A Study of the Major Novellas of E.T.A. Hoffmann

Erscheinungsjahr 2003
ISBN: 978-1-57113-271-0
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 1, 207 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 431 g

Reihe: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture

Analysis of the novellas of the German Romantic writer and composer, focusing on the issues of art and the artist.

The German Romantic writer and composer E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) -- perhaps best known to the English-speaking world through his Nutcracker and through Jacques Offenbach's opera Tales of Hoffmann -- struggled toconvince his predominantly bourgeois public of the merits of art and literature. Not surprisingly, many of his most important novellas are bound up with the dilemmas of art and the challenges faced by the Romantic artist, and itis these Künstlernovellen that are the focus of this study. Birgit Röderargues that Hoffmann's artists are not simply individuals who create works of art, but rather figures through whom the author explores the predicamentof those who reject the conventional world of bourgeois reality and seek to assert the claims of the imagination in a world dominated by prosaic rationalism. Contrary to previous scholars however, Röder demonstrates that Hoffmann's novellas clearly warn against a view of art as an autonomous aesthetic realm cut off from the world of reality. This is particularly apparent in Röder's analysis of gender relations in Hoffmann's oeuvre -- especially the relationship between (male) artist and (female) muse -- which underlines the extent to which art, literature, and the imagination are inseparably bound up with the prevailing social reality. The novellas that are given extensive consideration are Das Fräulein von Scuderi, Der Sandmann, Die Jesuiterkirche in G., Die Fermate, Der Artushof, Don Juan, Das Sanctus, and Rat Krespel.

Birgit Röder teaches German language and literature at the University of Reading, UK.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Röder, Birgit

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Deutsche Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Einzelne Autoren: Monographien & Biographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Gattungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Hoffmann and the Romantic Dilemma
Das Fräulein von Scuderi
Der Sandmann
Die Jesuiterkirche in G.
Die Fermate
Der Artushof
Don Juan
Das Sanctus
Rat Krespel
Conclusions
Works Consulted
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Röder, Birgit
Birgit Röder teaches German language and literature at the University of Reading, UK.