Thesis (Ph.D.)--Freie Universität Berlin, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-262).

This thesis considers how Kleist and Hoffmann’s fiction might be considered as responding to the perceived shortcomings of enlightenment. The two writers, despite the barriers of literary categorisations, have a striking affinity in their sense that notions of truth and knowledge are intertwined with social and political agendas, rather than forming part of some natural teleology. The thesis breaks new ground in viewing the texts within a more expansive discourse context as literary interventions within a broad, cross-society engagement with enlightenment, in its various streams and factions. The texts studied, I argue, represent thought experiments, not merely reflecting and re-articulating the influences of literary peers and historically significant events, but instead testing the real-world application of key enlightenment ideas. The driving force for this thesis is the need to locate their work more rigorously in relation to enlightenment thought of their time than has previously been attempted. This is not so much a question of retrieving past influences, as one of viewing their work as being in dialogue with contemporary thought. Moving away from attempts using Kleist’s letters to theorise the relation between Kleist and Kant, this investigation instead turns to aspects of Kant’s philosophy to illuminate the texts. Hoffmann’s relationship to enlightenment, too, is explored beyond the prism of Romanticism. Taking a more comparative approach than previous work on the two writers, I identify not only thematic commonalities, but also a parallel aesthetic, in which multiple narratives coexist and where ‘truth’ is manufactured by the dominance of one particular narrative. The notion of 'MÃ1⁄4ndigkeit', central to Kant’s famous definition of 'Aufklärung' offers a useful guiding concept for the investigation and captures the emancipatory promise of self-realisation and the positive trajectory of human progress at the heart of the miscellany of moral and political theories and philosophies collectively known as ‘enlightenment’. The latter refers not to the historical period, but rather to a process of intellectual emancipation and an assemblage of ideals and values. As an intellectual movement, enlightenment was not, as is often assumed, monolithic, but encompasses conflicting notions of reason, freedom, and how its goals were to be achieved. Not only are the certainty and consequences of this intellectual emancipation evaluated in the texts, but I have also identified a radical questioning of the paradigms of thought which condition our understanding of narratives. Both Kleist and Hoffmann’s texts are narratively complex, often with shifts in focalisation, jumps in time, occasionally, figures whose identity changes leave the reader uncertain whether they are dealing with more than one character, and depictions of events which resist clarification through conventional understandings of time, space and causality. This project seeks to reconcile these ‘blind spots’ with a broader critique of enlightenment, in which absolute knowledge is shown to be illusory and truth simply reflective of constellations of power. The spatiotemporal and causal frameworks foundational to rational understanding and used to make sense of the world are revealed to be inadequate.

