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  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN: MIND,MYTHOLOGY AND MEANING

    T H E ROMANTIC SEARCH for a new mythology is ironic or two-faced.Myth is a very conservative structure, looking to the past to explain thepresent and influence the future, yet the Romantics aimed to be revolution-ary. Traditional mythology is based on a common pool of ideas, yet theRomantics conceived it as something personal; a subjective, even idiosyn-cratic way to interpret the world, a "willkuhrliche Mythologie".1 A. W.Schlegel, Friedrich Schlegel and Schelling wrote tracts on mythology.Novalis created a model of Romantic myth in Heinrich von Ofterdingen.2

    Friedrich Schlegel in particular (in "Rede iiber die Mythologie")criticised the fact that the present-day author had to write in a vacuum, asno generally recognised framework of meaning, such as mythology, was inplace. The Romantics exploited this fact as an opportunity to censure thecontemporary literary scene, but they simultaneously reinterpreted it in apositive sense to highlight similar situations in the past where great minds,such as Dante and Shakespeare, had developed their own mythology; whatFriedrich Schlegel calls "eine indirekte Mythologie",3 and A. W. Schlegel"eine specielle Mythologie [. . .] wenn namlich der Dichter dem Zeitalterso gelaufig war, dafi seine Bilder fast in lebendige Anschauung uber-gingen",4 while Schelling writes of a "partielle Mythologie", created "ausdem gesamten Stoffe ihrer Zeit", that is, from cultural orthodoxy, contem-porary and historical, "aber keine universelle, allgemein symbolische",which was the ultimate Romantic goal.5 The Romantics were perfecdyaware of, and comfortable with, the contradictions in their concept of thenew mythology. Its double edge appealed to them as a means to recreatea sense of collective identity while promoting individual creativity. Aboveall, this new mythology was not a retreat to primitivism. The intention wasto transcend enlightenment ideas, rather than to destroy them: to create a"Mythologie der Vernunft",6 a higher level of mythology.

    A. W. Schlegel drew attention to myth as one particular perspective onself and world.7 Drawing on the ideas of Herder, he compared myth withlanguage: both, he writes, are social structures ("der Nationalmythus isteine gemeinschaftliche Ansicht der Natur und der Welt, die ein gesamtesVolk hat"),8 symbolic structures ("der Mythus ist eine Bildersprache dermenschlichen Vernunft und der verschwisterten Phantasie"),9 and poeticstructures ("der Mythus ist, wie die Sprache, ein allgemeines, ein notwen-diges Produkt des menschlichen Dichtungsvermogens, gleichsam eineUrpoesie des Menschengeschlechtes").10 Far from being a "Naturprodukt"language, and by extension myth, is already an "Abdruck des menschlichenGeistes".11

    Forum for Modem Language Studies 1996 Vol. xxxii Mo. 3

  • 252 SHEILA DICKSON

    As a social structure, myth, whether national folklore or artificiallycreated by a great mind, is founded on the traditional and topical ideas ofa particular society ("der Mythus richtet sich nach den Bedurfnissen einesVolkes"),12 and so its inbuilt meaning would be familiar to contemporaryreaders, and therefore comforting to them, even if they did not accept it.They could feel themselves to be part of a community, or, if they did not,they would at least be sure of their ground.13

    The theory that we live in a symbolic universe, that we perceive ourselvesand the world through the media of images, symbols and rites, is advancedby A. W. Schlegel, who argues that neither poetry nor language is originallyan instrument for communication, but rather a creative activity:Das Medium der Poesie aber ist eben dasselbe, wodurch der menschliche Geistuberhaupt zur Besinnung gelangt, und seine Vorstellungen zu willklihrlicherVerioiiipfung und Aufierung in die Gewalt bekommt: die Sprache. Daher ist sieauch nicht an Gegenstande gebunden, sondern sie schafft sich die ihrigen selbst.Poetry is "uberhaupt die kiinstlerische Erfindung [. . .] eine wahreSchopfung und Hervorbringung".14

    In traditional mythology this is restricted by the original literal belief inthe stories told. Friedrich Schlegel defined original or old mythology as"sich unmittelbar anschlieGend und anbildend an das Nachste, Lebendigsteder sinnlichen Welt" and Schelling argued that primitive man could onlyunderstand a "sinnliche Bezeichnung der Begriffe".15 Consequendy, allabstract ideas were transformed into pictures.16

    In more sophisticated poetry, this definition of the symbol as producinga world of its own distinguishes it from allegory. Novalis wrote: "Bild -nicht Allegorie, nicht Symbol eines Fremden: Symbol von sich selbst."17Schelling defined the terminology thus:diejenige Darstellung, in welcher das Allgemeine das Besondere bedeutet, istSchematismus. Diejenige Darstellung, aber, in welcher das Besondere dasAllgemeine bedeutet, [. . .] ist allegorisch. Die Synthesis dieser beiden, [. . .] wobeide absolut eines sind, ist das Symbolische.18

    This theoretical ideal is, in his own judgement, best put into practice inmythology. He writes:denn die Forderung der absoluten Kunstdarstellung ist: Darstellung mit volligerIndifferenz, so namlich, dafi das Allgemeine ganz das Besondere, das Besonderezugleich das ganze Allgemeine ist, nicht es bedeutet. Die Forderung ist poetischgelost in der Mythologie. Denn jede Gestalt in ihr ist zu nehmen als das, was sieist, denn eben dadurch wird sie auch genommen als das, was sie bedeutet. DieBedeutung ist hier zugleich das Sein selbst, iibergegangen in den Gegenstand, mitihm eins.19

    Meaning is Being. This raises mythology to "die absolute Poesie",20 inwhich the dichotomy of intellectual and sensual, of ideas and pictures, canbe overcome. Schelling's term for this was intellektuelle Anschauung.21 A. W.

