Eine Reise zu zweit: Gustav Nicolais und des Flohs Jeaaaoui Schnellfahrt durch Italien

[Machine translation] In Gustav Nicolai's Italy As It Really Is (1834), the animal world plays an important role in portraying the alien. In addition to horses, pigs, sea fish and flies, it is primarily fleas that contribute to the “distorted image” (mason) of Italy in terms of content and language, point to physical confrontation with the Mediterranean, characterize several scenes of foreign experience and reinforce the theme of marginality not only in the animal world but also in society by connecting with beggars. On the narrative level, Nicolai himself takes on the role of pulex irritans (Pierer's universal lexicon, 1858), because he “bites” the traditional image of Italy, the German travel literature based on Goethe and the enthusiastic travelers into the “Hesperian realms.” It is precisely the animal world — e.g. frogs — that Nicolai's critics also refer to in order to attack his travel report, which is just libelously described as a “book against fleas” (cf. Annals of German and Foreign Criminal Law Care, 1837)., However, the German flea Jeaaaoui, who traveled through Italy with his “good breadwinner” Nicolai (Adam's son, letter from a German flea [...], 1836), translated his book from German into the Flea language and wrote to the Italian girlfriend Wanzeninna della Wanzenuccia about Nicolais” delicious Browse” (Adamslohn), which honors the people of the “Six-footed” (Adam's Wage), expresses enthusiastically. Letters from a German flea also bite a lot at various levels: Not only does Nicolai fall victim to his hungry travel companion from the animal world in Italy, but also the Berliner and the fatherland he really revered in Italy are attacked with sharp irony by the pulex irritans Adam's salary. With regard to Germany's book market, reading audience, society and attitude towards Jews, among other things, Adamslohn clearly puts a flea in his reader's ear.