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A existência de uma separação entre um mundo dos sonhos e um mundo da realidade cotidiana na narrativa é indicada, e atributos das experiências relacionadas com esse mundo onírico são apontados, além de formas de acesso a ele. No primeiro capítulo, o autor é apresentado, assim como características de sua obra e a ligação da última com os sonhos. Baseados no trabalho de Pikulik (1987), discutimos aspectos centrais da obra de Hoffmann, como: a divisão entre mundo interior (do maravilhoso) – ao qual os sonhos estão relacionados – e mundo exterior (da realidade cotidiana); as diversas formas como essa divisão é marcada; e a relação que Hoffmann estabelece entre esses mundos. Trabalhamos com uma noção ampliada de sonho, que não os restringe às experiências oníricas que acompanham o sono. Assim, seguimos a argumentação de Heimes (2009), segundo a qual os sonhos, em Hoffmann, estão associados a outros estados em que nos afastamos do consciente – como o delírio ou a loucura –, e parecem se relacionar com algo demoníaco. No segundo capítulo, voltamo-nos para o conto “O homem da areia”, apresentando-o e analisando como os sonhos são representados nele. A figura mitológica do homem da areia está desde sua origem associada aos sonhos e recebe, nesta narrativa, um caráter amedrontador. Para ressaltar os aspectos oníricos da obra, partimos da separação entre o mundo dos sonhos e o mundo do que seria a realidade cotidiana no conto – separação essa que demonstramos estar atrelada à ótica de certos personagens. Logo após, assinalamos alguns elementos que marcam e caracterizam as experiências pertencentes ao mundo dos sonhos no texto, tais como imagens flutuantes e alucinantes; intensidade e fogo; e nuvens, fumaça e vapor. Apontamos também que certos personagens e objetos indicam o momento de transição para esse mundo. Neste trabalho, demonstramos que as experiências oníricas do personagem principal apresentam caráter pressagiador, e que essa característica possui ligação com o destino trágico e inevitável temido por ele. Além disso, a divisão entre os mundos é evidenciada como problemática, por conta da incerteza quanto a que mundo atribuir os acontecimentos narrados. Essa característica de não se poder atribuir ao certo os acontecimentos a um mundo real ou a algo ilusório introduz a narrativa dentro do gênero fantástico, segundo os critérios de Tzvetan Todorov (2007). Também mostramos o lado perigoso do envolvimento do personagem principal com o mundo dos sonhos, uma vez que o leva a se desprender da realidade. Esse desprendimento ocorre gradativamente, havendo inicialmente uma oscilação entre os mundos, culminando na loucura do personagem – que comparamos a um grande pesadelo. Analisamos, neste contexto, a contribuição da revivescência de acontecimentos pressagiados em sonhos anteriores para o enlouquecimento do personagem. Por último, trazemos observações sobre a figuração do homem da areia no conto, mostrando sua ligação com o mundo dos sonhos, assim como sua conexão com a morte. / This dissertation analyzes the ways in which dreams are represented in the short story “The Sandman”, by E.T.A. Hoffman, and discusses some of the functions they perform in it. The existence of a split between a world of dreams and a world of everyday reality is pointed out, and features of the experiences related to the dream world, as well as forms of access to it, are indicated. In the first chapter, I present the author along with some features of his work, including the connection between the latter and dreams. Drawing on the work of Pikulik (1987), I discuss some of the central features of Hoffmann’s work, such as: the division between the inner world (the world of the marvelous) – to which dreams are related – and the outer world (the world of everyday reality); the many ways in which this division is drawn; and the links that Hoffmann establishes between those worlds. I employ a broadened notion of dream – one that is not limited to the dream experiences that accompany sleep. I thus follow Heimes’ (2009) argument that, in Hoffmann, dreams are associated to further mental states in which we slip away from consciousness – such as delusion or madness – and that appear to be related to something demonic. In the second chapter, I turn to the story “The Sandman”: I first present it and then analyze the way dreams are represented in it. The mythical character referred to as Sandman has been from its origin associated to dreams, and in this story it is presented as frightening. In order to highlight the dreamlike features of the story, I draw on the division between the world of dreams and the world of what is portrayed as everyday reality in the story – a division that I show to be linked to the points of view of certain characters. I then point out some of the features that mark and specify those experiences belonging to the world of dreams in the text, such as floating and hallucinatory images; intensity and fire; and clouds, smoke and vapor. I also remark that certain characters and objects indicate moments of transition into that world. I further show that the protagonist’s dream experiences function as omens, and that this feature is linked to the tragic and inevitable fate feared by him. Moreover, the division between the two worlds is shown to be problematic, since it is not clear to which of them the narrated events should be assigned. The fact that the events cannot be unequivocally assigned to the real world or interpreted as illusions makes the story an instance of the fantastic genre, according to Tzvetan Todorov’s (2007) criteria. I also show the dangerous side to the protagonist’s connection to the world of dreams, as it leads him away from reality. Such depart from reality develops gradually, there being initially an oscillation between worlds which later culminates in the protagonist’s madness – which I compare to a vast nightmare. In this connection, I also analyze the part played in the protagonist’s madness by the resurgence of events foreshadowed in dreams. Lastly, I make remarks on the way the Sandman is portrayed in the story, showing his connection both to the world of dreams and to death.