  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN 253

    Schlegel too identified the interplay of sensual and intellectual data inmyth: "alles Korperliche [ist] beseelt und das Unsichtbare [wird] zurErscheinung gebracht", creating an "innige [. . .] Verschmelzung desGeistlichen und Sinnlichen".22 Rather than from a sensual picture, how-ever, characteristic of the directness of naive myth, new mythology mustgrow "aus der tiefsten Tiefe des Geistes".23 In Schiller's and FriedrichSchlegel's terms, it is sentimental.24

    As a symbolic form, myth activates the imagination, whereas science,for example, would activate reason. In "Von der Mythologie" A. W.Schlegel compares mythology to the pictures of the imagination and dreamand describes it as a "dichterische Weltansicht, d.h. eine solche, worin diePhantasie herrscht", which is similar to Friedrich's concept of mythologyas "ein hieroglyphischer Ausdruck der umgebenden Natur in dieserVerklarung von Phantasie und Liebe".25

    As an imaginary structure, A. W. Schlegel understood myth as "eineNatur im poetischen Kostiim", that is, as already in a sense poetry, whichcan be transfigured again in art, therefore as half way between the uncon-scious perception of reality and the self-conscious creation of a work ofart.26 It follows from this that myth is a means to an end rather than anend in itself. Two further quotations from A. W. Schlegel illustrate thispoint:

    Die Mythologie endlich ist gleichsam eine Organisation, welche sich der poetischeGeist aus der elementarischen Welt anbildet und durch dessen Medium, mit dessenOrganen er nun alle iibrigen Gegenstande anschaut und ergreift.Fur die Poesie im hohern Sinne ist er (der Mythus) aber nicht Selbstzweck, sondernMittel zur Erreichung dichterischer Zwecke, Organ und Medium der Darstellung.27

    Self-conscious poetry, by exploiting mythology poetically, creates a higherlevel of poetry, that is, Poesie der Poesie.26

    In these terms - social, symbolic and poetic - the desire to create a newmythology became synonymous with the Romantic programme for aes-dietic renewal.29 Romantic myth aimed to re-establish a sense of order andinterrelatedness. For Schelling, myth should rediscover its role as "Lehrerinder Menschheit". He perceived the need for a "gemeinschafdicheAnschauung" and stated: "nur aus der geistigen Einheit eines Volks, auseinem wahrhaft offendichen Leben, kann die wahre und allgemeingultigePoesie sich erheben."30 At this point, Friedrich Schlegel believed, one wouldno longer need books, as mythology would encompass die knowledge ofthe whole community.31 In these terms he envisaged new mythology as ameans to reunite the chaos of nature with the innermost depths of thespirit; the "Bertihrung" of "Chaos" and "Liebe" would generate a harmo-nious world.32 Schelling believed that mythology offered hope for "dasWiedereinswerden der Menschheit", while A. W. Schlegel dubbed it "dieBindung und Zusammenfassung der poetischen Elemente zu einer Ansicht

  • 254 SHEILA DICKSON

    des Weltganzen", as "eine Organisation, welche sich der poetische Geist ausder elementarischen Welt anbildet".33 This could only be done symbolically,due to the need for and impossibility of complete communication, of whichthe Romantics were acutely aware, and should only be done symbolically,as in Romantic terms this represented the highest form of artistic expression.

    By identifying the social, symbolic and poetic functions of myth we havebeen concentrating attention on the content and import of myth. Yet if weunderstand myth as a structural principle of the human mind, representinga certain way of seeing, form will be more significant than content. Thegravitation of interest from content to form underpins Romantic aesthetics.Friedrich Schlegel wrote:

    Im Anfang der Kunst ist der Stoff das herrschende Princip derselben, und in steterProgression geht sie von diesem Princip zum Princip der Form iiber. Die altestePoesie ist ein bloBes Wiedergeben des Empfangenen, ein Spiegel der Natur.Novalis condemned as "roh und gestaldos, sich bloB des Inhalts wegenmitzuteilen".34 What is told is not as important as how it is told, or, to putthis another way, the information relayed is not as interesting as thepresentation of that information. For Schelling, a myth is quite clearly amyth through its form, not its content:

    Das Mythische an einem mythischen Philosophem betrift [. . .] bloB die Form desPhilosophems. Der durch einen Mythus versinnlichte Satz mag wahr oder falschseyn, der Mythus bleibt, auf jeden Fall. Vom Inhalt der mythischen Philosophichaben wir also nur in sofern zu reden, als ein verschiedner Inhalt in einem ganzverschiednen VerhaltniB zum Mythus stehen kann.35

