eJournals

Colloquia Germanica
0010-1338
Francke Verlag Tübingen
Es handelt sich um einen Open-Access-Artikel, der unter den Bedingungen der Lizenz CC by 4.0 veröffentlicht wurde.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/31
2021
523-4
Band 52, Heft 3-4 Harald Höbus ch, J oseph D. O ’ Neil (Hr sg.) ISSN 0010-1338 Band 52 T h e m e n h eft: N ew s fro m N a tu re G a s th e ra u s g e b e r: H a rald Z il s und C a rl G eld e rloo s H a rald Z il s a nd C a rl G eld e rloo s : I ntrod u c tion: “ N ews fro m N a tu re ” M ay M e rg e nth ale r: “ o h e yl s a m s N i c ht s ” : Z u r F u n ktion d e s L i c ht s in B ro c ke s ’ N atu rly rik Pete r G ilg e n: N atu ral B ea uty : F ro m S p e c ulative R eali s m to K a ntia n F or m J e nnife r C ai s ley: “ G ra nit I I ” : A n E xploration of G o eth ea n “ S teig e r u n g ” a n d “ Pola rität ” M a riu s R ei s e n e r: A uto(g a m e )- Poie s i s b ei W ilh elm von H u m boldt Pa ul D obr yd e n: Tea c hin g U r b a n H ygie n e in th e Weim a r Kultu r film K . E c kh a rd Kuhn- O s iu s : D a e m o n A b s c o n ditu s : E ntrop y in M a x F ri s c h ’ s H o m o Fa b e r B ria n M c Inni s : T h e E nviron m e nt a s Coloni z e r, M ig ration a s “ Üb e rfre m d u n g ,” a n d S atire in F ra n z H ohle r ’ s “ D ie R ü c ke rob e r u n g ” T hom a s O. B e e b e e: A h u m a ni s m , A r t, Va m py rot e uthi s infe r n a li s , a n d You: A n A nim al A c t b y V ilé m F lu s s e r a n d L oui s B e c narr.digital C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A I n t e r n a t i o n a l e Z e i t s c h r i f t f ü r G e r m a n i s t i k I n t e r n a ti o n a l e Z e it s c h r ift f ü r G e r m a n i s ti k NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 1,3 NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 1,3 26.01.2021 11: 22: 10 26.01.2021 11: 22: 10 senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und 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\ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ schaft Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ schaft Linguistik \ 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Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissen- Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen schaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen schaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen schaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen schaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen schaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen schaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft BUCHTIPP Thomas Boyken, Nikolas Immer Nachkriegslyrik Poesie und Poetik zwischen 1945 und 1965 2020, 229 Seiten €[D] 24,90 ISBN 978-3-8252-5402-5 e ISBN 978-3-8385-5402-0 BUCHTIPP Das Studienbuch arbeitet die Heterogenität der deutschsprachigen Nachkriegslyrik zwischen 1945 und 1965 anhand von Fallanalysen heraus. Die Dichter orientieren sich an typisch deutschen Lyriktraditionen wie der Naturlyrik (z. B. Peter Huchel), favorisieren die Anverwandlung avantgardistischer Schreibweisen (z. B. Gottfried Benn), propagieren den sprachlichen ‚Kahlschlag‘ (z. B. Wolfdietrich Schnurre), orientieren sich an christlich-heilsgeschichtlichen Deutungsmustern (z. B. Werner Bergengruen) oder plädieren für das ‚Gebrauchsgedicht‘ mit politischem Impetus (z. B. Bertolt Brecht). Zugleich ist eine kontinuierliche Auseinandersetzung mit der Formenvielfalt moderner Lyrikströmungen zu beobachten. Die systematische und didaktisch aufbereitete Einführung eröffnet den Zugang zu diesen unterschiedlichen Prozessen. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG \ Dischingerweg 5 \ 72070 Tübingen \ Germany Tel. +49 (0)7071 97 97 0 \ Fax +49 (0)7071 97 97 11 \ info@narr.de \ www.narr.de Die Zeitschrift erscheint jährlich in 4 Heften von je etwa 96 Seiten Abonnementpreis pro Jahrgang: € 135,00 (print)/ € 172,00 (print & online)/ € 142,00 (e-only) Vorzugspreis für private Leser € 101,00; Einzelheft € 45,00/ Doppelheft € 90,00 (jeweils zuzüglich Versandkosten). Bestellungen nimmt Ihre Buchhandlung oder der Verlag entgegen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG, Postfach 25 60, D-72015 Tübingen, Fax 0(7071) 97 97 11 · eMail: info@narr.de Aufsätze - in deutscher oder englischer Sprache - bitte einsenden als Anlage zu einer Mail an hhoebu@uky.edu oder joseph.oneil@uky.edu (Prof. Harald Höbusch oder Prof. Joseph D. O'Neil, Division of German Studies, 1055 Patterson Office Tower, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0027, USA). Typoskripte sollten nach den Vorschriften des MLA Style Manual (2008) eingerichtet sein. Sonstige Mitteilungen bitte an hhoebu@uky.edu © 2021 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Alle Rechte vorbehalten/ All Rights Strictly Reserved Druck und Bindung: CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 0010-1338 NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 6 NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 6 26.01.2021 11: 22: 12 26.01.2021 11: 22: 12 COLLOQUIA GERMANICA BAND 52 C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A Internationale Zeitschrift für Germanistik Herausgegeben von Harald Höbusch und Joseph D. O’Neil Band 52 © 2021 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved Druck und Bindung: CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 0010-1338 INHALT Heft 1-2 Themenheft: Fontane at 200 Introduction: Fontane and the Bilder seiner Zeit Brian Tucker and John B. Lyon � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 3 Fontane Goes to J-School. Theodor Fontanes Englandjahre und die Entstehung journalistischer Autorität im Pre-truth - Zeitalter Petra S. McGillen � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 11 Zeitungslektüre und Zeitungspoetik in Fontanes Romanen Iwan-Michelangelo D’Aprile � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 27 “’s kommt doch alles an die Sonnen”: Theodor Fontanes Unterm Birnbaum und die visuellen Regime massenmedialer Kommunikation im 19� Jahrhundert Willi Barthold � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 47 Landscape and Memory in Theodor Fontane’s Works Erika Kontulainen � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 69 Theodor Fontane in the Age of Appearance: Critical Aestheticism in Die Poggenpuhls Stefan Bronner � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 87 The Abject Face: Schach and Victoire in Fontane’s Schach von Wuthenow Edith H. Krause � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 109 Genre, Gender, and Aesthetic Evaluation of Novels of Adultery: Theodor Fontane’s Effi Briest and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach’s Unsühnbar Peter C. Pfeiffer � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 131 In Spite of Altruism: Empathy and Disgust in the Reception of Effi Briest Brian Tucker � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 149 VI Inhalt Similia similibus? Fontanes homöopathische Poetik in Unwiederbringlich Vera Bachmann � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 169 Nordic Orientalism: Imagination and Power in Unwiederbringlich John B. Lyon � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 187 Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 207 Heft 3-4 Themenheft: News from Nature “News from Nature” Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 211 “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik May Mergenthaler � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 219 Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form Peter Gilgen � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 243 “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” Jennifer Caisley � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 269 Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt Marius Reisener � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 289 Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm Paul Dobryden � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 309 Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber K. Eckhard Kuhn-Osius � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 335 The Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Franz Hohler’s “Die Rückeroberung” Brian McInnis � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 357 Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You: An Animal Act by Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec Thomas O. Beebee � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 377 Reviews � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 395 Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 415 Inhalt “News from Nature” Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 211 “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik May Mergenthaler � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 219 Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form Peter Gilgen � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 243 “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” Jennifer Caisley � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 269 Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt Marius Reisener � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 289 Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm Paul Dobryden � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 309 Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber K. Eckhard Kuhn-Osius � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 335 The Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Franz Hohler’s “Die Rückeroberung” Brian McInnis � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 357 Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You: An Animal Act by Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec Thomas O. Beebee � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 377 BAND 52 • Heft 3-4 Themenheft: “News from Nature” Gastherausgeber: Harald Zils und Carl Gelderloos 210 Inhalt Reviews Will Hasty: The Medieval Risk-Reward Society: Courts, Adventure, and Love in the European Middle Ages. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 395 Robert C� Holub: Nietzsche in the Nineteenth Century. Social Questions and Philosophical Interventions. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 398 Nicole A� Thesz: The Communicative Event in the Works of Günter Grass. Stages of Speech: 1959-2015. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 401 Kristy R� Boney and Jennifer Marston William (Eds�): Dimensions of Storytelling in German Literature and Beyond: “For once, telling it all from the beginning.” � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 403 Kyle Frackman and Faye Stewart (Eds�): Gender and Sexuality in East German Film: Intimacy and Alienation. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 406 Katya Krylova: The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 408 Irène Cagneau, Sylvie Grimm-Hamen, Marc Lacheny (Eds�): Les traducteurs, passeurs culturels entre la France et l’Autriche. � � � � � � � � � � 411 Marc Lacheny: Littérature «-d’en haut-», littérature «-d’en bas-»-? La dramaturgie canonique allemande et le théâtre populaire viennois de Stranitzky à Nestroy. