18 research outputs found
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“Nicht unsrer Lesewelt, und nicht der Ewigkeit”: late style in Gleim’s 'Zeit-' and 'Sinngedichte' (1792–1803)
No full textThis article examines the late poems of Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, arguing that they employ a 'late style.' I suggest that the poet deliberately stylises himself as an old, unfashionable author, in order to address political themes in his work that would not have appeared fashionable at the time
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Infanticide in 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' and 'Faust I': romantic variations on a 'Sturm und Drang' theme
No full textThis article explores how the motif of infanticide is approached by two works of 1808: Volume II of Arnim and Brentano's romantic verse collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Goethes Faust I. I argue that their treatments of the theme are fundamentally different to those of their Sturm und Drang predecessors of the 1770s and 80s. Instead of using the motif for purposes of social critique, the infanticide motif per se is explored, by citing a variety of versions and fragments from collective memory, or 'oral' tradition. At the same time, both works draw attention to their modes of collection and citation, highlighting the role of the romantic Author in the compilation, rather than creation, of their text; echoing Barthes's description of the writing process in 'The Death of the Author' as a 'tissue of quotations'
Moses Hess: One Socialist Proto-Zionist’s Reception of Nationalisms in the Nineteenth Century
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Nationalism before the nation state: literary constructions of inclusion, exclusion, and self-definition (1756–1871)
No full textThis volume aims to deepen our understanding of the history of German Nationalism through the analysis of its different representations in culture and literature. In the current climate of growing Nationalism and populism in so many societies around the world, it is more important than ever to understand the roots and the history of Nationalism – not only in its political phenotypes such as states, but also underlying ideologies and thought patterns. While German Nationalism in the twentieth century has been the object of much scholarly interest, this volume is innovative in exploring the phenomenon during the time before a German nation state existed. When the first German Empire was founded in 1871, nationalist tendencies and ideologies had already been virulent throughout the nineteenth century, and even earlier, leaving their mark on political discourse as well as on literary and other aesthetic productions. In this regard, Germany is a case in point of the late Benedict Anderson’s theory of the Nation as an 'imagined community': The German nation had been imagined long before it ever took political shape.
In this volume, contributors explore how these imaginings worked, what shape they took, and which effects they had on contemporaneous literature and philosophy, covering the period between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
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‘I could have slapped myself’: the ethics of the bystander perspective in sebastian haffner’s memoir
No full textThe second half of Sebastian Haffner’s posthumously published memoir, Geschichte eines Deutschen, describes Haffner’s experiences of the first years of Nazi rule. In my reading of key passages, I consider how the text works to highlight the discrepancy between Haffner’s thoughts and actions as he is increasingly compelled to accept and even participate in Nazi activities, despite his hatred of Nazism. By presenting his case as typical, and drawing the reader into a sense of intimacy and trust with Haffner, his text elicits empathy for the ‘ordinary Germans’ who unwillingly became part of what Fulbrook calls the ‘bystander society’ under Nazism. After analysing the memoir, I consider its reception in the German and English-speaking worlds at the time of publication, and reflect on the ethical implications of empathising with Haffner’s bystander perspective
Learning from France: Ludwig Börne in the 1830s
No full textThis chapter considers Ludwig Börne’s key contribution to political and literary debates about German national identity in the 1830s. In a similar way to Heinrich Heine, his intellectual colleague and rival, Börne sets out a cosmopolitan agenda for German liberals, calling on them to learn from the progressive politics of the French. He therefore represents a German patriotism that rejects nationalism, seeing France as an example for Germany to follow. Through a close reading of Börne’s two masterworks Briefe aus Paris [Letters from Paris, 1832–1834] and Menzel der Franzosenfresser [Menzel: He Eats French People, 1837], this chapter shows how Börne advocates an enlightened form of patriotism that emphasises political rights and reasoned debate, in contrast to Wolfgang Menzel’s Romantic, organic conception of German nationhood
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(1805/1808)