    Passing dirough this imaginative, symbolic medium of mythology gener-ates endless change and recreation; as there is in nature, and in art: "Wiedie Mythologie eine Umschaffung der Natur ist, so ist sie selbst insunendliche poetischer Umschaffungen empfanglich."36 These principles ofmetamorphosis and reinterpretation yield, in turn, the possibility of infinitefree association, "alles ist Beziehung und Verwandlung, angebildet undumgebildet";37 ultimately the inexhaustible mydi. Novalis wrote on thenovel "der Roman ist gleichsam die freye Geschichte - gleichsam dieMythologie der Geschichte. (Mythol[ogie] hier in meinem Sinn, als freyepoetische Erfindung, die die Wircklichkeit sehr mannichfach symbolisirtetc.)."38

    Friedrich Schlegel goes on to argue that even after all possible reinter-pretation, a constant core will always remain. He writes:

    Weder dieser Witz noch eine Mythologie konnen bestehn ohne ein erstesUrspriingliches und Unnachanmliches, was schlechthin unaufloslich ist, was nachalien Umbildungen noch die alte Natur und Kraft durchschimmern laBt.39

    However, SchlegeFs own argument makes clear mat diis core is a startingpoint for infinite reformulation and is definable purely as an opaque,

  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN 255

    symbolic medium. Any understanding of the substance of a myth will thusbe intuitive rather than factual. Rather than knowledge, this imagina-tive, poetic material requires belief, a key concept for Novalis and allRomantics.40

    There seem to be two schools of thought regarding the exploitation ofmyth in Hoffmann's work. One analyses the myths at face value, uncoverssources, and points to evidence of Hoffmann's own personal contribution.The other denies any real significance or importance to the myths per se,which are seen as decorative, derivative, even facetious.

    If we take the second approach first, we will understand the myths as apurely idiosyncratic creation with no wider, social resonance,41 or as partof Hoffmann's generally ironic stance towards life and art.42 This accordsthem no more than a strategic function, which would tie in with the keyconcept of Duplizitdt.*3 Since only the poetic soul can appreciate myth inHoffmann's works (the philistine reacts with incomprehension), one canargue that it is radically subjective, to the point where the golden age isreduced to the level of individual happiness.44 Although, therefore, incertain tales - and Der goldne Top/ and Prinzessin Brambilla are the bestexamples the Romantic world view is given the conceptual frameworkof a myth, the fact that this is different in each Marchen can be taken asevidence that Hoffmann presents no coherent philosophy in his oeuvre;45each myth derives from and is dependent on the specific setting, charactersand story; therefore it, like Hoffmann's prose in general, is perspectivised.46And so, writes John Reddick, we can only look at each individual case: areflection of the fragmentary picture of reality and of personalityHoffmann's work offers.47 One of Hoffmann's recent biographers, RudigerSafranski, writes:

    Mythologie ist bei Hoffmann nicht Metaphysik, sondern Artistik, nicht raunendeBedeutungsschwere, sondern ein subjektives Spiel mit Bedeutungen, einPolymythismus, der zuletzt doch nur daran glaubt, daB man an vieles glaubenkann.48

    This approach, far from removing Hoffmann from the Romantic tradi-tion, is compatible with what we have defined as the goal of aestheticreunification of self and world through the medium of imaginative, sym-bolic, inexhaustible myth. In similar terms to the early Romantic theorists,and with similar emphasis, Hoffmann repeatedly identifies the importanceof dream and the imagination as organs of reality or ways of seeing. InPrinzessin Brambilla he describes the imagination as "jene [...] unversiegliche[. . .] Diamantgrube in unserem Innern" and praises dream (not of sleep,but the dream we dream our whole lives long) as a "Strahl des Himmelsin unserer Brust entglommen, [der] mit der unendlichen Sehnsucht dieErfullung verheiBt" (Sp W p. 260).49 But he emphasises that feeling and

  • 256 SHEILA DICKSON

    experience are only the first step in the process of transfiguring themartistically into Poesie der Poesie. Hoffmann continues:

    Hochbegabt die, die sich dieses Eigentums recht bewuBt! Noch hochbegabter undselig zu preisen die, die ihres innern Perus Edelsteine nicht allein zu erschauen,sondern auch heraufzubringen, zu schleifen und ihnen prachtigeres Feuer zuendocken verstehen. (Ibid.)This is the poetic aspect of Hoffmann's myth. Due to the loss of thedirectness of naive myth, there is now great difficulty involved in puttingideas into words, which the narrator in Der goldne Top/ experiences all toovividly (FN p. 250).

    When reading the finished products in Der goldne Top/ and PrinzessinBrambilla, contemporary readers would have experienced no difficulties inunderstanding the mythological material, that is, they would not haveconsidered the content idiosyncratic. This generation would of course befamiliar with Novalis, Schelling, Schubert et al., even if only at second,third, or even fourth hand. Hoffmann often mentions his favourite authors,characters and episodes in his works. This intertextuality is one importantstrand running through Romantic thought and art. Within the firstapproach to Hoffmann's myths - taking them at face-value there areconvincing analyses of his creations.50 Striking similarities can be foundbetween Der goldne Top/ and Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen.51 Der goldne Top/has also been interpreted as a practical illustration of Friedrich Schlegel'stheory of Transzendentalpoesu.52 The myths of Atlantis and Urdar follow thestandard triadic pattern of historical development popularised by Schubertof harmony, fall, and regained harmony. Fritz Strich writes that Hoffmann"hiillte seine an Jakob Bdhme und Novalis gemahnende Idee in die roman-tische Mythologie der Elementargeister ein";53 in other words: he hascreated a mythology from cultural material, past and present.