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 411 Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 415 “News from Nature” Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos Binghamton University The ninth annual Binghamton University German Studies Colloquium, which took place in April, 2018, addressed a topic that has been the subject of broad and intense debate in recent decades, even while it indexes aesthetic, philosophical and cultural questions that have always been at the center of humanistic inquiry� The colloquium, entitled “News from Nature,” convened a diverse set of concerns for thinking about the heterogeneous roles played by “nature” in the texts and contexts of German Studies� This special issue of Colloquia Germanica features eight essays that have grown out of that original colloquium� Given the multiplicity as well as the increasing fragmentation of disparate concerns and approaches including ecocriticism, new materialisms, and the environmental humanities, the colloquium invited unforeseen correspondences that might be generated by inviting submissions under the general rubric of “nature�” What had constituted since Aristotle a formal ideal of wholeness that art had to imitate is now understood in multivalent and often contradictory relationships: nature is alternately understood as a subject and an object, a partner and an opponent, as something to protect and something to fear, as object of desire, as an ideological chimera, as “mother,” investment, source of value, responsibility and refuge� Because we recognized that “nature” is untenable as an essential or pure category and nevertheless continues to do the work of corralling heterogeneous topics and approaches, our goal for the colloquium and for this volume was to preserve “nature” as a useful heuristic, in order to see what texts and questions it might invite, convene, and place into dialogue with each other� This bottom-up framework helped pose the question of what German Studies can do to read the “news from nature,” bringing diverse texts into relationships that might have otherwise been foreclosed, had we set out from a commitment to a particular approach or subfield, such as those indexed by the terms “ecocriticism,” “environmental humanities,” “posthumanism,” “object-oriented ontology,” and the like� The constellation of essays published here covers nature as a motif, nature as an object of aesthetic representation, nature 212 Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos as a set of epistemological and cultural paradigms, and other positions we could not have anticipated that fall amidst, athwart, or outside this brief sketch� Of course, the core competencies of the humanities scholar are not environmental data, species determination, plate tectonics or DNA analysis, but rather the examination of texts, their classification and often, in the case of a historical approach, the tracing of authors’ signatures� Thus, for those working in the humanities, the task historically has not involved understanding nature itself, but understanding our understanding of nature, tracing how this understanding is mediated through cultural forms and itself shapes these cultural forms, and thinking through the relationships between the disciplines� On the one hand, the opportunity and seduction of the subject of nature for the critic have frequently lain in the culturally foundational perception of the cosmos as a readable structure, in the non-accidental metaphor of the book as world and the world as book� Blumenberg’s collection of paradigmatic approaches to a philology of nature in Die Lesbarkeit der Welt is therefore also an archive of literary interpretation and its main trends: the author as God-like creator; decipherment versus the unavoidable semantic drift of text; the horror before an emptiness of meaning; (genetic) code as the source of all meaning� Unsurprisingly, part of the ecocriticism movement (e�g�, Rueckert 1978) has also tried to apply an ecological vocabulary to literary texts, without much of an echo� On the other hand, concepts of nature have frequently served as a provocation for the humanities to theorize the relationship between the natural sciences and the humanities, and between experimentation and interpretation as two distinct yet related modes of knowing� One way or another, “nature” indicts the kinds of thinking one can and should do in the humanities even as neither the natural sciences nor the humanities can escape the conceptual and material entanglement of nature and history� The eight essays collected here can therefore be read as a cross section of ways in which scholars are grappling with the historical roles played by nature in the texts and discourses associated with German Studies� All concern ways in which nature impinges upon, or is pressed into the service of, human realms ranging from aesthetics to city planning� In these essays’ explorations of the shifting relationship between nature and culture, several distinct research approaches and agendas emerge: literature as an imaginative sandbox for testing attitudes toward nature and future forms of life; literature as dystopian warning and catharsis; literary and philosophical texts as a sedimented record comprising a history of ways of thinking about the relationship between humans and nature; representations of nature as a way of tracking the development and contributions of individual authors; nature as a source of authority, a repository of ways of thinking about culture, in ways that can sometimes naturalize social “News from Nature” 213 categories including gender, nation, or order; nature as a nodal point for thinking about the relationships among disciplines, epistemological realms, or media� The focus of these essays is not, therefore, on the individual scene from nature, be it the still life or the motif� Rather, the approach is more broadly systemic: the individual object of nature as part of the ecological sphere in its relationship to the author, who herself inhabits an ecological niche and whose texts contribute to a corpus, a compound, a hive� This shift of interpretative interest is reflected in the current book market as well� A great success with German critics and buyers in 2019 was Der Große Garten by Lola Randl, which is a collection of plant descriptions, a garden guide and a memoir, all at once� The book is divided into numerous short sections which, although they might belong to different categories, always make explicit and implicit reference to each other� There is constant reflection on the author’s position within her contexts: the urbanite as a newcomer to the village; the gardener and her garden; the planter and the plant; the sexual being and her partners; rural gastronomy in the context of the tourism industry� Contributions to this volume often either retrace individual steps in the historical development of concepts of nature or seek to identify the core of a particular aspect of these concepts� Hans Blumenberg summed up these alternatives as a choice between “world chronicle or world formula” (Lesbarkeit der Welt 125)� But this also indicates that the “nature of nature” is revealed to the critics as an originality, i�e�, a point of departure or initiation� We know this longing for a “primal Ur” from traditional philology, but of course it is not limited to that sphere� As drive and desire, it points to an initial offense, to a displacement, an expulsion that still needs to be fixed: the reconstructed thoughts behind the poem, the explanatory community with the text, the Word reinstated would be, in the phrasing of a traditional discourse about nature, Paradise regained� While it seems obvious that there cannot be a return visit to an original state, perhaps we need more reflection on the longing for it� This is also related to the teachability of the movement: Can a more natural idea of nature, one that accounts for a decentered, more organic proliferation of notions and interpretations, be sustained in the biosphere of academic institutions? The articles in this issue were completed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic� The pandemic, as a global phenomenon of greatest possible consequence, is the kind of “news from nature” that has, as of summer 2020, dominated the commercial channels for months� Coverage and discussion of the virus have replicated familiar ways of thinking about nature as a peripheral source of malign threats to bodies that are never fully subordinated to our control or knowledge - thus reminding us of our ecological implication in, and dependence on, 214 Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos the non-human realm - even as the pandemic is anthropomorphized in familiar terms as an “invisible enemy�” As a sudden irruption into human society that has upended lives in ways ranging from the mundane to the catastrophic, the virus seems to bear the signature of a natural disaster� Yet, as Mike Davis and others have shown, the world in which such a zoonotic disease could emerge and spread as it has is a thoroughly anthropogenic one� In this regard, and in the consequent way that the pandemic is retracing the border between nature and culture, adding a new chapter to the relationship between nature and history in the process, the coronavirus can be seen as a concentrated version of the much larger disaster of global heating� (As we write this, in June 2020, a temperature of more than 100° F has been recorded above the Arctic Circle for the first time�) While neither climate change nor COVID-19 are thus purely natural phenomena, they both reflect an ongoing failure of human systems to recognize natural limits and processes� So the short twenty-first century has already made the urgency of the relationship between human society and non-human nature nearly impossible to ignore� This is certainly not a problem that German Studies can solve� As Andreas Malm has argued, theorizing in the humanities about climate change can often blur the issue rather than clarifying it, especially if this theorizing occurs absent any horizon of meaningful political action with the proximate goal of decarbonization� What patient historical excavation of discourses of nature in German Studies texts might be able to do, however, is contribute to our understanding - in ways that are disciplinarily and discursively self-reflexive - of the relationships between non-human nature and the human realm, as these relationships have been reconfigured, revised, and mobilized over time� In this spirit, the eight essays of this volume have been arranged in rough chronological order� We begin with May Mergenthaler’s essay “‘o heylsams Nichts’: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik,” which examines Barthold Heinrich Brockes’s Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott (1721-1748)� A predecessor of eco-conscious poetry, the cycle marks the departure from a purely religious view of nature� Mergenthaler emphasizes not the contradictions, but the connections between the spiritual and the new focus on the empirical� She shows how Brockes combines Lutheran traditions with Christian and non-Christian Kabbalah and Hermetism� Drawing from the first poem in the first edition of Irdisches Vergnügen, Mergenthaler uses the depiction of light as an example that shows the connection of physics, theology, philosophy and science in Brockes’s texts� Peter Gilgen’s essay, “Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form,” interrogates the relationships between aesthetics, natural beauty, and epistemology, proposing biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s environmental ontology as a solution to the dilemma of posthumanist engagements with the Kantian “News from Nature” 215 turn� Because recent decades have seen a return to aesthetics as theory grapples with the relationship between subject and object in the wake of constructivism, Kant’s prominent legacy in aesthetic theory is a challenge to the attempts within speculative realism and object-oriented ontology to reject Kantian epistemology� In particular, Gilgen addresses Steven Shaviro’s critique of Kant’s aesthetics, arguing that, in his application of Whitehead’s process philosophy and in his panpsychic conclusion, Shaviro misses the core distinction in Kant’s aesthetic theory between the beautiful and the agreeable, without which the relation between feeling and judgment is incoherent� Yet the experience of natural beauty depends on an object, and on the reflective distance between subject and object� In order to understand this “space of form” between subject and object, Gilgen turns to an unlikely source from the history of science� In distinguishing between an organism’s objective surroundings (Umgebung) and the specific environment (Umwelt) constituted by that organism’s specific possibilities for perceiving and acting upon its surroundings, Uexküll suggests a Kantian epistemology for the natural world: that perceptional limits are not prisons but windows� In her article, “Granit II: An Exploration of Goethean ‘Steigerung’ and ‘Polarität’,” Jennifer Caisley traces two figures of thought and perception in Goethe’s writing and its aftermath, and finds in them important prerequisites for Goethe’s scientific-philosophical world view� She shows how Goethe’s essay on granite describes spiritual (universal) principles resolving from and informing experiences of nature, and also how this contributes to the poet’s self-understanding, influencing his entire poetics� Besides the interplay between the material and the spirit, directional forces and constant movements are shown to be important foundations of the essay� How have knowledge of the natural world and theories of artistic creation informed each other, particularly when it comes to concepts of gender and theories of procreation? Marius Reisener brings the concerns of critical masculinities to bear on the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt, in order to ask how Humboldt’s theoretical marriage of poetology and procreation helped shape a modern discourse of masculinity that affects how both art and nature are viewed� Man is conceived of as conceiving himself while women are strategically defined in order to support this male autogamy and autopoiesis� Humboldt’s 1795 essays, “Über den Geschlechtsunterschied und dessen Einfluß auf die organische Natur” and “Ueber männliche und weibliche Formen” seek to ground sexual reciprocity in a philosophy of nature� The ascendant doctrine of epigenesis entails a mutual dependence of the sexes; if both parents are involved in procreation, then the male and the female are recognized as complementary� Yet while it seems that such complementarity might soften the conceptual or metaphorical polarity of 216 Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos the sexes, the opposite in fact happens� In mapping the epigenetic relationship between male and female onto ideas of aesthetic creation, Humboldt preserved a gendered division of procreative and aesthetic labor, with the male as the active, form-giving