No full textThis article argues for a new approach to war and politics in Arnim and Brentano’s romantic poetry anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn. It departs from previous Wunderhorn scholarship by considering the collection’s three volumes individually, and paying attention to the different political circumstances of the two phases of its creation, 1805 and 1808. I show that there is a change of emphasis in the collection between volume I (1805) and volumes II and III (1808), identifying a shift away from political engagement and a withdrawal of the nationalist sentiments that are still, however, often associated with the collection as a whole. Instead, I argue that the later volumes of the collection turn inwards and come to reflect a more spiritual and escapist aspect of Romanticism, with a focus on the figure of the artist rather than any political goal. By exploring the change in emphasis between 1805 and 1808, my reading presents the Wunderhorn as a text torn internally between a tangible engagement with everyday politics on the one hand, and a tendency towards transcendence on the other. In this way, the collection represents two opposing impulses of German Romanticism around 1800
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Goethe’s politics and political uses: nazi and anti-nazi readings of Des Epimenides Erwachen
No full textThis article examines the first leaflet made produced by the anti-Nazi White Rose group in 1942, focusing on its use of a quotation from Goethe’s festival play Des Epimenides Erwachen. I begin by exploring the appropriation of Goethe by the Nazi Regime, in particular the instrumentalisation of his works during wartime. In contrast, I then consider how the White Rose use their chosen Goethe passage to send an anti-war message and to incite passive resistance, reclaiming Goethe for an anti-Nazi agenda. Finally, I consider the passage’s political significance in Goethe’s own context ca. 1813, which was characteristically ambivalent, reflecting the lack of a singular political, nationalist narrative at the time of the Wars of Liberation
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“Also mein allerliebster redette ihre Sapho mit dem Kriege”: literary role-play in the war poetry of Anna Louisa Karsch
No full textAnna Louisa Karsch stylised herself as an uneducated peasant poet possessing natural genius, moved by her ʻfeminineʼ passions and ignorant of literary
conventions. As a result of her successful self-presentation, until recently scholars have not fully grasped the ways in which she engaged in literary role-play in her poems – instead often reading her works autobiographically or as statements of authentic personal feeling. By demonstrating some of the contradicting viewpoints her poems express on the topic of the ongoing Seven Yearsʼ War, this article should prove two things. Firstly, that Karsch was acutely aware of poetic techniques
and genre conventions, employing and citing a variety of literary traditions; and secondly, that by playing different literary roles in her poems, making use of classical, biblical and popular genres, she approaches the topic of war from a variety of perspectives that cannot be reduced to one of simple patriotism, as has been done
by most Karsch scholars since her lifetime. In short, I argue that the ʻvoicesʼ in her poems should not be automatically conflated with the authorʼs own
‘Säbel- und Federkriege’: Strategies of Authorship in German Poems of War (1760–1815)
No full textThis thesis examines the strategies of authorship used in German poems of war, from the Seven Years’ War to the Wars of Liberation. Applying Foucault’s theory that the ‘author’ is merely a function of discourse (an ‘author-function’), each chapter examines the way an author constructs, adapts, and masks his or her own authorship when approaching the topic of war. Chapter One examines the various roles adopted by Anna Louisa Karsch in her poetry discussing the Seven Years’ War, questioning the extent to which autobiographical readings of her works should be taken seriously. Chapter Two looks at Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim’s Anacreontic poetry, his Preußische Kriegslieder eines Grenadiers, and his late Zeitgedichte. Gleim too is shown to play with various authorial roles in his works. The third chapter examines how Arnim and Brentano’s editorial strategies change between the first volume of their song collection, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1805), and its later volumes (1808). I argue that the two editors retreat from political commentary in the later volumes, seeking consolation in the Romantic imagination. My final chapter compares the two editions of Rudolph Zacharias Becker’s Mildheimisches Liederbuch (1799 and 1815). Political poetry and the subject of war are approached quite differently in the two volumes, and Becker’s editorial strategy changes in the aftermath of the Napoleonic occupation. The thesis concludes that the designation of writers as ‘Gewissen der Nation,’ often applied to German writers since the Second World War, can also be applied to eighteenth-century poets. The more concretely writers engaged with the developing concepts of nationhood and citizenship, the more they considered the moral consequences of war, and the demands placed on the individual by political participation. Their experimentation with multiple roles and unstable attitudes to their own authorship demonstrate the changing understanding of the relationship between aesthetics, power, and morality
