Sanfter Exzess

Excesses do not disrupt order but emerge from it in the first place. This analysis illustrates how closely order and excess are interwoven in Adalbert Stifter’s Bunte Steine (1853). It is the seemingly balanced uniformity of things that repeatedly reveals the outrageous and excessive structure in Stifter’s texts: Catastrophes, for example, erupt from the middle of a cultural space seemingly purged of unforeseen disruptions. The same holds true of the protagonists' forbidden desires, which are revealed all the more through their careful concealment. It is therefore precisely the "harmless things", as Stifter calls them, that signify the eternal return of excess.