principle, and the female as the passive, receiving material� The concept of genius as an autogenerative, procreative force of the mind provides a model for making masculinity the paradigm of beauty and of the human, thereby skirting the risk of complementarity� Crucially, even the creation of Humboldt’s own theory partakes of this logic� What remains at stake, therefore, is not just a better understanding of the foundational gendering of a modern notion of poiesis, but also the risk of theorizing nature in an appropriative mode� Paul Dobryden explores how interwar discourses of public health mobilized tropes associated with the natural world, looking at three films that sought to teach their viewers to see the modern metropolis in a new way� His article, “Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm,” offers a careful reading of Die Stadt von Morgen (directed by Maximilian von Goldbeck and Erich Kotzer, 1930), Im Strudel des Verkehrs (Leo Peukert, 1925), and Slatan Dudow’s Zeitprobleme: Wie der Arbeiter wohnt (1930)� All three Kulturfilme engage with “a visual idiom of ‘urban nature’” in order to represent the modern urban environment, working within a context set by a decades-old discourse of urban hygiene and public health, which saw the ideal city in terms of organic harmony and natural balance� Both Die Stadt von Morgen and Im Strudel des Verkehrs rely on a notion of organic harmony as an answer to the “forces of nature” that threaten limb and life in the modern city; in so doing, both construct gendered figures of authority and expertise tasked with maintaining the city as harmonious organism� They thereby naturalize modern urban society, suggesting that urban hygiene is apolitical� Dudow’s film, by contrast, politicizes the bad environmental conditions of the modern city� By providing the economic and class context for poor urban hygiene, by insisting on agency and responsibility for shoddy living conditions, and by using montage to provoke critical encounter and reflection rather than to join shots or ideas in a seamless narrative, Zeitprobleme: Wie der Arbeiter wohnt gives a political rather than a merely technocratic account of what might today be called “environmental injustice�” In his interpretation of a classic novel set and published in 1957, “Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber,” Eckhard Kuhn-Osius shows us the protagonist Walter Faber as an inhabitant of a modern STEM universe, focused on statistical probabilities and the pure objectivity of the material world� Faber’s thought and experience anchors in the laws of thermodynamics, and Maxwell’s demon as the embodiment of an impossible rebellion against entropy and inevitable heat death is the scientific mythical deity that rules the novel in the background� Faber fails because his antagonism towards the organic in the “News from Nature” 217 name of natural science is itself bound to his humanity, which in turn is subject to the physical laws of entropy and is therefore fallible� Kuhn-Osius demonstrates how this rebellion determines not only the characterization of the protagonist, but also the plot and the formal structure of the novel� Homo Faber is thus also a document of an attitude towards nature and science that appeared in the 1950s in a pure, teachable form, but which is still present in current contexts� Brian McInnis, in his article “The Environment, Fear of the Other, and Violence in Franz Hohler’s ‘Die Rückeroberung’,” dissects an eco-dystopian story by Austrian writer Hohler� Although it is not a new theme that nature strikes back against “civilization,” McInnis shows us a motif that did not exist in King Kong or Godzilla: the presence of complexity in the text, and its understanding of nature as a system, that make strike-backs seem to be concerted actions� This is a transition from the colonialist and moralizing or merely ecocritical narrative to an amoral assertion of the whole against the ignorance of the few� The rebelling animal and plant world is not a metaphor but a metonymy: nature does not stand for something else, but its oppression is a part of the injustice that also dominates politics, economy and social life� And finally, in his article, “Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You: An Animal Act by Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec,” Thomas O� Beebee grapples with Flusser and Bec’s speculative portrayal of the seldom-seen vampire squid, an animal whose radical differences from vertebrates in general and human beings in particular make it an apt cicerone for leading the reader into an exploration of the ahuman realm� For Beebee, Flusser and Bec’s 1987 work (Vampyroteuthis infernalis: Eine Abhandlung samt Befund des Institut Scientifique De Recherche Paranaturaliste) is not the treatise promised by the title, nor is it exactly a fable� Rather, drawing on Una Chaudhuri, Beebee identifies it as an example of zooësis, “the discourse of species in art, media, and culture” (Chaudhuri 2016)� Working from a perspective made available by Uexküll’s philosophical biology, Plessner’s philosophical anthropology, and information theory, Flusser develops a “zoosemiotics” as a way to mobilize the alien possibilities of mollusks in order to imagine the ahuman and, crucially, to imagine human culture as seen from “the squid’s withering gaze�” But “De te fabula narratur”: the vampire squid as imagined by Flusser and illustrated by Bec serves, for Beebee, to get a better grasp on the human, and in particular to apply the lessons of this zoosemiotic view back onto human culture and thereby contribute to a non-humanist understanding of art and media in the digital age� 218 Harald Zils and Carl Gelderloos Works Cited Blumenberg, Hans� Die Lesbarkeit der Welt� Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981� Davis, Mike� “In a Plague Year�” Jacobin 14 Mar� 2020� Web� 30 Jun� 2020� Foster, John Bellamy, and Intan Suwandi� “COVID-19 and Catastrophe Capitalism: Commodity Chains and Ecological-Epidemiological-Economic Crises�” Monthly Review 72�2 (2020): 1-20� Liu, Andrew� “‘Chinese Virus,’ World Market�” n+1 20 Mar� 2020� Web� 30 Jun� 2020� Malm, Andreas� The Progress of this Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World� London/ New York: Verso, 2018� Randl, Lola� Der große Garten� Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2019� Rueckert, William� “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism�” The Iowa Review 9�1 (1978): 71-86� “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 219 “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik May Mergenthaler Ohio State University Abstract: Wegen ihrer empirisch wirkenden Naturbeschreibungen gilt Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ (1680-1747) neunbändige, von Übersetzungen ergänzte Gedichtsammlung Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott bestehend in verschiedenen aus der Natur und Sitten-Lehre hergenommenen Gedichten (1721- 1748) dem heutigen Ecocriticism als Vorläufer der biozentrischen, ökologischen Lyrik der Gegenwart� Zugleich aber wird Brockes’ Sammlung, die der Physikotheologie zugerechnet wird, vorgeworfen, die Natur letztlich in eine religiöse Weltanschauung einzuordnen� Im Anschluss an Kemper wird in diesem Essay am Beispiel der Lichtfiguren in “Das Firmament”, dem Eröffnungsgedicht von Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott, argumentiert, dass sich die empirischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Aspekte von Brockes’ Dichtung nicht von den theologischen trennen lassen� In Ergänzung zu Kempers Studien wird die Verbindung von Naturwissenschaft und Religion jedoch nicht vorwiegend auf den Hermetismus zurückgeführt� Stattdessen wird die Bedeutung der christlich-moralischen und literarischen Hintergründe für Brockes’ Lyrik hervorgehoben, die in der Mystik des Dionysius Areopagita, Luthers Theologie, Thomasius’ Naturphilosophie und Gryphius’ Lyrik liegen� Die Figuren und Begriffe des Lichts in “Das Firmament” erweisen sich für Brockes’ Säkularisierung und Ästhetisierung dieser religiösen Hintergründe als zentral� Zum Schluss wird die Hypothese aufgestellt, dass auch die nachfolgende, heute als ökologisch bewertete Naturlyrik, wie z� B� Goethes “Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen”, in der das Licht ebenfalls eine wesentliche Rolle spielt, sich aus religiösen Traditionen speist� Keywords: Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Naturlyrik, Licht, Dionysius Areopagita, Luther, Böhme, Gryphius, Thomasius, Ecocriticism, Kosmologie 220 May Mergenthaler Aus Sicht des gegenwärtigen Ecocriticism - der disziplinübergreifenden Erforschung der “ökologischen Dimensionen der Literatur und anderer kreativer Medien im Geiste ökologischer Anliegen” (Buell/ Heise/ Thornber 2011, 418 1 ; vgl� Bühler 2016, 30) - gilt Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ (1680-1747) neunbändige, von Übersetzungen ergänzte Gedichtsammlung Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott bestehend in verschiedenen aus der Natur und Sitten-Lehre hergenommenen Gedichten 2 (IVG) (1721-1748) als “Gründungsdokument einer die empirische Natur in den Blick nehmenden Naturdichtung” und damit als Vorläufer der ökologischen Lyrik der Gegenwart (Detering 2015, 211; vgl� Bühler 2016, 90-93)� Ökologische Lyrik vermittle ein so genanntes ökobzw� biozentrisches Weltbild und biete eine Alternative zu dem für dominierend gehaltenen anthropozentrischen Weltbild, das für die fortschreitende Naturzerstörung verantwortlich gemacht wird (vgl� Zemanek/ Rauscher 2018, 104-106)� Neben Brockes’ empirischer Naturdarstellung betrachten Zemanek/ Rauscher (2018) in ihrem Essay “Das ökologische Potenzial der Naturlyrik”, im Anschluss an Detering (2015) und Braungart (2016), Klopstocks Intimisierung und Goethes Emotionalisierung und Subjektivierung des “Mensch-Natur-Verhältnisses” als wichtige Entwicklungen des 18� Jahrhunderts “[f]ür ökologisch fokussierte Lesarten von Naturgedichten”, obwohl diese Entwicklungen “ökologischem Denken [ ] nur bedingt” entsprächen (Zemanek/ Rauscher 2018, 102)� Brockes’ Dichtung, die sich in der Tradition der Physikotheologie - der Verbindung von Naturphilosophie und christlicher Theologie - verorten lässt (vgl� Fry 1990, 7), loben die Autorinnen für ihre realistisch wirkenden Naturbeschreibungen; allerdings würden sie seine Dichtung wohl, wie in der Brockes-Rezeption üblich (vgl� dazu kritisch Fry 1990, 3-4, und Kemper et al� 1998, 264-65), der Literatur zuordnen, die noch einem ihrer Ansicht nach zu überwindenden religiösen, anthropozentrischen Weltbild verhaftet ist (vgl� Zemanek/ Rauscher 2018, 93)� An den Gedichten von Klopstock und Goethe heben Zemanek/ Rauscher die intime, subjektive Naturdarstellung positiv hervor, wahrscheinlich weil sie ihrer Auffassung nach zu einem Verständnis des Menschen als integriert in ein “von komplexen Interdependenzen gekennzeichnetes Ökosystem” beiträgt (91)� Allerdings bemängeln sie, dass in diesen Gedichten die Natur als bloße Kulisse für den Ausdruck menschlichen Erlebens und Fühlens diene (102) und scheinen damit zu kritisieren, dass die Natur nicht um ihrer selbst willen dargestellt wird, ohne zu fragen, ob und wie dies überhaupt möglich wäre� Deterings Lob von Brockes’ IVG ist umfassender als von Zemanek/ Rauscher dargestellt; er findet darin nicht nur empirische Naturbeschreibungen, sondern auch Anzeichen einer von den Autorinnen erst bei Goethe erkannten Subjektivierung; “die Subjektivität des betrachtenden Ich” komme in Brockes’ Gedichten “nachdrücklich zur Geltung” (Detering 2015, 212)� Außerdem findet Detering “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 221 bei Brockes eine reichhaltige Formensprache, die dessen Naturauffassung reflektiere und Goethes Naturdichtung, insbesondere die neuerdings als biozentrisch oder biosemiotisch gedeutete Elegie “Metamorphose der Pflanzen” (1798) antizipiere (212-13; vgl� Rigby 2015, 26, 37-39; Zemanek/ Rauscher 2018, 102)� Dennoch distanziert sich Detering ähnlich wie andere Literaturwissenschaftler von Brockes’ “physikotheologischem Deutungsanspruch”: Zu seinem Programm gehört der letztlich unerfüllbare Anspruch, die gesamte wahrnehmbare Natur vom kleinsten Pflänzchen bis zum Sternenhimmel als Werk des göttlichen Schöpfers kontemplativ zu betrachten, präzise zu beschreiben und in frommer Liebe zu preisen� Zum Programm gehört über diesen physikotheologischen Deutungsanspruch hinaus auch der Versuch, in Schönheit und Mannigfaltigkeit der Vers- und Gedichtformen ein sprachliches, gleichermaßen kognitiv und affektiv wirkendes Äquivalent zu Schönheit und Mannigfaltigkeit der gezeigten Schöpfung zu erzeugen� (Detering 2015, 212) Diese knappe Übersicht über die ökokritische Rezeption von Dichtern des 18� Jahrhunderts zeigt, dass sie deren Werke an dem abstrakt formulierten und globale sowie zeitlose Gültigkeit beanspruchenden (vgl� Zemanek/ Rauscher 2018, 97) Ideal einer ökologischen Lyrik misst� Dessen Bestimmung als harmonische Kombination von objektiven und subjektiven Tendenzen sowie von Form und Inhalt erinnert allerdings stark an die Ästhetik und Philosophie des 18�- Jahrhunderts und scheint sich von ihr herzuschreiben� Gegen