    The conventional mythical tales told in Der goldne Top/ and PrinzessinBrambilla contrast with Hoffmann's radical prose. In his stories of Adantisand Urdar Hoffmann is giving his audience what they want and expect;an indication that, for Hoffmann, myth has a definite social function, andfurthermore, an indication that in the content of his myth he is beingconservative, and myth is always conservative. The myths are in manyways the least aesthetically satisfying or challenging features, yet in eachcase they are the crux of the story.54 This Romantic, new-old myth, is"easy" symbolism, as opposed to an infinite free play of association. Farfrom being revolutionary it is quite old-fashioned. Because the ideas wereso commonplace when Hoffmann was writing, the myth has even degener-ated into a cliche.55

    It is important, however, to bear in mind how Hoffmann exploitsRomantic mydi. It is quite true that he does not merely retell the stories,they are wrought into ironic and ambiguous constructions, as the second

  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN 257

    group of critics mentioned above has argued. From the conclusion thatfrom being conservative myth has descended to the trivial, we can gofurther to argue that Hoffmann has developed his own new mythology inaccordance with the main Romantic precepts: not through the mythsthemselves, but through the way they are told, through the way they relateto the rest of the story. This is new, radical, sophisticated and idiosyn-cratic.56 We must, in other words, combine both critical approaches toHoffmann's mythology, and we can do this by accounting for bom theircontent and form.

    If myth has become mere window dressing, a decoration or game, thiswas the reality of the society within which Hoffmann was writing. It is areflection on that society rather than on our author. Hoffmann believed inAtlantis, Urdar, the Golden Age. His readers did not. Yet the former couldnot sustain this belief within the "eisernen Zwang der Wirklichkeit",57while the latter could assimilate the concepts and accommodate themwithin their world picture, thus rendering them harmless. For the averagebourgeois reader, this was an interesting idea, an amusing anecdote. A truebelief in myth was no longer present, yet the empty ideas and formulaeremained. For Hoffmann it was an ideal to strive for, an object of longing,yet no more than an escape, a way to make life more bearable. But withoutthis dimension, however subjective, relative or idiosyncratic it has become,Dergoldne Topfand Prinzessin Brambilla would be reduced to just a bourgeois,philistine world. And what could be more trivial than that? So whenHoffmann undermines the myths it is both a bluff and a double-bluff, ashe is attacking his own and his audience's perspective. In Der goldne Topfwe, the readers, must constantly ask ourselves "who believes what, andwhat can we believe?" Similarly, in the foreword to Prinzessin BrambillaHoffmann rejects any philosophical meaning behind his lighthearted tale,then slyly suggests that such a conceptual framework ("die aus irgendeinerphilosophischen Ansicht des Lebens geschopfte Hauptidee") is necessaryto the imaginative fairy story (Sp W p. 211). This is not even sitting on thefence, but being on both sides at once. In this way the content, the constantcore, is subverted: it becomes a contradiction in terms.

    It is critically well-established that each of Hoffmann's stories as anaesthetic whole may be interpreted as a schema of possibilities, in whicheach element balances the others.58 Myth is always only one part of thewhole. Like a crystal or an opaque mirror the work brings out a wealth ofcontradictory perspectives. In Dergoldne Topf, for example, we are presentedwith different versions of Anselmus' (and Veronika's) adventures. JoachimSchwanenberger accuses Hoffmann in this work of tempting us to interpret,while demonstrating that we must possess a true belief, "ein poetischesGemiit".59 In fact, both approaches are equally feasible, and their conclu-sions equally indeterminate. With this possibility of free association, ofinfinite interpretation, which we have already identified widi respect to

  • 258 SHEILA DICKSON

    Romantic theory, the reader or listener can believe what he or she wants,the meaning is not fixed. In fact, we are constrained to find our ownexplanations. So where can we look for meaning in Hoffmann's myths?

    Hoffmann departs from what one might call traditional Romantic newmythology in at least two significant, even radical, ways. First, the Romanticmyth itself has become the topical and traditional matter, the culturalorthodoxy of the contemporary world, from which he creates his myth.Second, by relativising the myth, even trivialising it in his poetic work, hehas taken the received material one stage higher. As an artistic representa-tion of mythology it is, in any case, Poesie der Poesie, but, by conferring thisparticular self-conscious form upon the myth, Hoffmann goes one, or eventwo better: Mythologie der Mythologie, perhaps?

    Myth is not always, not even predominandy, part of Hoffmann's aestheticuniverse. The higher or supernatural world is present with or without it.In Der goldne Topf and Prinzessin Brambilla, however, high Romantic myth isa story in itself, separated from the rest of the text.60 Consequendy we arenot allowed to view it merely as another example of the interruption ofordinary life by the supernatural, we are nudged into a different interpretat-ive mode. Whereas the Duplizitdt is always there, in Der goldne Topf andPrinzessin Brambilla it is given a context, an imaginative and philosophicaljustification. This is different in each case and may be called into questionin the same breath, but this merely reinforces the ambiguity of contentand virtuosity of form. By virtue of being suggested, an abstract, figurativedimension is added to the "true" story; in other words, the intellectual ideais added to the sensual picture, the general to the particular. Calling theformer into question, even dismissing it, is in itself an intellectual exercise.This leads us to the symbolic aspect of Hoffmann's myth.

