SOURCE: "The Desires of Realism: Repetition and Repression in Keller's Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorf e" in Reflections of Realism: Paradox, Norm, and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century German Prose, Wayne State University Press, 1991, pp. 101-31.

In the following excerpt, Holub examines the theme of incest in Keller's novella.

[Realism] can best be understood as an effect of the literary text rather than some quality inherent in the text. And if we accept this statement, then it would seem that one of the aspects of this effect would involve an impression of repetition. When we read a work of realism, we are told explicitly or implicitly that what we are reading is a reproduction or repetition of something that occurred prior to the writing. We are supposedly dealing with an original event, but only to the extent that it is represented in the text. Creativity is thus implicitly underemphasized...