eine solche, gleichzeitig anachronistische und romantisierende Herangehensweise an Literatur kann man mit Bühler (2016) einwenden, dass es “einer Literaturgeschichte aus Perspektive des Ecocriticism nicht darum gehen [kann], in früheren literarischen Texten ‘Vorläufer’ von ökologischen Begriffen oder Positionen des 20� Jahrhunderts zu entdecken”, da die “Begriffe selbst historisch variabel” seien und “man damit die literarischen Texte aus ihren historischen Zusammenhängen” reiße und “auf eine bloße Vorgängerschaft” reduziere� Dagegen setzt Bühler die “historische Kontextualisierung”, die die “Andersartigkeit der jeweils verhandelten Natur-Konzepte, Interaktionen zwischen Mensch und Umwelt oder Natur- und Umwelterfahrungen” untersuche (85)� Bühler gesteht ein, dass ein dergestalt historisierender Ansatz nicht wirklich neu ist� 3 Was eine ökokritische Literaturgeschichte dennoch zu bestehenden Untersuchungen der Naturdarstellung in der Literatur beitragen könne, sei, “dem historischen Wandel von Umweltbeziehungen systematisch” nachzugehen (85)� In der Folge nennt Bühler einige nach Epochen gegliederte “mögliche[]-Stationen” einer solchen, noch zu schreibenden ökokritischen Literaturgeschichte (86)� Darunter befindet sich auch ein Abschnitt über Brockes’ “[b]eschreibende Poesie” (90) in IVG, der allerdings den bereits bestehenden Interpretationen 222 May Mergenthaler der Gedichte als Ausdruck einer zeitgenössischen physikotheologischen Weltanschauung kaum Neues hinzufügt, bis auf die Benennung von Brockes’ poetischen Verfahren mit Mortons (2007) Begriff der ecomimesis (Bühler 2016, 92; vgl� 72-76)� Ecomimesis bezeichnet und kritisiert die Herstellung einer scheinbar unmittelbaren Naturerfahrung durch rhetorische Mittel (Bühler 2016, 73; vgl� Morton 31-54)� Die rhetorischen Verfahren, vermittels derer Brockes in IVG den Eindruck eines Naturerlebnisses herstellt, sind allerdings bereits ausführlich untersucht worden� 4 Mit der bestehenden Brockes-Rezeption stimmt auch überein, dass Bühler Brockes’ Naturbeschreibungen deren theologischer Botschaft vorzieht: “Obgleich Brockes’ Gedichte immer wieder beim Lob Gottes enden und sie daher eine gewisse Gleichförmigkeit aufweisen, bieten die detaillierten Beschreibungen ganz unterschiedliche Ansichten einer dynamischen Natur” (93)� Gegen Interpretationen von Brockes’ Naturdichtung als entweder bloß theologisch oder als vorwiegend empirisch und ästhetisch argumentiert Kemper, indem er diese Dichtung in der beide Aspekte verbindenden Tradition des Hermetismus verortet und fordert, dass sie der - seiner Ansicht nach - hermetischen Intention Brockes’ entsprechend rezipiert wird: “In seinen großen Lehrgedichten über die Beschaffenheit der Natur erweist sich Brockes also als Physikotheologe eines aufgeklärten Hermetismus, und er hat vom ersten bis zum letzten Band des ‘Irdischen Vergnügens’ [ ] an dieser Grundanschauung festgehalten” (Kemper 1981, Bd� 1, 323; vgl� Kemper et al� 1998, Bd� 1, 264)� Ziel des Hermetismus sei die Überbrückung des Gegensatzes zwischen Sinnlichem und Geistigem (Kemper et al� 1998, Bd� 1, 264), der in der Frühaufklärung durch die Fortschritte in den Naturwissenschaften der Zeit (kopernikanische Wende, Newtons Optik) besonders stark hervortritt und das christliche Weltbild in Frage stellt� Zum einen bleibe in Brockes’ Gedichten “die vermittelte Wahrheit [ ]- gebunden an das, was er [Brockes]-mit den Sinnen erfaßt und beschreibt”, zum anderen erfordere die Hermetik “als Weg der Vereinigung mit Gott durch die ‘Betrachtung’ der Natur den Aufstieg vom Sinnlichen zum Geistigen” (264- 65)� Moderne naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse würde Brockes nur rezipieren, soweit sie dem hermetischen Gedankengut “nicht widersprechen oder es zu stützen vermögen, vervollständigen und absichern” (Kemper 1981, Bd� 1, 319-20)� Dieser Essay folgt Kempers Herangehensweise insoweit, als er erstens Brockes’ IVG im historischen Kontext verständlich zu machen sucht und zweitens nicht die Widersprüche, sondern die Verbindungen zwischen den religiösen und naturwissenschaftlichen Aspekten von Brockes’ Dichtung untersucht� Im Unterschied zu Kemper (1981), der Brockes’ nichtchristlichen Hermetismus betont (325-26), wird hier, mit Ketelsen (1974, 84) weitgehend übereinstimmend, gezeigt, dass christlich-lutherische Traditionen in der Naturdichtung des “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 223 Autors deutliche Spuren hinterlassen haben und seine poetische Verbindung von Theologie und Physik prägen, ohne jedoch die hermetischen Einflüsse zu vernachlässigen� Ketelsen (1974) konzentriert sich in seiner umfassenden Studie auf die Versuche der norddeutschen Dichter, insbesondere diejenigen Brockes’, die neue Naturwissenschaft mit der orthodoxen, spirituellen Lutherischen Theologie vermittels von Poesie zu versöhnen; er versteht ihre Dichtung als Apologie der modernen Naturphilosophie, die das christliche, “universale System” der Natur in Frage stelle (170-71, 176-77)� Hier werden, Ketelsens Studie ergänzend, in einer eingehenden Analyse eines einzelnen Gedichts von Brockes textuelle Überschneidungen mit spezifischen Werken aus den möglichen Kontexten sowie mit einzelnen Aspekten von Luthers theologischem Werdegang und seiner reformatorischen Lehre untersucht� Am Beispiel des Eröffnungsgedichts in der ersten, 1721 publizierten Auflage von IVG, “Das Firmament”, 5 wird der Fokus der Untersuchung und Interpretation auf die Darstellung und Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Gedichtsammlung gelegt, denn es wird behauptet, dass die Lichtdarstellungen die Verbindung von Physik, Theologie, Philosophie und Wissenschaft der Natur in Brockes’ Lyrik besonders deutlich machen können� Das Licht mit seinen reichen theologischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Kontexten, so wird behauptet, steht im Zentrum von Brockes’ Versuch zwischen Sinnlichem und Geistigem zu vermitteln� Durch seine Vermittlungsfunktion ist das Licht, was hier allerdings nicht mehr gezeigt werden kann, auch wesentlich für die Entstehung der Naturlyrik in der Nachfolge Brockes’; z� B� entwickelt sich in Goethes als ökologisch geltender Elegie “Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen” die Blume durch den “Reiz[] des Lichts, des heiligen, ewig bewegten” (Goethe, Bd� 1, 639-41)� Dieser Essay möchte somit einen Beitrag zu einer ökokritischen Literaturgeschichte leisten, wie Bühler sie fordert, jedoch ohne den Begriff einer ökologischen Lyrik oder Literatur vorauszusetzen und ihn als Kulminationspunkt einer Fortschrittsgeschichte zu betrachten� Vielmehr sollen die Entstehungsbedingungen ökologischer Lyrik geklärt werden� Eine solche Literaturgeschichte ist weniger beschreibend als analytisch und konzeptualisierend und gehört u� a� zum Forschungsbereich Wissen und Literatur (Vogl 1999)� Mit seiner literatur- und wissensgeschichtlichen Perspektive ergänzt dieser Beitrag die ähnlich historisch orientierten Aufsätze des vorliegenden Bandes, die nicht nach dem Umweltbewusstsein der Vergangenheit suchen, sondern vergangene Naturvorstellungen und -darstellungen erforschen� Indem alte Begriffe und literarische Darstellungen der Natur neu entdeckt werden, können sie einen Beitrag dazu leisten, die Vorgeschichte gegenwärtiger Naturbegriffe und -ideale aufzuzeigen� 224 May Mergenthaler Bereits Kemper (1981, Bd� 1) erwähnt die Bedeutung des Lichts, insbesondere des Sonnenlichts, sowohl für die Hermetik als auch für Brockes’ IVG insgesamt� Im “Mittelpunkt” mehrerer früher Lehrgedichte in IVG stünde der “aus dem Zusammenhang von Feuer, Licht und Geist resultierende[] Sonnen-Kult, in dem er [Brockes]-den Ursprung des irdischen Lebens verehrt” (322)� Brockes’ Sonnenverehrung führt Kemper (314-18) insbesondere auf den Einfluss neuplatonischer und hermetisch-kabbalistischer Schriften zurück, darunter die Werke von Jakob Böhme (1575-1624), Johann Conrad Dippel (1673-1734) und Christian Thomasius (1655-1728)� Fry (1990) hebt die Bedeutung der Sonne für Brockes’ Gedichtsammlung ebenfalls hervor� Wie er zeigt, steht die Sonne am Anfang oder in der Nähe des Anfangs von sechzehn Gedichten des ersten Teils von IVG; ein langes Gedicht, “Die Sonne” (120-39), ist ihr ganz gewidmet (Fry 1990, 158)� Das Licht bzw� die Sonne bildet jedoch bei Fry und Kemper sowie in anderen Studien zu Brockes’ IVG nicht den Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung� Außerdem wird hier behauptet, dass nicht die Sonne und das Sonnenlicht, sondern das Licht im Allgemeinen für Brockes’ Gedichtsammlung wesentlich ist� Darauf weist Kemper (1981, Bd� 1) bereits selbst hin, wenn er erklärt, dass sich Brockes in seinem Gedicht “Das Feuer” zum “Licht als Urquell aller Dinge und dem sich aus weiteren Emanationsstufen herleitenden ‘Leben’ und dem ‘allgemeinen Geist, / Drin wir alle sind und schweben’” bekenne (318; vgl� IVG 1 [1724], 349)� Brockes argumentiere in diesem Gedicht “ganz im Sinne der neuplatonischen und hermetisch-kabbalistischen Emanationstheorie” (Kemper 1981, Bd� 1, 318)� 6 Nur indem er das Licht als ein nicht an einen Körper gebundenes versteht, kann, so der Vorschlag, Brockes es als ein Bindeglied zwischen dem Sinnlichen und Geistigen einsetzen� Damit übernimmt und transformiert er die in der Schöpfungsgeschichte enthaltene Unterscheidung zwischen natürlichem und übernatürlichem Licht� So heißt es in 1 Mose 1,16, Gott habe die Himmelslichter Sonne, Mond und Sterne erst drei Tage nach dem Licht geschaffen� 7 Wie Kemper zeigt, lässt sich die zentrale Stellung des Lichts bei Brockes jedoch nicht allein von der traditionellen Bibeldeutung her erklären, laut der ein personaler Gott das Licht erschafft, selbst aber nicht Licht ist (auch wenn es solche Vergleiche in der Bibel durchaus gibt, vgl� Anm� 7)� Wichtiger für das Verständnis von Brockes’ Lichtdarstellung ist der zeitgenössische geistesgeschichtliche Kontext, einschließlich seiner Deutungen der Schöpfungsgeschichte� So wird in der Kabbala, die neben dem Neuplatonismus auf die Hermetik großen Einfluss hatte (und die ihrerseits vom Neuplatonismus geprägt wurde), Gottes Ausruf “Es werde Licht! ” (1 Mose 1,3) als Feststellung eines bereits bestehenden Lichts gedeutet, in dem sich Gott manifestiert (The Zohar 2004, 123, Anm� 114)� Brockes’ Lob der Natur als göttlicher Schöpfung in IVG enthält zahlreiche Beispiele für den Begriff eines allgemeinen, Gott bzw� Geist und Natur verbin- “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 225 denden Lichts, die vor der Analyse von “Das Firmament”, zur Unterstützung der aufgestellten Thesen, kurz genannt werden sollen� In der ersten Auflage des ersten Teils von IVG (1721), auf den sich diese Untersuchung beschränkt, nennt Brockes Gott die “SONNE der Sonnen” (59) sowie ein Licht, in dessen “Betrachtung” die Seele “selbst zu nichts” wird (141)� 8 Umgekehrt bezeichnet er das Sonnenlicht als göttlich (58) oder himmlisch (104)� Der Lichtbegriff in IVG umfasst auch das Sternenlicht im Allgemeinen, dessen “Vater” Gott sei (z� B� 59), das die Sonne reflektierende Mondlicht, 9 sowie in “Das Firmament” das “ungeheure‚ dunkle Licht” bzw� die “lichte Dunkelheit” (3) des unendlich scheinenden, nach-kopernikanischen Weltraums� Den Rahmen von Brockes’ Gedichten im ersten Teil von IVG (1721) bildet das 43� Kapitel des Buchs Jesus Sirach, in dem, von Himmel und Sonne ausgehend und beim Meer endend, die Erde als Werk Gottes gerühmt wird� Jedoch stellt Brockes als Epigramm über “Das Firmament” nicht den zweiten Vers dieses Gesangs (42, 16), der als erstes “Werck” Gottes die Sonne rühmt: “DJe Sonne gibt aller Weltliecht / vnd jr Liecht ist das allerhellest liecht” (Luther 1545, 198b)� Stattdessen befindet sich dort Sir 43,1 in Luthers (1545, 198b), durch Brockes nur in Bezug auf die Schreibweise modernisierter Übersetzung: “Man siehet Seine Herrlichkeit an der mächtigen großen Höhe / an dem hellen Firmament / an dem schönen Himmel” (IVG 1, 4)� Den Anfang der Sammlung macht also ein Gedicht über ein Licht, das dem Firmament, nicht aber - oder nicht explizit - der Sonne zugeordnet wird� Erst am Kopf des neunten Gedichts, “Der Morgen”, findet sich der zweite Vers aus Sir 43: “Wenn die Sonne aufgehet / verkündiget sie den Tag; sie ist ein Wunder-Werk des Höchsten” (45)� 10 Einen Teil dieses Verses, “Sie ist ein Wunder-Werk des Höchsten”, zitiert auch das Epigramm zu dem Gedicht “Die Sonne” (120-39)� Davor finden sich Epigramme aus dem Buch Sirach, die vom Mond (Sir 43,6), den Sternen (Sir 43,9), dem silbern glänzenden Tau (Sir 43, 24) und der Sonne (Sir 43, 2) handeln und jeweils thematisch übereinstimmende Gedichte einleiten (“Betrachtung des Mondscheins in einer angenemen Frühlings-Nacht”, 53; “Der gestirnte Himmel”, 60; “Betrachtung des Thaues”, 65)� Die Reihenfolge der ersten drei Sirach-Zitate und Gedichte folgt einer Bewegung vom Licht des Himmels zu dessen Spiegelung auf der Erde, im Tau, mit dem Programm der Physikotheologie übereinstimmend, das Irdische als Beweis des Göttlichen betrachtet� 11 Im Anschluss an Brockes’ Gedichtsammlung folgt seine Übertragung des gesamten 43� Gesangs aus dem Buch Sirach (209-18), angefangen mit 42,15, in einer von Luthers (1545) Übersetzung (“DJe Sonne gibt aller Weltliecht / vnd jr