    Hoffmann's understanding of the concepts of symbol and allegory havebeen discussed by Kenneth Negus and Petra Kuchler.61 From statementsin his works we can demonstrate diat the former is given aesthetic pre-cedence. Heerbrand, the philistine counterpart to Anselmus in Der goldneTopf, and so clearly not a favoured perspective, attempts to explainaway Veronika's explanation of supernatural events as "eine poetischeAllegorie" (FN p. 249), whereas the Romantic mentor figure in PrinzessinBrambilla, Celionati, alias Filrst Bastianello di Pistoja, dismisses as"Marktschreiertum" any attempt to allegorise the events of die story (SpW p. 324).

    By making the contextual element of the symbol, the visual picture, soaccessible, so easy, Hoffmann could encourage his readers to see themselvesas part of a community, sharing the experience of the myth, and so tobelieve it intuitively rather dian to rationalise it logically. Yet through dieform, the way it is told and the way it is linked with the contemporaryworld, it is a first rung on the ladder to a higher world, "ein paar etwaskraftige Rucke" to set die reader thinking, that is, to respond intellectually

  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN 259

    (SB pp. 599, 354). Hoffmann encourages his readers to see die new mythas part of life (particularly of their lives), not just as an idea. In Der goldneTop/he pleads:

    versuche es, geneigter Leser! (in dem feenhaften Reiche voll herrlicher Wunder[. . .] das uns der Geist so oft, wenigstens im Traume aufschlieBt) die bekanntenGestalten, wie sie taglich [. . .] um dich herwandeln, wiederzuerkennen. Du wirstdann glauben, daB dir jenes herrliche Reich viel naher liege, als du sonst wohlmeintest, welches ich nun eben recht herzlich wtinsche, und dir in der seltsamenGeschichte des Studenten Anselmus anzudeuten strebe. (FN p. 198)62

    Through myth Hoffmann wants to teach his readers to make sense of theirworld individually, to recreate symbolically a sense of unity, by imposingan imaginative perspective upon experience, a process which, in die modernworld, can only be conducted intellectually and indirecdy.

    The problem of consciousness or knowledge is central to Hoffmann'swork. It destroys an original harmony, but is the first step to regaining thisharmony on a higher plane. "Der Gedanke zerstorte die Anschauung, aberdem Prisma des Kristalls [ ] entstrahlt die Anschauung neugeboren,selbst Fotus des Gedankens!" (Sp W p. 253, also p. 257). A literal belief inmyth is a sign of a primitive mind, but one which is in harmony widinature. This is the case with Lindhorst in the third Vigil of Der goldne Topfand Celionati in Prinzessin Brambilla (Sp W p. 258). Both, as Romanticmentor figures, are clearly positive figures, but diey are not the ideal. Anintellectual response is more sophisticated (the term has a negative connota-tion in this context), and is typical of contemporary rationalist, that is non-Romantic thought, but it has lost die intuitive grasp of the whole. Theartist Reinhold suffers from diis, when he construes the myth of Urdar ina purely abstract, figurative way (Sp W p. 258). Surprisingly, and ironically,Lindhorst effects a turn-around in the last Vigil of Der goldne Topf to reduceAdantis to a "poetisches Besitztum [des] innern Sinns" (FN p. 255). Whatis needed is a synthesis of the two, namely a spiritual response, whichachieves a' higher level of insight or wisdom (Erkenntnis) and a harmony ofself and world, "der heilige Einklang aller Wesen" (Sp W pp. 257, 326, FNp. 255), in other words Adantis, Urdar, the Golden Age, or, in FriedrichSchlegeFs terms, a reunion of the chaos of experience with die innermostdepths of the spirit. It could be argued that Anselmus achieves it in thelast Vigil of Der goldne Topf (although other interpretations are equallypossible) and Giacinta and Giglio in Prinzessin Brambilla when they lookinto the Urdarsee and recognise diemselves ("sich erkennen" [Sp W p. 321]).Celionati, who significandy has changed identity to become die Fiirst bynow, identifies this moment clearly as the highest level of being:

    denn ich sage euch, daB ich herkam und jedesmal in der verhangnisvollen Stundeeurer Erkenntnis herkommen werde, um mich mit euch an dem Gedanken zuerlaben, daB wir und alle diejenigen als reich und glUcklich zu preisen, denen es

  • 260 SHEILA DICKSON

    gelang, das Leben, sich selbst, ihr ganzes Sein in dem wunderbaren sonnenhellenSpiegel des Urdarsees zu erschauen und zu erkennen. (Sp W p. 326)At this point the innocence of the primitive, literal mind and the con-sciousness of the sophisticated, speculative mind become one, and Gedankeand Anschauung, Being and Meaning, old and new mythology, aresynonymous.

    Myth, we must remember, is a way of seeing, it is a certain way ofperceiving experience. In Hoffmann's Mdrchen the Philistine's world isconstantly undermined, and yet equally it is reinforced in the sense thatthe Mdrchen prove how easily myth can be subsumed into the everyday: inneither Der goldne Top/nor Prinzessin Brambilla could one be separated fromthe other, and it is the philistines who can best come to terms with this.63It could be said, in conclusion, that Hoffmann is more conservative thanother Romantic myth-creators, as his myth is derivative not original, andyet he is simultaneously more radical, as he goes beyond merely propagatingthe Utopia to according it the status of an infinitely variable yet generallyvalid Romantic symbol.