S’appuyant sur les théories esthétiques des frères Schlegel, de Novalis et de Schelling, ce travail s’attache à analyser les discours esthétiques et scientifiques dans Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion d’E.T.A. Hoffmann et à étudier dans quelle mesure et jusqu’à quel point l’écrivain se réapproprie les réflexions de ces premiers romantiques et s’en distancie. Confronté au philistinisme, aux malveillances d’autrui et à ses démons intérieurs, l’artiste sérapiontique poursuit un idéal tant social que psychique. Rêveurs, fous, enfants ou encore sous influence magnétique, les personnages hoffmanniens sont tous en quête de reconnaissance et d’identité. Polyformes, polymorphes et hétérogènes, centrés sur l’interaction artistique, le travail de création et la réception, Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion créent une sorte d’« œuvre d’art totale » avant la lettre où se mêlent aussi bien les sciences que les arts. / Using the aesthetic theories of the Schlegel brothers, Novalis and Schelling, this thesis examines aesthetic and scientific discourse as it appears in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Serapion Brethren and considers to what extent Hoffmann appropriates early Romantic thought or distances himself from it. Faced with the philistinism and maliciousness of others and with his own interior demons, the Serapiontic artist pursues both a social and psychic ideal. Dreamers, madmen, children or those who are under the influence of magnetidm, Hoffmann’s characters are all seeking recognition and an identity. Polymorphous and heterogeneous, centered on artistic interaction and on the work of creation and reception, The Serapion Brethren is a type of ‘total work of art’ before its time in which the sciences and the arts come together.

S'appuyant sur les théories esthétiques des frères Schlegel, de Novalis et de Schelling, ce travail s'attache à analyser les discours esthétiques et scientifiques dans Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion d'E.T.A. Hoffmann et à étudier dans quelle mesure et jusqu'à quel point l'écrivain se réapproprie les réflexions de ces premiers romantiques et s'en distancie. Confronté au philistinisme, aux malveillances d'autrui et à ses démons intérieurs, l'artiste sérapiontique poursuit un idéal tant social que psychique. Rêveurs, fous, enfants ou encore sous influence magnétique, les personnages hoffmanniens sont tous en quête de reconnaissance et d'identité. Polyformes, polymorphes et hétérogènes, centrés sur l'interaction artistique, le travail de création et la réception, Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion créent une sorte d'" œuvre d'art totale " avant la lettre où se mêlent aussi bien les sciences que les arts.

This thesis interprets four of Schumann’s works in the light of the Hoffmann fictions with which they seem to be associated. Unlike previous studies, it deals with each of the four works, treating them as aesthetic entities enhanced by literary relationships that are not primarily programmatic, nor primarily a matter of formal parallels. Each work emerges both in a new light and as it always was. Carnaval (1834-37) appears as a dizzying comedy of theatrical vignettes and character, in the spirit of the German literary understanding of Italian carnival (including in Hoffmann), and Fantasiestücke (1837-38) as a humorous sequence of dream images, resonating with literary tales of the artist’s development, not least those in Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke. Kreisleriana (1838), a finished masterpiece, suggests improvisations on melodic fragments appearing also in popular tunes used both in trivial variation sets and in Bach’s Goldberg Variations – which figure in Hoffmann’s Kreisleriana as opposed emblems of the philistine and the profound. Nachtstücke (1839-40) creates from plain rondos a paradoxically unsettled set, expressive of profound mental disturbances explored by Hoffmann’s book of that name. I bring out in each work previously unexamined patterns of melody, tonality, metre, sonority and form, showing how these become threads expressive of drama, emotion or symbolism. Unusually, I do not take Schumann’s approach over the 1830s as static: increasingly powerful musical means gave the music greater independence from supporting words, and what Schumann called ‘poetic’ threads increasingly coincide with core musical processes. Equally unusually, I describe those processes as resonating simultaneously with Schumann’s titles, with his culture including Hoffmann, and with his concerns around the time of composition as documented in his letters, criticism, diaries and Mottosammlung. Unlike previous work the thesis treats its subject consistently at three levels. My approach to the interpretation of the individual works at the first level is consonant with Schumann’s aesthetics as described at the second: there I focus more sharply than previous treatments on his stated view that musical works can ‘express’ ‘remote interests’ including literature, and on how he thought that possible – points that, given sensitivity to contemporary connotations and to context, emerge from his writings. Finally, at a third level, I reflect on the approach in the light of strands of musicological and intellectual thought in Schumann’s day and since.