Liecht ist das allerhellest liecht”, 198b) leicht abweichenden, längeren Version: “Es giebet aller Welt die Sonne Licht, Leben, Anmuht Wärm’ und Wonne; / Es iſt das Licht das aus ihr bricht / Das allerreinst’ und hell’ste Licht�” (209) Darauf folgt ein “Anhang etlicher aus dem Französischen übersetz- 226 May Mergenthaler ten Fabeln des Herrn de la Motte” (219-55)� Weichmann setzt noch ein Lobgedicht auf Brockes’ Übersetzungsfähigkeiten hinzu (256); den Abschluss bilden ein Register und Corrigenda (257-59)� Die Verbindung von göttlicher und irdischer Sphäre vermittels von Licht strukturiert nicht nur die Gedichtsammlung als Ganze, sondern findet sich auch in einzelnen Gedichten, angefangen bei “Das Firmament”� Die Art dieser Verbindung gilt es nun näher zu untersuchen� Anhand von Bezügen zu Luther, Böhme, Dionysius Areopagita, Gryphius und Thomasius wird gezeigt, dass die im vollständigen Titel der ersten Auflage von IVG von 1721 als Quelle der Gedichte genannte “Sittenlehre”, die in neueren Interpretationen von “Das Firmament” vernachlässigt wird, neben der “Naturlehre” von großer Bedeutung für das Verständnis des gesamten Gedichts ist� Diese Sittenlehre ist eine lutherisch-christliche, obwohl Christus von Brockes in der ersten Auflage des ersten Teils von IVG nicht genannt wird; sein Herausgeber Weichmann nennt Brockes in seinem “Vor-Bericht” allerdings einen “Christlichen Poeten”� 12 Damit wird Kempers Behauptung widersprochen (1981, Bd� 1), “[n]icht die Geburt des christlichen Retters” sei “für Brockes Anlaß und Gegenstand seines belehrenden Dankes, sondern die ‘Sonnenwende’, die Wiederkehr ihres lebensspendenden Lichts, dem sich auch die ‘verfinsterten’ Gemüter neu öffnen sollen” (329)� “Das Firmament” Sir� XLIII, 1� Man siehet seine Herrlichkeit an der mächtigen grossen Höhe / an dem hellen Firmament / an dem schönen Himmel� Als jüngst mein Auge sich in die Saphirne Tieffe / Die weder Grund / noch Strand / noch Ziel / noch End’ umschrenkt, Ins unerforschte Meer des holen Luft-Raums / senkt’ / Und mein verschlungner Blick bald hiebald dahin lieffe / Doch immer tieffer sank: entsatze sich mein Geist / Es schwindelte mein Aug’ / es stockte meine Sele Ob der unendlichen unmässig-tieffen Höle / Die / wohl mit Recht / ein Bild der Ewigkeiten heisst / So nur aus GOtt allein / ohn’ End’ und Anfang / stammen� Es schlug des Abgrunds Raum / wie eine dicke Fluth Des Boden-losen Meers auf sinkend Eisen thut / In einem Augenblick / auf meinen Geist zusammen� Die ungeheure Gruft des tieffen dunkeln Lichts / Der lichten Dunckelheit / ohn’ Anfang/ ohne Schranken / Verschlang so gar die Welt / begrub selbst die Gedanken; “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 227 Mein gantzes Wesen ward ein Staub / ein Punct / ein Nichts / Und ich verlor mich selbst� Dieß schlug mich plötzlich nieder: Verzweiflung drohete der ganz verwirrten Brust� Allein / o heylsams Nichts! glückseliger Verlust! Allgegenwärt'ger GOTT / in Dir fand ich mich wieder� Das einleitende Zitat von “Das Firmament” aus Sir 43,1 (“Man siehet Seine Herrlichkeit an der mächtigen grossen Höhe / an dem hellen Firmament / an dem schönen Himmel”) führt das Thema des Gedichts ein: die Sichtbarkeit von Gottes Herrlichkeit am hellen, schönen Himmel� An dem visuell wahrgenommenen, lichterfüllten Himmel wird Gottes Herrlichkeit erkennbar; er ist der Schöpfer des hellen Himmels und manifestiert sich in ihm� 13 Mit dem Lob des sinnlich wahrnehmbaren Himmels unterstützt das Bibelzitat Brockes’ poetische Umsetzung der Physikotheologie, die die Schönheit und Ordnung des gesamten Universums als Beweis für Gottes Existenz begreift (vgl� Billen/ Hassel 2005, 40)� Laut Hunfeld (2004) dient das Zitat außerdem der Versicherung, dass die im Folgenden dargestellte Erinnerung an eine Grenzerfahrung beim Anblick des unendlichen, nach-kopernikanischen Weltraums nicht zum Verlust des Glaubens an Gott führt� Die Bibelworte umrahmten, so Hunfeld, diese Erfahrung gemeinsam mit dem tröstenden Abschlussgebet, das dem Ich seine Selbst- und Gottesgewissheit wieder gebe (69): “Verzweiflung drohete der ganz verwirrten Brust: Allein / o heylsams Nichts! glückseliger Verlust! / Allgegenwärt’ger GOTT / in Dir fand ich mich wieder�” Neuere Interpretationen von “Das Firmament” erkennen einen Widerspruch zwischen dem Gott bestätigenden Rahmen des Gedichts und der dazwischen liegenden Nichtigkeitserfahrung beim Anblick “des tieffen dunkeln Lichts” des Alls, wobei diese Erfahrung als Reaktion auf die kopernikanische Wende verstanden wird (vgl� Hunfeld 2004, 60-61; Billen/ Hassel 2005, 44-45)� Die Überwindung der nahen Verzweiflung wird wiederum als Ausdruck einer Ästhetik des Erhabenen (Hunfeld 2004, 68) oder als Vorwegnahme dieser, sich erst im weiteren Verlauf des 18� Jahrhunderts etablierenden Ästhetik verstanden (Billen/ Hassel 2005, 47-48)� Eine ähnliche, ästhetische und psychologische Rezeption von “Das Firmament” findet sich bereits bei Bodmer, der das Gedicht in seinen Critischen Betrachtungen über die Gemälde der Dichter (1741) “vom Standpunkt der Ästhetik des Erhabenen aus” als Beispiel für das “Große[]” erwähnt, das uns in eine “angenehme[] Bestürzung versetzt” (211; vgl� Zelle 1987, 203-25)� Brockes’ Rede von der Vernichtung des Selbst versteht Bodmer (1741) als Darstellung eines angenehmen “Stillstands” der Kräfte des Gemüts, des Verstands und der Einbildungskraft (der “Fähigkeit, womit sowohl das Auge des Körpers wie des Geistes siehet”, 228), die durch die Größe des Erblickten überwältigt würden� 228 May Mergenthaler Angenehm sei dieser Stillstand, weil er Abwechslung in die ständige “Bewegung und Geschäftigkeit” des Menschen bringe (229)� Das von Brockes am Schluss von “Das Firmament” beschriebene Wiederfinden des Selbst in Gott hingegen begreift Bodmer bloß als einen das Angenehme des “überfallenden Erstaunens” (229) verstärkenden Zusatz, obwohl er weiter oben auch die “Pflicht” des “Poeten” betont, mit der Beschreibung des Großen “ein Bild der Unermeßlichkeit Gottes” (215) zu liefern: Dazu kömmt denn die darauf folgende Betrachtung, welche die Wiederkunft seiner würcksamen Kräfte bey ihm verursachet, wenn sie ihm vergewissert daß er in diesem unermeßlichen Ganzen beständig im Wesen ist, und wenn er vornehmlich den Grund und Ursprung, warum alles ist, und in welchem alles dieses ungemessene Ganze enthalten ist, bey sich ermißt� (229) Die erschreckende Erfahrung des unendlichen Kosmos wird laut Billen/ Hassel (2005) außerdem durch die barocke “Stilfigur des Oxymorons”, d� h� der lichten Dunkelheit abgemildert, die verwendet werde, um “den Hiatus zwischen dem traditionsgebundenen religiösen, Geborgenheit schenkenden und dem wissenschaftsbestimmten, Beklemmung auslösenden modernen Weltbild zu überbrücken” (47; vgl� Zelle 229)� Billen/ Hassel (2005) beschließen ihre Interpretation von “Das Firmament” mit der These, dass Brockes darin zu einem “Gottesbegriff” gelange, der “keineswegs mehr dem der Bibel entstammenden Bild eines anthropomorphen theistischen Schöpfergottes” entspreche, wie er im Titel und im Motto aus Jesus Sirach genannt sei� Vielmehr sei dieser Gottesbegriff “das Resultat eines unorthodoxen, von subjektiver Eigenständigkeit geprägten Handelns und Verhaltens des sprechenden Ich”� Brockes nähere sich damit “einem Gottesverständnis, das auch das Abgründige und Dunkle, das Gewalttätige und Vernichtende, die übermenschliche Erhabenheit und Größe Gottes einschließt” und damit dem “Bild eines ambivalenten, der tragischen Verzweiflung abgerungenen Gottes [ ], der sich dem Glaubenswillen der Menschen zu entziehen droht” (48)� Dem wäre entgegenzusetzen, dass solche Erfahrungen bereits in der Bibel beschrieben werden, besonders deutlich im Buch Hiob� Auch Hunfeld betont die Eigenständigkeit des Sprechers in “Das Firmament”, erkennt diese Eigenständigkeit aber vor allem an der Form des Gedichts� Obwohl dessen Intention darin liege, den Kosmos als “außerästhetisch verbürgte Ordnung” zu beschreiben, deute sich bereits an, dass diese Ordnung allein Resultat einer ästhetischen, “subjektiven Schöpfung” sei (99-100; vgl� Krauß 2016, 249-51)� Den genannten Interpretationen von “Das Firmament” als einem frühen Beispiel für eine moderne Gottesvorstellung und moderne Ästhetik, insbesondere für eine Ästhetik des Erhabenen, entgehen die christlich-protestantischen und christlich-hermetischen Bezüge des Gedichts, die den religiösen Rahmen “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 229 weniger willkürlich und aufgesetzt erscheinen lassen als von Hunfeld und anderen angenommen� Mit Blick auf die christlich-protestantischen Kontexte, die für die meisten Leser heute nicht mehr evident sind - wie eben gezeigt, hat bereits Bodmer sie vernachlässigt -, findet sich in “Das Firmament” deren graduelle Säkularisierung und Ästhetisierung� Der scheinbar abrupte Umschlag von Verzweiflung in Gottvertrauen in den letzten Versen wird besonders von der Erfahrung des schier endlosen Himmels und dem diese Erfahrung veranschaulichenden Ausdruck “des tieffen dunkeln Lichts / Der lichten Dunckelheit” inhaltlich vorbereitet� Übereinstimmungen finden sich zwischen der von Brockes dargestellten Erfahrung einer drohenden Verzweiflung im Angesicht des unendlichen Weltalls und Luthers in De servo arbitrio (1525) formulierter Lehre, dass das an den “Abgrund der Verzweiflung” (Luther 1888, SP� 1850) bringende “Ringen um den gnädigen Gott” die “Grundlage jeder wahren Theologie” ist (Hamm 2010, 33)� Luthers Glaubenszweifel entsteht durch seinen “Ärger” darüber, “daß Gott allein nach seinem Willen die Menschen verlasse, verhärte, verdamme, gleich als ob er sich an den Sünden und an so großen und ewigen Qualen der Elenden ergötze, während doch von ihm gepriesen wird, daß er von so großer Barmherzigkeit und Güte etc� sei” (Luther 1888, Sp� 1850)� Luther erfährt jedoch, dass dieser Ärger “heilsam” und “nahe der Gnade” ist (ebd�)� Er lernt, dass Gott nicht durch gute Werke beeinflusst werden kann und seine Gnade passiv erfahren werden muss (vgl� Hamm 2010, 52)� Gottes Handeln ist unbegreiflich und seine Gnade nicht vom Menschen zu erbitten� Luthers Lehre entspricht die passive Haltung des Sprechers in “Das Firmament” beim Anblick des Himmels� 14 Erst wird beschrieben, wie er sein “Auge”, einem Naturwissenschaftler gleich, aktiv “ins unerforschte Meer des holen Luft-Raums / senkt‘“, sein “Blick” dann aber immer tiefer “sank”, ohne dass er ihn noch hätte steuern können� In Folge dieses Kontrollverlusts fühlt er Entsetzen und Schwindel� Ähnlich wie Luther in De servo arbitrio ist auch das Ich in “Das Firmament” von Verzweiflung nur bedroht; und diese Bedrohung führt es zu Gott� Was bei Brockes als ein abrupter Umschlag von Niedergeschlagenheit in Glück erscheint, der nur durch einen bereits vorausgesetzten Gottesglauben möglich wird, wie er im anfänglichen Bibelzitat Ausdruck findet, erweist sich vor dem Hintergrund von Luthers Lehre als eine modifizierte, säkularisierte Erfahrung der Unfreiheit des Willens und der Abhängigkeit des Menschen von der Gnade Gottes, allerdings nicht im Bereich des Geistigen, sondern des Sinnlichen oder besser der sinnlichen Manifestation des Geistigen, Göttlichen im endlos erscheinenden Weltall� Während Luther an der Unergründlichkeit von Gottes Handeln beinahe verzweifelt, droht dem Sprecher von “Das Firmament” die Verzweiflung vorwiegend wegen der sowohl sinnlichen als auch intellektuellen 230 May Mergenthaler Unergründlichkeit des nach-kopernikanischen Weltraums� Allerdings erwähnt Brockes nach “Geist” und “Aug” auch die mit Religion und Moral assoziierte “Sele”: “Und mein verschlungner Blick bald hiebald dahin lieffe / Doch immer tieffer sank: entsatze sich mein Geist / Es schwindelte mein Aug’ / es stockte meine Sele / Ob der unendlichen unmässig-tieffen Höle [= Höhle, d� V�]“� 15 Die Erwähnung der “Sele” und vielleicht auch der “Höle”, deren Schreibweise an das Wort “Hölle” erinnert (vgl� Krauß 2016, 243), scheint eine moralische Krise, wie Luther sie erlebte, wenigstens anzudeuten� Eine Verbindung zwischen einer moralischen und einer sinnlich-intellektuellen Krise im Angesicht des nach-kopernikanischen Weltraums findet sich schon in Jakob Böhmes Aurora oder die Morgenröthe im Aufgang (1977 [1612])� Laut Wehrli (1961-62) steht die “Öffnung des unendlichen kosmischen Raums [ ]-am Anfang von Böhmes philosophisch-religiöser Not und ist der Antrieb seines Denkens geworden” (886)� Böhme schreibt im 19� Kapitel von Aurora, wie er in “eine harte Melancholei und Traurigkeit” gerät, als er “die große Tiefe dieser Welt, dazu die Sonne und Sternen, sowohl die Wolken, dazu Regen und Schnee” anschaut und in seinem “Geiste die ganze Schöpfung dieser Welt” betrachtet (279)� Die Tiefe der Welt umfasst für Böhme nicht nur den Weltraum, und seine Melancholie wird nicht allein von dessen Tiefe hervorgerufen, sondern vor allem dadurch, “daß in allen Dingen Böses und Gutes war, in den Elementen sowohl als in den Kreaturen, und daß es in dieser Welt dem Gottlosen so wohl ginge als den Frommen” (278)� Luther ähnlich verzweifelt Böhme an dem Widerspruch zwischen der Vorstellung eines gütigen und gerechten Gottes und der Wirklichkeit, in der Böses oft ungestraft zu bleiben scheint� Ebenfalls wie Luther erfährt Böhme