    SHEILA DICKSONDepartment of Modem LanguagesUniversity of StrathclydeLivingstone Tower26 Richmond StreetGlasgowGi iXHUnited Kingdom

    NOTES1 Fritz Strich, Die Mythologie in der deutschen Literatur von Klopstock bis Wagner, 2 vols (Bern, 1910;

    repr. Tubingen, 1970), Vol. II, p. 342.2 Ernst Behler, Fruhromantik (Berlin, 1992), pp. 232!".

    3 Friedrich Schlegel, "Rede Uber die Mythologie",. Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe, ed. Ernst

    Behler (Munich, 19576*".), Vol. II, p. 319. Further references to this edition are given as FriedrichSchlegel, followed by essay title, volume and page numbers.

    4 A. W. Schlegel, "Vorlesungen uber schone Literatur und Kunst (Berlin 1801-1804), Erster

    Teil; Die Kunstlehre: Mahlerei", Kritische Ausgabe der Vorlesungen, ed. Ernst Behler in Zusammenarbeitmit Frank Jolles, Vol. 1, Vorlesungen uber Asthttik I Ijg8i83 (Paderborn, 1989), p. 356. Furtherreferences to this edition are given as A. W. Schlegel, followed by essay title and page numbers.

    5 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, "System der gesammten Philosophic und der

    Naturphilosophie insbesondere (aus dem handschriftlichen NachlaB)", Sammtlkhe Werke, ed. K. F. A.Schelling (Stuttgart, i856ff), Series I, Vol. 6, p. 572. Further references are given as Schelling,followed by essay title, series, volume and page numbers.

    6 "Das Alteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus", in: Materialien zu Schellings philoso-

    phischen Anfdngen, ed. M. Frank and G. Kurz (Frankfurt am Main, 1975), p. 112. The question ofauthorship has not been finally resolved. This essay has been attributed to Hegel, Schelling andHolderlin. See also "Da ist andere ^eit geworden. . ." Eine Anlhologie poetologischer Entwiirfe der deutschenRmnantik, ed. Adrian Hummel (Munich, 1994), pp. 28-32.

    7 A. W. Schlegel, "Vorlesungen uber philosophische Kunstlehre (Jena 1798-1799), Erster Teil;

    Vom Mythus", p. 49; "Die Kunstlehre: Von der Mythologie", pp. 441-2. See also Behler, pp. 76-7.

  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN 2618 A. W. Schlegel, "Vom Mythus", pp. 58-9. Friedrich Schlegel also bemoaned the present lack

    of "eine[n] festen Halt, eine[n] mutterlichen Boden" in "Rede uber die Mythologie", II, p. 312.9 A. W. Schlegel, "Vom Mythus", p. 49.

    10 Ibid. See also Schelling, "Die Wiedergeburt einer symbolischen Ansicht der Natur ware

    daher der erste Schritt zur Wiederherstellung einer wahren Mythologie. Aber, wie soil diese sichbilden, wenn nicht zuvorderst eine sittliche Totalitat, ein Volk sich selbst wieder als Individuumconstituirt hat?" ("System der gesammten Philosophic", I, 6, p. 572). See also "Einleitung in diePhilosophic der Mythologie", II, 1, pp. 59-60.

    11 A. W. Schlegel, "Die Kunstlehre: Poesie", p. 387. Schelling described language as a "verblich-

    ene Mythologie" ("Einleitung in die Philosophic der Mythologie", II, 1, p. 52).12

    A. W. Schlegel, "Vom Mythus", p. 49.13

    A. W. Schlegel, "Vom Mythus", pp. 49, 58-9. Contrary to his brother, he insisted thatmythology cannot be created by one person.

    14 A. W. Schlegel, "Die Kunstlehre: Poesie", p. 387.

    15 Friedrich Schlegel, "Rede uber die Mythologie", II, p. 312, Schelling, "Ueber Mythen,

    historische Sagen und Philosopheme der altesten Welt", I, 1, p. 65. On Herder, writing on thesame point, see Wolff A. von Schmidt, "Mythologie und Uroffenbarung bei Herder und FriedrichSchlegel", Zeitschri/ljur Religions- und Geistesgcschichte 25 (1973), 32-45 .

    16 Schelling, "Ueber Mythen", I, 1, pp. 65!".

    17 Novalis, Schriften, ed. Paul Kluckhohn and Richard Samuel, W. Kohlhammer (2nd ed.,

    Stuttgart, ig6off.), vol. II, p . 562, Fragment 185.18

    Schelling, "Philosophic der Kunst (aus dem handschriftlichen NachlaB)", I, 5, p. 407.19

    Schelling, ibid. p. 411, my italics.20

    Schelling, ibid. p. 406.21

    See Heinz Gockel, "Die alte neue Mythologie", in: Die Uterarische Friihromantik, ed. Silvio Vietta(Gott ingen, 1983), p . 204, also J o c h e n Fried, Die Symbolik des Realm. Ober alte und neue Mythologie inder Friihromantik (Munich, 1985), p . 146.

    22 A. W . Schlegel, "Vom Mythus" , p . 49. C o m p a r e also Friedrich Schlegel, "e inen groBen

    Vorzug ha t die Mythologie. Was sonst das BewulBtsein ewig flieht, ist hier dennoch sinnlich geistigzu schauen u n d festgehalten, wie die Seele in dem umgebenden Leibe, durch den sie in unserAuge schimmert , zu unserem O h r e spr icht" ( "Rede Ober die Mythologie" , II, p . 318).

