender roles, opens literary scope for female autonomy, and offers the opportunity to reflect literarily on tensions between tradition and social change. In this respect, he represents not only a narrative figure but proves to be a cultural indicator of family vulnerability and a medium for literary engagement with the social transformations of the 19th century.

Author dc:creator

• Karina E. Duncker-Hoffmann (24400595)

• Hausfreund; female authors; family structure; kinship; Louise von François; Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach; E.Marlitt
• German literature of Realism
• Kinship
• female authors
• The Third

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright
• Open Access after 2031-05-01

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.32995667.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32995667