gerade im härtesten Ringen mit Gott eine Erleuchtung, die er mit einer “Auferstehung von den Toten” vergleicht (279)� Aurora lässt sich somit als Bindeglied zwischen Luthers theologischer und Brockes’ eher epistemologischer und sinnlicher Verzweiflung verstehen� Drei weitere mögliche Kontexte von Brockes’ Darstellung einer erschütternden Weltraumerfahrung spezifisch durch die paradoxe Vorstellung eines dunklen Lichts bilden die Schriften des Begründers der christlichen Mystik Dionysius Areopagita (Haas 1986, 182), eines der Kirchenväter des 6� Jahrhunderts (Pseudo-Dionysius 1994, 62), Andreas Gryphius’ Sonette und Christian Thomasius’ Naturphilosophie� Die religiösen Lichtvorstellungen der drei Verfasser erscheinen in Brockes’ “Firmament” in ähnlicher, aber säkularisierter Form, die mit dem Protestantismus vereinbar ist� Die Parallelen zwischen “Das Firmament” und Dionysius’ De mystica theologia (Die mystische Theologie) umfassen neben der Vorstellung oder dem Bild des dunklen Lichts auch die Reihen von Negationen sowie die Vorstellung eines Selbstverlusts, der zur Vereinigung mit Gott führt� Alle drei Aspekte sind mit “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 231 Luthers reformatorischer Lehre nicht leicht zu vereinbaren� Der frühe Luther hatte die negative Theologie allerdings noch positiv aufgenommen� Erst ab ca� 1515-16 kritisierte er sie als platonisch und spekulativ, da sie die Menschwerdung Gottes in Christus und dessen Lehren ignorierte (Reinhuber 2000, 102, und ebd� Anm� 295; McGinn 2017, 38)� 16 Eine kurze Darstellung der sich wandelnden Dionysius-Rezeption durch Luther und der Rehabilitation der christlichen Mystik durch den pietistischen Theologen Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714) soll helfen, die mögliche Rezeption von Dionysius’ mystischer Theologie durch Brockes plausibel zu machen� Luther war das zu seiner Zeit hoch geschätzte Werk von Dionysius bekannt (Haas 1986, 182; zur Mühlen 1995, 68-69), und er verweist in seinen vorreformatorischen Psalmenvorlesungen Dictata super psalterium (1513-1515) bestätigend auf dessen Lehre von der Unerkennbarkeit bzw� “Dunkelheit” Gottes (vgl� zur Mühlen 1995, 70-71)� “Der selige Dionysius” lehrt laut Luthers Vorlesung über den 17� Psalm, “in die hohe Finsternis einzutreten und durch Negationen (aller behauptenden Aussagen über Gott) aufzusteigen” (übersetzt und zitiert in zur Mühlen 1995, 70; vgl� WA 3, 124)� Luther distanziert sich bald darauf explizit von Dionysius und der christlichen Mystik insgesamt, wenn er in seiner Auslegung von Römer 5,2 (“Durch Christus haben wir den Zugang zum Vater”) von 1515-16 davor warnt, auf dem Weg zur Dunkelheit Gottes Christus (das “fleischgewordene Wort”) zu überspringen, in dem sich Gott offenbare und durch den allein man zur “Reinheit des Herzens” gelangen könne� Erst wenn man diese Reinheit erlangt habe, werde “man durch das fleischgewordene hinaufgerissen in das ungeschaffene Wort” - eine Möglichkeit, die Luther jedoch in Frage stellt: “Aber wer meint von sich, er sei so rein, daß er sich dessen getraut” (zitiert bei zur Mühlen 1995, 71; vgl� WA 56, 299)� Luthers Abwendung von der mystischen Interpretation der Dunkelheit Gottes zeigt sich deutlich in seiner Auslegung des 18� “Dankpsalm[s], darinnen David Gott danket-[ ], daß er von allen seinen Feinden erlöset sei” (Luther 1880-1910, Bd� 4, 145), der zu seinen Arbeiten von 1519-21 über die ersten 22 Psalmen gehört (vgl� ebd� 198-99)� Gott zeigt seinen Zorn in einem Gewitter: “Er neigte den Himmel und fuhr herab, und Dunkel war unter seinen Füßen” (18,10)� In seinem Kommentar zu diesem Vers erklärt Luther abschätzig, unter denen, die “schon vieles von diesem Dunkel erdichtet” hätten, sei auch der “bekannte [ ] Dionysius, wer er auch gewesen sein mag”� Sich von der Mystik distanzierend, fährt er fort, der dunkle Zorn Gottes berühre einen nur, wenn “der HErr selbst inwendig bewegt, lehrt und das Gedeihen gibt” (Luther 1880-1910, Bd� 4, 1060)� In seiner Auslegung von 18,12, “Sein Gezelt um ihn war finster, und schwarze Wolken, darinnen er verborgen war”, betont Luther, “daß im Allerheiligsten kein Licht war, bezeichnete, daß, da GOtt in seiner Kirche wohnt durch Chris- 232 May Mergenthaler tum, der Glaube in ihren Herzen sei, welcher weder begreift, noch begriffen wird, weder sieht noch gesehen wird, und doch alles sieht” (ebd�, 1065)� Gottes dunkles “Gezelt” sei das “Allerheiligste” und seine “Kirche” (ebd�, 1066; vgl� zur Mühlen 1995, 70 über Luthers frühere Vorlesung zu Psalm 17,12, “Finsternis ist die Hütte Gottes” in WA 3, 124)� Eine Rehabilitation von Dionysius’ christlicher Mystik findet sich in Gottfried Arnolds Kurz gefasster Kirchenhistorie des Alten und Neuen Testaments (1737 [1697]), die sich in einer Ausgabe von 1722 in Brockes’ Besitz befand (vgl� Kemper et al� 1998, Bd� 1, 270)� 17 “Des Dionysii Areopagitae Bücher von der mystischen oder geheimen Theologie [ ] halten auch viel Gutes in sich”, erklärt Arnold in seiner Kirchenhistorie (Arnold 1737, 79)� Eine ausführlichere Würdigung findet Dionysius’ Lehre in Arnolds Historie und Beschreibung der Mystischen Theologie, oder geheimen Gottes Gelehrtheit, wie auch derer alten und neuen Mysticorum (1703)� Dort vollzieht er den Weg zu dem “überwesendlichen Strahl des göttlichen Lichts” (126) nach, sich in einer Anmerkung u� a� auf Dionysius’ De mystica theologia beziehend: Das Gemüte werde aus Beschauung GOttes durch Hinwegräumung alles andern ganz in göttlicher Liebe entzündet / und gleichsam feurig und Seraphinisch gemachet / vergesse sich selbst und alle Creaturen / übersteige alle Dinge / und vereinige sich mit dem überunbegreiflichen GOtt / durch den Einfluß des himmlischen Lichts / durch die Anrede des verborgenen Einschauens / durch die allerhellste Dunckelheit und allerweiseste Unwissenheit� [ ] Dann wann man von sich selbst ausgehe / und lasse sich von keinem hinderlichen Mittel abhalten / so werde man zu dem überwesendlichen Strahl des göttlichen Lichtes getrieben� (Arnold 1703, 125-26) Die Rede von der “allerhellsten Dunckelheit” erinnert an die in “Das Firmament” genannte “ungeheure Gruft des tieffen dunkeln Lichts / Der lichten Dunkelheit”� “Himmlisches Licht” wird im Epigraph des Gedichts, dem Zitat aus Sir 43,1, mit der Bezeichnung des Himmels als “helles Firmament” erwähnt� Ein Blick in Dionysius’ De mystica theologia zeigt, dass die Übereinstimmungen zwischen Brockes’ Gedicht und Dionysius’ Schrift über diese Formulierungen hinausgehen, und lässt auch Unterschiede zu “Das Firmament” deutlich werden� So plädiert Brockes nicht dafür, sich jenseits der Dinge zu vergessen, sondern er beschreibt den Selbstverlust als gebunden an die sinnliche Erfahrung des Himmels sowie als etwas zu Überwindendes� Dionysius’ mystische Theologie war laut Adolf Ritter, dem Verfasser einer kommentierten Übersetzung von De mystica theologia (1994) aus dem originalen Griechischen ins Deutsche, ein Versuch, Christentum und Neuplatonismus miteinander zu vereinbaren (Pseudo-Dionysius 1994, 52-53)� Brockes’ “Das Firmament” lässt sich vor dem Hintergrund von Luthers Dionysius-Rezeption “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 233 als Versuch lesen, die mystische Theologie mit Aspekten von Luthers reformatorischer Theologie zu verknüpfen, d� h� die vom Neuplatonismus beeinflusste Vorstellung eines einzigen, sinnlich und verstandesmäßig unerreichbaren Gottes (vgl� 52) mit Luthers Betonung der Diesseitigkeit sowie seiner gleichzeitigen Vorstellung einer individuellen, geistigen Beziehung zu Gott und seiner Lehre von der göttlichen Gnade� Der Titel des ersten Kapitels von De mystica theologia (1994), den Dionysius Ritter zufolge selbst wählte (81), lautet “Was das ‘göttliche Dunkel’ sei” (74)� Das ‘göttliche Dunkel’ bestimmt Dionysius in einem einführenden “Gebet” (74; vgl� Anm� 9, 83) als die “Mysterien” der “Gotteskunde”, womit nach Ritter die Bibel gemeint ist (vgl� 62-63)� Die Mysterien seien in “überlichtem Dunkel geheimnisvollen Schweigens verborgen”, “einfach, absolut und unwandelbar” (74)� Das “überlichte[] Dunkel” der Gotteskunde sei unbegreiflich und unsichtbar, d� h� die Gotteskunde sei weder durch die Vernunft erkennbar noch durch die Sinne wahrnehmbar (vgl� Kapitel 4 und 5, 79-80)� Laut Dionysius darf man solche Verneinungen jedoch nicht als Gegenteil von Bejahungen verstehen; denn Gott, der “Urgrund des Alls”, übersteige “sowohl jede Verneinung wie jede Bejahung” (75)� Da die “Allursache” unbegrenzt sei, könne sie nicht durch Bejahung oder Verneinung bestimmt und begrenzt werden (75; vgl� 80)� Dionysius’ Oxymora (“überlichte[s] Dunkel”, 74) und seine negativen Bestimmungen der Gotteskunde erinnern an Brockes’ Verse “die ungeheure Gruft des tieffen dunkeln Lichts / Der lichten Dunkelheit / ohn’ Anfang / ohne Schranken / Verschlang sogar die Welt / begrub selbst die Gedanken” (IVG 1, 3)� Negativ bestimmt werden in Brockes’ “Firmament” allerdings nicht Gott oder seine Kunde, sondern das All� Die Erfahrung der lichten Dunkelheit führt aber bei Dionysius ähnlich wie bei Brockes zum Selbstverlust und zur Vereinigung mit Gott: “Denn nur wenn Du Dich bedingungslos und uneingeschränkt Deiner selbst wie aller Dinge entäußerst, wirst Du in Reinheit zum überseienden Strahl des göttlichen Dunkels emporgetragen, alles loslassend und von allem losgelöst” (Pseudo-Dionysius 1994, 74)� Während dem Sprecher von “Das Firmament” im Angesicht des unendlichen Weltraums Verzweiflung droht, fordert der Schreiber bei Dionysius seinen Adressaten Timotheus dazu auf, sich selbst und “alle[] Dinge” aufzugeben, um mit Gott eins zu werden, und ohne mit diesem Opfer negative Emotionen wie Schrecken oder Verzweiflung in Verbindung zu bringen� Weiterhin ist die Selbstaufgabe laut Dionysius wählbar, wenn sie auch Bedingung für die Vereinigung mit Gott ist� Bei Brockes entsteht der Selbstverlust wie von allein, auf gewissermaßen natürliche Weise, durch den Anblick eines Teils der Natur, des Weltraums, dessen Vorstellung allerdings von den astronomischen Erkenntnissen beeinflusst ist und vielleicht sogar auf dem Blick durch 234 May Mergenthaler das Teleskop beruht (siehe Billen/ Hassel 2005, 45)� In “Das Firmament” erscheint der Selbstverlust des Sprechers kaum vermeidbar, weil der Blick angesichts des Weltalls keinen Anhaltspunkt findet und sich darin verliert� Das Oxymoron des lichten Dunkels soll bei Dionysius ein geheimnisvolles Göttliches vorstellbar machen, während Brockes versucht, mit ähnlich paradoxen Formulierungen eine Erfahrung zu veranschaulichen, die vor allem durch die Sinne und den Verstand ausgelöst wird� Der wichtigste Unterschied zwischen beiden Vor- und Darstellungen von Gott und Kosmos liegt vielleicht darin, dass das Göttliche bei Dionysius in einem Jenseits liegt, das durch die Präposition “über-” (griechisch “hyper”) markiert wird, wie auch Luther bemerkt (WA 3, 372, 13-27; vgl� zur Mühlen 1995, 70)� Das “göttliche Dunkel” in De mystica theologia ist nicht nur wie bei Brockes “licht”, sondern “überlicht”� Der Gott in “Das Firmament” hingegen ist “allgegenwärtig[]“; d� h� er ist wohl trotz seiner Unbegreiflichkeit auch im Helldunkel noch anwesend, was dem Ich helfen mag, sich selbst wieder zu finden: “Allein / o heylsams Nichts! glückseliger Verlust! / Allgegenwärt’ger GOTT / in Dir fand ich mich wieder”� In der Diesseitigkeit Gottes und in der Passivität von Brockes’ Sprecher lassen sich Überschneidungen mit Luthers reformatorischer Lehre finden� Dass Christus wenigstens in der ersten Edition des ersten Bands von IVG in Brockes’ eigenen Gedichten keine Erwähnung findet (siehe Anm� 12), bringt diese wiederum Dionysius’ neuplatonischer Mystik näher� Das Göttliche liegt für Brockes zugleich in und über der Natur� Eine Transformation christlichen Gedankenguts lässt sich auch mit Blick auf Gryphius’ Gedicht “Vber die Geburt Jesu” aus den Sonetten (1663 [1643]) erkennen, an das Brockes’ “Das Firmament” mit seinen Vorstellungen des dunklen Lichts, des nahen Verlusts Gottes und von dessen Wiederfinden erinnert� In “Vber die Geburt Jesu” wird die Atmosphäre bei Christus’ Geburt mit den typisch barocken Paradoxien und Chiasmen als “lichte nacht” beschrieben: Nacht mehr den lichte nacht! nacht lichter als der tag / Nacht heller als die Sonn’ / in der das licht gebohren / Das Gott / der licht / in licht wohnhafftig / ihmb erkohren: O nacht / die alle nächt’ vndt tage trotzen mag� O frewdenreiche nacht / in welcher ach vnd klag / Vnd fünsternüß vnd was sich auff die welt verschworen Vnd furcht vnd hellen angst vnd schrecken ward verlohren� Der himmel bricht! doch felt nuh mehr kein donnerschlag� Der zeitt vnd nächte schuff ist diese nacht ankommen! Vnd hatt das recht der zeitt / vnd fleisch an sich genommen! Vnd vnser fleisch vnd zeitt der ewikeitt vermacht� Der jammer trübe nacht die schwartze nacht der sünden “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 235 Des grabes dunckelheit / mus durch die nacht verschwinden� Nacht lichter als der tag; nacht mehr den lichte nacht! (Gryphius 1963 [1663], 30) Laut Fässler (1971) ist die paradoxe “Verklammerung von Licht und Dunkel” in “Vber die Geburt Jesu” für Gryphius ungewöhnlich, da er Hell und Dunkel üblicherweise als unvereinbare Gegensätze begreife (57)� Allerdings enthalte das Oxymoron kein unauflösliches Paradox; denn bei dem nächtlichen Licht handle es sich um ein göttliches Licht, das klar von dem sichtbaren, materiellen unterschieden werde� Die Nacht aber sei eine zugleich materielle und geistige; Tageszeit der Geburt Christi und Metapher für Jammer, Sünde und Tod: “Verbunden sind also die Nacht der Zeit - im eigentlichen und metaphorischen Sinn - und das Licht der Ewigkeit” (54)� Im Vergleich zu den klar widersprüchlichen Formulierungen bei Brockes, die aus dem Helldunkel eine vorwiegend sinnliche Erfahrung werden lassen, sind Gryphius’ Paradoxien nicht nur auflösbar; er verwendet auch asymmetrische Gegensätze zwischen einer mehr als lichten Nacht oder einer Nacht, die “heller als die Sonn” ist, einerseits, und dem natürlichen Licht des Tages oder der Sonne andererseits� Die Komparative erinnern an Dionysius’ Oxymoron “überlichte[s] Dunkel”; allerdings vermeidet Gryphius die mystische Präposition “über”� Fässler betont dementsprechend, Gryphius sei kein Mystiker (68); sie behauptet sogar, dass es zwischen dem Helldunkel-Oxymoron bei Gryphius und demjenigen bei Dionysius keinerlei inhaltliche Gemeinsamkeiten gebe (54n101)� Durch den Vergleich zwischen “Vber die Geburt Jesu” und “Das Firmament” wird die moralische und religiöse Ebene der Figuren von Licht und Dunkelheit in Brockes’ Gedicht klarer erkennbar� Brockes’ Vers “Die ungeheure Gruft des tieffen dunkeln Lichts” erinnert an Gryphius’ Formulierung “Des grabes dunckelheit”, die in einem Zug mit “Der jammer trübe nacht die schwartze nacht der sünden” genannt wird, und von der behauptet wird, dass sie “durch die Nacht verschwinden” müsse� Auch wenn bei Brockes von Sünde nicht die Rede ist, so schreibt er doch von “Sele”, “Verzweiflung” und “Brust”� Die Beschreibung des Weltalls als eines “Abgrunds” bei Brockes gemahnt an Gryphius’ “brechenden Himmel” bei Jesus’ Geburt� Bei Brockes wird der brechende Himmel wörtlich genommen, als ein zerbrochenes Firmament, das sich dem Betrachter als ein unendlicher Raum darstellt� Ähnlich wie die dunkle Nacht in Gryphius’ Gedicht die Dunkelheit vertreibt, so findet sich bei Brockes das Selbst durch seine Vernichtung im allgegenwärtigen Gott wieder� Während Gryphius klar auf die Vergebung der menschlichen Sünden durch Christus’ Tod anspielt, wird bei Brockes das Ich selbst zu einer Christusfigur, die ihren eigenen Tod imaginiert und diesen aus eigenen Kräften, ohne Mittler, überwindet (vgl� Kemper 1991, 121-27)� 18 Es ist nur folgerichtig, dass diese Todesphantasie eine singuläre und 236 May Mergenthaler individuelle ist, die jeder Leser des Gedichts für sich selbst erneut nachvollziehen muss, während Gryphius über eine momentane (“doch felt nuh mehr kein donnerschlag”, Hervorh� d� V�) und doch ewige Nacht schreibt� Zuletzt wird noch am Beispiel von Thomasius die hermetische Tradition als Kontext von “Das Firmament” angeführt, die laut Kemper die größte Bedeutung für Brockes’ IVG besitzt� Ein Blick in Thomasius’ Versuch von [sic] Wesen des Geistes (1699) zeigt jedoch, dass auch in Thomasius’ hermetischer Schrift die moralisch-religiöse Ebene zumindest noch angedeutet wird� In Brockes’ “Das Firmament” erscheint sie noch weiter abgeschwächt, bleibt aber als geistesgeschichtlicher Hintergrund von Bedeutung� Laut Thomasius’ Versuch ist “[d]er obere Geist” Gott (75), und dieser sei “nur ein Licht ohne Mischung mit etwas anders, aber ein unbegreiffliches Licht� [ ] Er ist ein Licht ohne Finsterniß / und das finstere Wesen der Materie komt doch aus ihm her� [ ] Er ist ein unsichtbares Wesen und doch hat er alle sichtbahre Cörper aus Nichts gemacht” (96-97)� Die Materie stellt sich Thomasius als eine Mischung aus Licht und Finsternis vor (88)� Gleichzeitig behauptet er, dass es neben dem “Geist / der alles erleuchtet / und in dem keine Finsternis ist” auch einen “Geist ohne Licht” gebe: Der Raum sei etwas Geistiges und könne ohne Licht begriffen werden (66-67)� Die Finsternis aber bestimmt Thomasius als “ein Mittelding / vereinigung des Lichts mit der Finsterniß“� Denn der finstere Geist gebe keine Schatten und strahle nicht selbst, “sondern nimt das Licht an / und theilet es der finstern Materie mit” (67)� Auch wenn Thomasius nicht wie Brockes poetisch von einem dunklen Licht oder einer lichten Dunkelheit spricht, so bestimmt er die Finsternis, ähnlich wie Brockes das dunkle Weltall, als eine Mischung von Licht und Finsternis� Der Himmel ist für Thomasius allerdings überwiegend hell, da er kaum Materie enthalte� Er sei “unsichtbar”, aber “niemals finster” (93)� Der Ausdruck “Finsternis”, der sich auch in 1 Mose 1,2 findet, ist bei Thomasius negativ besetzt, da er ihn mit Materie und Tod verbindet (98)� In Kurtze Lehr-Sätze von dem Laster der Zauberey (1704) bestimmt Thomasius Gott zudem als Fürsten des Lichts und den Teufel als den “Fürsten der Finsternis” und der Luft: “das ist / ein geistliches oder unsichtbahres Wesen [ ] / welches auf eine geistliche oder unsichtbahre Weise vermittelst der Luft / oder auch wässeriger und erdener Cörperchen in den gottlosen Menschen seine Wirckungen hat” (Thomasius 1704, 589)� Vor diesem Hintergrund könnte die nahe “Verzweiflung” des Sprechers von “Das Firmament” beim Anblick der lichten Dunkelheit des Firmaments neben dem kopernikanischen auch einen biblischen und moralischen Hintergrund haben, auch wenn Brockes nicht das biblische Wort “Finsternis” verwendet, sondern die eher auf die Wahrnehmung zielenden Ausdrücke “dunckel” und “Dunckelheit”� Die untersuchten Kontexte von Brockes’ Lichtdarstellung in “Das Firmament” weisen sämtlich auf biblisch-religiöse Quellen der vernichtenden Erfahrung des “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 237 Sprechers beim Anblick des unendlichen, nach-kopernikanischen Weltalls hin� Vor dem Hintergrund der genannten Quellen erscheint der Übergang von naher Verzweiflung angesichts des grundlosen Himmels zur Selbstfindung in Gott am Ende von Brockes’ Gedicht nicht mehr als sprunghaft und willkürlich, wie häufig behauptet, sondern - ob von Brockes intendiert oder nicht - als deutlich vorbereitet� Die Untersuchung hat außerdem gezeigt, dass die Vermittlung zwischen objektiven und subjektiven Perspektiven auf die Natur, zwischen empirischer Naturbeschreibung und subjektiver Naturerfahrung, die der Ecocriticism von einer ökologischen Lyrik fordert, in Brockes’ “Firmament” im Hinblick auf die Beschreibung und Erfahrung des unendlichen Weltraums (verstanden als Teil der Natur) mit Hilfe von Lichtdarstellungen geschieht, die plausible religiöse, sowie religiös beeinflusste naturphilosophische und literarische Kontexte verbinden� Es ist gut möglich, dass diese Religiosität auch noch die nachfolgende, heute als ökologisch geltende Naturlyrik prägt - man denke an das “heilige” Licht, das in Goethes “Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen” die Blume zum Blühen bringt� Vielleicht ermöglicht die als anthropozentrisch kritisierte christliche Tradition überhaupt erst die Entwicklung einer ökologischen, biozentrischen Lyrik bzw� ihres Begriffs� Dann aber wäre der ethische und globale Anspruch, der mit einer solchen Lyrik verbunden wird, nicht ungefragt hinzunehmen, sondern kritisch zu diskutieren� Abbreviations IVG-- Brockes, Barthold Heinrich� Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott� 9 Bde� 1721-1749� (Verschiedene Verlage und Editionen� Zu den hier angeführten Bänden siehe “Zitierte Literatur”�) WA-- D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe� Hg� von Rudolf Hermann, Gerhard Ebeling et al� Weimar: Böhlau, 1883-2009� (Weimarer Ausgabe) Notes 1 Übersetzung d� V� 2 Ab der zweiten Auflage (Brockes 1724) des ersten Bandes von IVG lautet der vollständige Titel Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott, bestehend in Physikalisch- und Moralischen Gedichten� 3 Wie Bühler (2016) betont, ist Ecocriticism keine neue Interpretationsmethode wie z� B� die Dekonstruktion oder der New Historicism (ix)� 238 May Mergenthaler 4 Siehe stellvertretend Weimar (1991)� Neu ist auch der Fokus auf dem Licht als Figur der Vermittlung zwischen unterschiedlichen, teils einander widersprechenden Weltbildern� 5 Die zweite der sieben Auflagen des ersten Bands von IVG (1721, 1724, 1726, 1728, 1732, 1737, 1744) beginnt ebenfalls mit “Das Firmament”� Sieben Auflagen zählt Rathje (Brockes 2012-, Bd� 2, 887)� In einer durch Cantaten ergänzten Schweizer Auflage des ersten IVG-Bandes von 1740 ist “Das Firmament” hingegen nicht enthalten� 6 In der von Kemper zitierten Strophe aus “Das Feuer” “fleußt” der allgemeine Licht-Geist allerdings “Aus der Sonnen Cörpern” (IVG 1 [1724], 349)� In der ersten Strophe aber wird Gott selbst als “[e]wig-undurchdringlichs Licht” adressiert (ebd�, 313; vgl� Strophen 106 und 107, 348)� 7 Zitiert wird hier und im Folgenden die Luther-Bibel von 1545, mit der Brockes’ Bibel-Zitate in IVG weitgehend übereinstimmen� Vgl� Zedlers (1738, Bd� 17) ersten Eintrag zum Stichwort “Licht”: “Licht, ist vornehmlich zweyerley Art, nehmlich ein natürliches und leuchtendes, und so dann auch ein übernatürliches und geistliches Licht” (826)� Eine Sammlung von Bibelstellen zum Stichwort Licht findet sich in Zedler (1738, Bd� 17): 824-25, 832-33� Siehe z� B� Joh� 1,5, wo es heißt, dass Gott das Licht ist, in dem keine Finsternis ist: “Jn jm war das Leben / vnd das Leben war das Liecht der Menschen / vnd das Liecht scheinet in der Finsternis / vnd die Finsternis habens nicht begriffen” (Luther 1545, Joh� 1,5)� 8 Brockes nennt Gott in “Garten-Andachten” und in “Der Käfer” den “Brunn des Lichts” (44, 116); in “Der Abend” den “Brunn des ewig-hellen Lichts” (52); in “Betrachtung des Mondscheins in einer angenehmen Frühlingsnacht” heißt es, Gott sei ein noch “weit größeres Licht” als die Sonne und deren “Schöpfer” (59)� In “Der Winter” begreift Brockes Gott als “Ewigs Licht / Geist aller Geister / Der Raum / Welt und Sonnen schafft” (161)� In “Die Gedanken” heißt es, die “Wahrheit” von Gottes “heilge[m] Throne” ruhe dort selbst “ewiglich in reinem Lichte” (207)� 9 In “Betrachtung des Mondscheins in einer angenehmen Frühlingsnacht” (IVG 1, 53-59) heißt es “Deines Lichtes Lebens: Schein / Scheint was Göttliches zu seyn” (58)� 10 Vers 1 des 43� Kapitels folgt bei Luther (1545) auf Vers 26 des 42� Kapitels; die Verse 15-26 werden jedoch dem 43� Kapitel zugeordnet� Brockes übernimmt diese Ordnung� Verse 15 und 16 lauten: “ 15 JCH wil nu preisen des HERRN werck / Aus-der heiligen Schrifft / seine Werck verkündigen / wie ichs gelesen hab� DJe Sonne gibt aller Welt liecht / vnd jr Liecht ist das allerhellest liecht�” Zu Luthers Übersetzung des Buchs Sirach und dessen Einordnung in die Apokryphen siehe Rösel (2015), 288-89, 293-94� “o heylsams Nichts”: Zur Funktion des Lichts in Brockes’ Naturlyrik 239 11 Brockes’ Auswahl von Bibelversen als Epigraphen für seine Gedichte ist also nicht, wie Fry (2011) behauptet, “völlig unsystematisch bis auf die Konzentration auf das Alte Testament” (84)� Allerdings konnte nicht in Erfahrung gebracht werden, ob Brockes oder sein Herausgeber Weichmann für die Anordnung der 39 von Brockes verfassten Gedichte in IVG 1 verantwortlich war� Vgl� Fry (1990), 104� 12 In der zweiten Auflage von IVG 1 (1724) findet sich ein Gedicht, in dem Christus thematisiert wird: “Das, durch die Betrachtung der Grösse GOttes / verherrlichte Nichts der Menschen, in einem Gespräche� Auf das Jahr 1722” (397-431)� 13 Das Verhältnis zwischen Gott und Himmel in Sir 43,1 ähnelt Brockes’ Verständnis des Verhältnisses zwischen Sonne und Gott, wie Kemper es beschreibt� Kemper (1981, Bd� 1) erklärt, dass “der Unterschied der Sonne gegenüber Gott” für Brockes “seiner hermetisch-emanatistischen Grundeinstellung gemäß nur ein gradueller, kein prinzipieller sei” (323)� 14 Laut Langen (1978) ist die Natur in Brockes IVG 1 insgesamt statisch, was darauf hinweise, dass der Mensch in den Gedichten in IVG nicht als auf die Natur einwirkend dargestellt werde: “Die Natur also wirkt auf die Menschenseele [Rührung], aber sie wird noch nicht wie nachmals im Irrationalismus [bei Goethe, d� V�; vgl� 128] zur Ausdruckslandschaft, zum Seelenspiegel” (129)� 15 Zu frühen Schreibweisen von “Höhle” ohne den Buchstaben “h” siehe Grimm� Eine Schreibweise von “Hölle” mit einem “l” findet sich bei Grimm nicht� 16 Haas (1986) kritisiert diese Einteilung von Luthers Werk als zu vereinfachend (178-79)� 17 Wenn Brockes De mystica theologia gelesen haben sollte, dann wohl in der lateinischen Übersetzung oder im griechischen Original� Die Verfasserin fand allerdings keine Hinweise darauf, dass Brockes (Alt-)Griechisch lesen konnte� Die erste Übersetzung der Schriften des Dionysius Areopagita ins Deutsche stammt von 1832 (Stock 2008, 11, Anm� 59)� 18 Vgl� Kempers (1981, Bd� 1) Behauptung, dass Brockes, “indem er die stellvertretende Genugtuung Christi außer Betracht läßt, jeden einzelnen selbst mit der Bürde der zu erbringenden Satisfaktion [behaftet]” (327)� Works Cited Arnold, Gottfried� Historie und Beschreibung der Mystischen Theologie, oder geheimen Gottes Gelehrtheit, wie auch derer alten und neuen Mysticorum� Frankfurt am Main: Fritschen, 1703� —� Kurz gefasste Kirchenhistorie des Alten und Neuen Testaments� Leipzig: Samuel Benjamin Walthern, 1737� 240 May Mergenthaler Billen, Josef, and Friedhelm Hassel�-Undeutbare Welt: Sinnsuche und Entfremdungserfahrung in deutschen Naturgedichten von Andreas Gryphius bis Friedrich Nietzsche� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2005� Bodmer, Johann Jacob� Critische Betrachtungen über die Gemälde der Dichter� Zurich: Orell und Comp�/ Leipzig: Gleditsch, 1741� Böhme, Jakob� Aurora oder Morgenröte im Aufgang� Freiburg i� Br�: Aurum-Verlag, 1977� Braungart, Georg� “Naturlyrik�” Handbuch Lyrik: Theorie, Analyse, Geschichte� Ed� Dieter Lamping� Stuttgart: Metzler, 2016� 138-45� Brockes, Barthold Heinrich� Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott� Erster Theil� Ed� Christian Friedrich Weichmann� Hamburg: Schiller- und Kißnerischer Buchladen, 1721� —� Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott� Erster Theil. 