    23 Friedrich Schlegel, " R e d e uber die Mythologie" , II , p . 312.

    24 Gockel, p . 201 .

    25 A. W . Schlegel, "Die Kunst lehre: Von der Mythologie" , p . 4 4 1 ; "Die Kunst lehre: Poesie",

    p . 388; Friedrich Schlegel, " R e d e uber die Mythologie" , II , p . 318.26

    A. W. Schlegel, "Die Kunstlehre: Von der Mythologie" , p . 451 , also "Die Kunst lehre: Poesie",p . 387; "Die Kunst lehre: Von der Mythologie" , p . 4 4 1 .

    27 A. W . Schlegel, "Die Kunst lehre: Poesie", p . 393, my italics; "Vom M y t h u s " , p . 49, my italics.

    28 A. W . Schlegel, "Die Kunst lehre: Poesie", p . 388; Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaum, II, p . 204,

    Fragment 238.29

    Behler, p . 259.30

    " D a s Alteste Sys temprogramm des deutschen Ideal ismus", p . i n ; Schelling, " Ideen zu einerPhilosophic der N a t u r " , I, 2, p . 73; "System der gesammten Phi losophic" , I, 6, p . 573.

    31 Friedrich Schlegel, "Philosophische Fragmente zweite Epoche I (1798-1799)" , X V I I I ,

    p . 257, no. 764.32

    Friedrich Schlegel, " R e d e Uber die Mythologie" , II , p . 313, see also p. 322. O n p . 314 Schlegelstresses the need for humani ty to strive " ih r Z e n t r u m zu finden".

    33 Schelling, "System der gesammten Phi losophic" , I, 6, p . 572; A. W. Schlegel, "Die Kunst lehre:

    Poesie", p . 393; ibid., my italics.34

    Friedrich Schlegel, "Die Griechische Li tera tur" , X I , p . 190; Novalis II , p . 281 , Fragment 619.35

    ScheUing, " U e b e r Mythen" , I, 1, p . 72.36

    A. W. Schlegel, "D ie Kunst lehre: Von de r Mythologie" , p . 446. Also see A. W. Schlegel," D i e Kunst lehre : Mahle re i " , p . 354: myth is " i m m e r neu und gegenwart ig" .

    37 Friedrich Schlegel, " R e d e Uber die Mythologie" , II, p . 318.

    38 Novalis II, p . 668. T h e second par t of the quota t ion , reproduced here in brackets, is pr inted

    in the margin in the edition cited. See also Michael N e u m a n n , who argues that Novalis adap teda variety of mythic sources at will: Michael N e u m a n n , Untenvegs vi den Inseln des Scheins. Kunstbegriffeund Uterarische Form in der Romantik von Novalis bis Metzsche (Frankfurt am Main, 1991), p. 104.

  • 262 SHEILA DICKSON39

    Friedrich Schlegel, " R e d e iiber die Mytholog ie" , I I , p . 319.40

    See A r m a n d Nivelle, "Die Auffassung der Poesie in den ' F r a g m e n t e d von Noval is" , Revuedes Langues vwantes 15 (1949), 13855, p . 148.

    41 Fritz Mar t in i , "Die Marchend ich tungen E. T . A. Hoffinanns", in: E. T. A . Hoffmann, Wege

    de r Forschung 486 (Darmstadt , 1976), p p . 155 -84 ; Kenne th Negus , E. T. A . Hoffmann's Other World.The Romantic Author and his "New Mythology" (Phi ladelphia , 1965).

    42 J o h n Redd ick , " E . T . A. H o f f m a n n " , in: German Men of Letters, ed. Alex N a t a n ( L o n d o n ,

    1969), p p . 7 8 - 1 0 3 ; Paul Wolfgang Wiihr l , E. T. A . Hoffmann. "Der goldne Top/". Die UtopU einerdsthetischen Existenz (Pade rbo rn , 1988), p p . 9 5 - 6 .

    43 M a n f r e d M o m b e r g e r , Sonne und Punsch. Die Dissemination des romantischen Kunstbegriffs bei E. T. A .

    Hoffmann (Munich, 1986), pp. 78-9. On Duplizitai see Wolfgang Preisendanz, '"Eines matt ge-schliffnen Spiegels dunkler Widerschein': E. T. A. Hoffmanns Erzahlkunst", in: Wege des Realismus.Zur PoetUc und Erzanlkunst im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Munich, 1977).

    44 See Hans-Joachim Heiner , " D a s 'Go ldene Zeital ter ' in der deutschen Romant ik . Z u r sozial-

    psychologischen Funktion eines T o p o s " , in: Romantikforschung seit 1945, ed. Klaus Peter (Konigstein,1980), p . 296; J o h a n n e s Harnischfeger, Die Hieroglyphen der inneren Welt. Romantikhitik bei E. T. A .Hoffmann (Opladen , 1988), p . 368; Petra Kiichler, Allegorie und Mythos in E. T. A . Hoffmanns "PrinzessinBrambilla" (Berlin, 1984), p . 127.

