‘As if’: Mapping the empathic eloquent narrator through literary history

Abstract

This article investigates the historical development of the use of ‘als ob’ (‘as if’) in a diachronic corpus of German narrative fiction prose from the 18th century until 2009. The results of this corpus-stylistic study suggest that ‘as if’-statements are associated with the recurring profile of an eloquent narrator who is more empathic than he is well-informed about the mental state of characters. Finally, we will show that this narrator profile has been used with historical variance that can be explained by literary historical considerations.