Description
Book SynopsisA collection of essays examining the influence of Kant on Heinrich von Kleist. The great and eccentric German writer Heinrich von Kleist, famous for his enigmatic dramas and novellas, read the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1801. A series of letters written around this time speak of the distresshe felt as he absorbed the implications of Kantian thought. This sense of distress -- long considered important to understanding Kleist's subsequent works -- has become known to Kleist scholars as the 'Kant crisis,' and marks Kleist's abandonment of the hope of gaining metaphysical certainty about his life. But it has never been established which texts of Kant Kleist actually read, how well he understood them, and why they precipitated such despair. Kleisthimself -- aside from one paraphrasing of Kant in a letter of 1801 -- was never explicit about what he called this 'sad philosophy.' Yet the distress seems never to have left him and remains an abiding preoccupation throughout his dramas and stories. This collection of essays, all in German language, represents the most recent work of prominent scholars in the field. It takes the pervasive sense of metaphysical crisis in Kleist's works as a startingpoint. In the context of Kleist's response to Kant, the essays deal with his subversive treatment of the literary motifs and genres of his day, and with the ambiguity of truth in his works -- for his characters and readers alike.In tracing the source of crisis to specific writings of Kant and to other Enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau and Wieland, the essays show Kleist's complex dialogue with the Enlightenment to be an important new approach to understanding this notoriously difficult writer. Tim Mehigan is Professor of German in the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Otago, New Zealand.
Trade ReviewA stimulating, indeed enlightening, set of papers which, taken together, summarize and advance the critical discussion on Kleist's precarious position between the Enlightenment and romanticism. * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES *
A rich set of critical studies which will be of interest to Kleist scholars everywhere. * GOETHE YEARBOOK *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Tim Mehigan Kleist, Kant und die Aufklärung - Tim Mehigan Heinrich von Kleist--die Geburt der Moderne aus dem Geiste "neuer Aufklärung" - Hans-Jochen Marquardt Kleists Kritik der Urteilskraft: Zum Erhabenen in "Das Erdbeben in Chili" - David Roberts Im Bad der Erkenntnis: Die Entfaltung eines Motivs in Kleists Werk - Sabine Doering Kleists Szenarien der Wahrheitsfindung - Anthony Stephens--til 7/03 Prüfungen der Unschuld: Zeuge und Zeugnis bei Kleist und Rousseau - Christian Moser Amphitryon und das experimentum crucis des Gefühls - Tim Mehigan Anekdote und Novelle: Zum Problem literarischer Mimesis im Werk Heinrich von Kleists - Gerhard Neumann Gerahmte Rahmen: Kommunikation und Metakommunikation in Kleists "Marquise von O..." - Bianca Theisen Die Fährnisse der verklärten Liebe: Über Kleists Käthchen von Heilbronn - Yixu Lu "Eine Tragödie von der Burst Heruntergehustet": Die Darstellung von Katharsis in Kleists Pethesilea - Gabriele Brandstetter Wann ist der Starke am Mächtigsten?: Über Helden und Zuschauer bei Kleist - Tod und Profit im "Michael Kohlhaas" - Ingeborg Harms