    45 A r m a n d D e Loecker , Zw'scnen Atlantis und Frankfurt. Ma'rchendichtung und Goldenes Zeitalter bei

    E. T. A. Hoffmann (Frankfurt am Main, 1983), p. 261.46

    John Reddick, "E. T. A. Hoffmann's Der goldne Top/and its 'durchgehaltene Ironie'", ModemLanguage Review 71 (1976), pp. 581, 585, 588f; Harnischfeger, p. 366. Kiichler, p. 33, writes thatHoffmann's works are "Variationen auf der Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens".

    47 See Reddick , "Der goldne Topf; also see " E . T . A. H o f f m a n n " , p . 82 .

    48 Ri id iger Safranski, E. T. A . Hoffmann: Das Ltben eines skeptischen Phantasten ( M u n i c h , 1984),

    pp. 327-8.49

    T h e edi t ion ci ted is E. T. A . Hoffmann, SamlUche Werke in Einzelbandm, ed . Wal te r Mul le r -Se ide let al. (Munich, 1960-65). References to this edition are given after quotations in the text, in thefollowing abbreviated forms: Fantasie- und Nachtstucke FN; Die Serapionsbriider SB; Spate Werke Sp W .

    50 See Rober t Muh lhe r , "Liebestod u n d Spiegelmythe in E. T . A. Hoffmanns M a r c h e n Der

    goldne Topf', in: Dichtung der Krise. Mythos und Psychologie in der Dichtung des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts(Vienna, 1951); Otto Friedrich Bollnow, "Der goldne Topf und die Naturphilosophie der Romantik",in: Unruhe und Geborgenheit im Weltbild neuerer Dichter (Stuttgart, 1953), pp. 20726; also Harnischfeger,op. cit.

    51 Harnischfeger, pp. I78f; Wiihrl, p. 75.

    52 R o l a n d H e i n e , Transzendentalpoesie. Studien zu Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis und E. T. A . Hoffmann

    (Bonn, 1974); Wilhrl p. 76; Preisendanz, op. cit.53

    Strich, n , p. 302.54

    T h e n a r r a t o r makes this po in t in Prinzessin Brambilla, S p W p . 250. Also see E. T. A . HoffmannsBriefwcchsel, ed . Fr iedr ich S c h n a p p , 3 vols ( M u n i c h , 196769), Vol. I I , p . 254, let ter d a t e d 21 .5 .1820 .In Die Serapionsbriider it is s tated tha t every s tory needs a Kern, SB p . 254 .

    55 Harn i schfeger , p . 219; Pe t ra Kt ich le r -Sakel la r iou , Implosion des Bewufitseins. Allegorie und Mythos

    in E. T. A . Hoffmanns Marchenerzdhlungen (Frankfurt a m M a i n , 1989), p . 109.56

    See Bollnow, p . 21 o.57

    E. T. A . Hoffmanns Briefwechsel, Vol. I, p . 162, letter d a t e d 25 .1 .1803 .58

    Redd ick , " E . T . A. H o f f m a n n " , a n d "Der goldne Topf. Kt ichler , op . cit., analyses PrinzessinBrambilla to demonstrate that the idea of harmony in art is expressed in different ways, on differentnarrative levels.

    59 J o a c h i m S c h w a n e n b e r g e r , E. T. A . Hoffmann - Ideal und Wirklkhkeil. Zur Rckonstruktion seiner

    VorsteUungswelt (Frankfurt a m M a i n , 1990), p . 68 .60

    We c a n c o m p a r e these myths wi th t h e p a r o d y in Die Konigsbraul, a n d also Meister Floh, w h i c hdescends into the burlesque. De Loecker identifies a "thin mythical substance" and the lack of an"imposing mythological figure" (p. 235). For an analysis of the changes in Hoffmann's perceptionof myth, see the individual analyses in Negus, also Paul Philip Gubbins, An Examination of theMythology in the Marchen of E. T. A. Hoffmann, unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Queen's University,Kingston, Ontario, Canada (1979), p. 199.

    61 Negus, p. 264; Kiichler, AUegorie und Mythos, p. 36f.; Kflchler-Sakellariou, Implosion des

    Bewufitseins, p . 26f.

  • E. T. A. HOFFMANN 26362

    C o m p a r e Heinr ich Heine ' s compar ison of Hof lmann with Novalis: " D e n n letzterer, mitseinen idealischen Gebi lden, schwebt immer in der blauen Luft, w a h r e n d Hoffinann, mit alienseinen bizarren Fratzen, sich doch immer an der irdischen Reali tat fes tklammert" (Die RomanlischeSchuU, Heimich Heine. Hislorisch-hritische Gesamtausgabt der Werke, ed. Manfred Windfuhr, Vol. 8/1(Hamburg, 1979), p. 193).

    63 In Dcr goldne Top/both Heerbrand and Paulmann suffer a brief spell of madness when faced

    widi Lindhorst's world (in the "punch scene", FN pp. 236-7), but this is short-lived and minorcompared widi Anselmus* confusion. For die most part they accept Lindhorst on dieir terms. See,for example, Heerbrand's reaction to Lindhorst, FN pp. 189, 232 and the reaction to Veronika'sexplanation of her behaviour and Anselmus' fate, FN pp. 248-50. In Prinzessin Brambilla Giacinta,although not a philistine, has her feet more firmly on die ground than Giglio and as a result shehas an easier passage than Giglio. See her account of her adventures, Sp W pp. 271-6.

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