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G. Baumgarten im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ästhetik, Logik und Ethik� Ed� Andrea Allerkamp and Dagmar Mirbach� Hamburg: Meiner, 2016� 223-51� Langen, August� “Verbale Dynamik in der dichterischen Landschaftsschilderung des 18� Jahrhunderts�” Gesammelte Studien zur neueren deutschen Sprache und Literatur� Ed� Karl Richter et al� Berlin: Schmidt, 1978� 21-86� Luther, Martin� Biblia. Das ist: Die gantze Heilige Schrifft: Deudsch Auffs new zugericht. D. Mart. Luth. Begnadet mit Kurfürstlicher zu Sachsen Freiheit. Gedruckt zu Wittemberg Durch Hanns Lufft. 1545� —� Dr. Martin Luthers Sämtliche Schriften� Vierter Band. Auslegung des Alten Testaments (Fortsetzung). Auslegung der Psalmen. Ed� Joh� Georg Walch� St� Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1880-1910� —� Dr. Martin Luthers Sämtliche Schriften� Achtzehnter Band. Reformationsschriften. 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Munich: Fink, 1999� Wehrli, Max� “Dichter und Weltraum�” Schweizer Monatshefte: Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur 41�8 (1961/ 62): 881-92� Weimar, Klaus� “Gottes und der Menschen Schrift� Zum vollkommenen Gedicht des Barthold Hinrich Brockes�” Merkur 45�12 (1991): 1089-95� Zedler, Johann Heinrich� Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste� Halle/ Leipzig: Zedler, 1731-54� Zelle, Carsten� “Angenehmes Grauen.” Literaturhistorische Beiträge zur Ästhetik des Schrecklichen im achtzehnten Jahrhundert. Hamburg: Meiner, 1987� Zemanek, Evi, and Anna Rauscher� “Das ökologische Potenzial der Naturlyrik: Diskursive, figurative und formsemantische Innovationen�” Ökologische Genres. Naturästhetik - Umweltethik - Wissenspoetik� Ed� Evi Zemanek� Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018� 91-118� zur Mühlen, Karl-Heinz�-Reformatorisches Profil: Studien zum Weg Martin Luthers und der Reformation� Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995� Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 243 Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form Peter Gilgen Cornell University Abstract: A central debate in recent posthumanist theory concerns the question of how to regain access to our natural surroundings or, in Quentin Meillassoux’s memorable formulation, “the great outdoors�” Some thinkers propagate a new approach to nature by undoing the Kantian transcendental turn and thus severing the correlation between subject and object, thinking and being� Doubting the viability of this suggestion, others have instead proposed a renewal of aesthetics� In their view, the constitutive intertwinement of thinking and being in aesthetic experience undoes the correlation from within� Against such speculative realist aesthetics, my essay maintains that a minimal difference and thus a correlation between subject and object irreducibly persists even in aesthetic rapture� Could not the great outdoors be conceived in terms of Kantian biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s “surroundings,” the objective, but inaccessible totality of the world? Within it, every organism projects its own subjective “environment” that contains all features that are accessible to the subject� The interruption of routines suspends a subject’s habitual reliance on its perception, which is recalibrated in the process� Perhaps we ought to understand the experience of natural beauty, as described by Kant, as widening our human environment in consequence of being touched unexpectedly by entities that we habitually encounter as mere objects in the world� Only in such fleeting moments do we get a sense of the great outdoors that surrounds us� Keywords: environment, natural beauty, aesthetics, posthumanism, speculative realism, Kant … der Rosen Du Gottfried Benn 244 Peter Gilgen A central debate in recent posthumanist theory concerns the question of how to regain access to our natural surroundings or, in Quentin Meillassoux’s memorable formulation, “the great outdoors�” In order to achieve this goal, Meillassoux suggested a new approach to nature by undoing the Kantian transcendental turn and thus severing the correlation between subject and object, thinking and being� Doubting the viability of this program, other speculative realist and object-oriented theorists have instead proposed an expansive renewal of aesthetics� In their view, the correlation of thinking and being is undone from within, as it were, through their constitutive intertwinement in aesthetic experience� Against both Meillassoux’s extreme objectivism and speculative realist aesthetics, this essay maintains that a minimal difference and thus the correlation between subject and object is irreducible� In fact, it is a necessary condition even in the case of aesthetic experience, which in its emphatic sense depends on a minimal space of reflection if it is not simply to be taken as identical with the mere satisfaction of the senses� Many of the claims made in the name of speculative realism resonate with the renewed interest in aesthetics that was a noticeable feature of the nonhuman turn and the rise of posthumanism at the beginning of the third millennium� 1 This revival of aesthetics, unexpected as it was after the theoretical broadside against it in the 1980s and 1990s, 2 marked a fundamentally realist reaction to the constructivism that had become prevalent in the literary humanities in the wake of the linguistic turn� Under the impression of constructivist claims, academic projects frequently had emphasized their own political relevance and emancipatory potential on the basis of the optimistic assumption that whatever was socially constructed could be changed by constructing it differently� 3 For the most part, the intransigence of the material world and the obstinacy of objects were acknowledged merely as obstacles on the way to emancipation� Feminist body criticism and thing theory had been among the earlier paradigms that voiced dissatisfaction with this critical state of affairs, and consequently figured prominently in establishing posthumanist theory� Today, aesthetics has become a central area of research in a number of posthumanist approaches� Occasionally, it is even invoked as a panacea of sorts that promises to resolve, or at least soften, theoretical contradictions as well as long-standing metaphysical disputes about the nature of reality� Inevitably such deployment of aesthetic theory has to reckon with Kant’s substantial and foundational contributions� This poses a particular problem for speculative realism and related object-oriented theories since their foundational gesture - exemplified in Quentin Meillassoux’s influential essay After Finitude - has been a sharp critique of Kantian epistemology in general and of Kant’s so-called “Copernican turn” in particular� Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 245 This turn, the point of departure for transcendental philosophy and numerous varieties of idealism and constructivism in its wake, was brought about by Kant’s dissatisfaction with the lack of discernible progress in the field of metaphysics at a time when mathematics and the natural sciences were making great strides� The reason for the diagnosed metaphysical stagnation, Kant surmised, may well have been the lack of a point of view from which to conduct metaphysical investigations successfully� If a sudden revolution was sufficient to jolt mathematics and the sciences and put them on more solid grounding, Kant argued, the same must be possible in the case of metaphysics� To this end, he proposed a philosophical revolution that in some respects resembled the one Copernicus had brought about� The astronomer had come to the conclusion that if the movement of the heavenly bodies could not be explained convincingly on the assumption that they all revolved around the spectator, he might have better success if he assumed that the stars were actually at rest while the terrestrial observer revolved around them� In the process, the Ptolemaic, geocentric theory, including its infamous epicycles that had become necessary to accommodate the empirical data, eventually gave way to the heliocentric view� Kant identified the naive realist view “that all our knowledge must conform to objects” as the main obstacle that prevented progress in metaphysics� On the realist assumption, “all attempts to extend our knowledge of objects by establishing something in regard to them a priori, by means of concepts, have […] ended in failure” (B xvi)� 4 Kant proposed to turn the tables� He surmised that we would have better success if we supposed instead “that objects must conform to our knowledge” (ibid�)� On this assumption, it should be possible “to have knowledge of objects a priori, determining something in regard to them prior to their being given” (ibid�)� The Kantian revolution changed the course of philosophy fundamentally� Henceforth, the epistemological question of how we can know what we know needed to be addressed before one could advance to the traditional topics of metaphysics (ontology)� For the speculative realists, Kant’s revolution committed the original sin of idealism, which proliferated in modern thinking in sundry subjectivist and constructivist forms, all the way to the linguistic turn and beyond� Yet the question of what is to be done in order to mitigate the consequences of the Kantian revolution has found no uniform answer among the different speculative realist, materialist and object-oriented approaches beyond the generally agreed-upon assertion that we must undo transcendentalism at all costs in order to regain access to the reality of which we are a part� The most radical solution is offered by Quentin Meillassoux who announces on the opening pages of After Finitude that he intends to defend a thesis that is “resolutely pre-critical” (3)� It comes in two distinct parts: on the one hand, 246 Peter Gilgen Meillassoux concedes “that the sensible only exists as a subject’s relation to the world” - an uncontroversial and profoundly Kantian claim that serves as the starting point of diverse versions of speculative realism� On the other hand, Meillassoux throws down the gauntlet when claiming “that the mathematizable properties of the object are exempt from the constraints of such a relation, and […] are effectively in the object in a way in which I conceive them, whether I am in relation with this object or not” (3)� The original blueprint of such mathematico-ontological Platonism was provided by Meillassoux’s teacher Alain Badiou, whose thesis concerning the ontological pertinence of Cantor’s set theory is discussed in a later section of After Finitude (103-06), where Badiou’s Being and Event is praised for “us[ing] mathematics itself to effect a liberation from the limits of calculatory reason” (103)� 5 Undergirded by Badiou’s mathematical ontology, the world according to Meillassoux is indifferent to our modes of experiencing it� Evidence for this indifference is provided by the “arche-fossil,” defined by Meillassoux as “materials indicating the existence of an ancestral reality […] that is anterior to terrestrial life” (10)� The actual existence of the corresponding entities preceded that of any human observer by hundreds of millions of years� Such ancestral reality, which science can only reconstruct on the basis of the remaining empirical evidence, puts the correlation between the subject’s thinking and the object’s being - the cornerstone of all post-Kantian philosophy, according to Meillassoux - to the test: it is “exposed as an extreme idealism […] incapable of admitting that what science tells us about these occurrences of matter independent of humanity effectively occurred as described by science” (18)� Meillassoux contends that science thus stretches the idealist stranglehold of the correlation to the extreme and finally breaks it completely� As a consequence, speculative thought is about to regain “the great outdoors, the absolute of pre-critical thinkers” (7)� After Finitude is a little book that aims at a big change� It advocates nothing less than a philosophical paradigm shift that would either overturn Kantian transcendentalism or bring it to its radical conclusion, which, to be sure, amounts to the same thing for Meillassoux� He sets his sights on Kant’s theoretical philosophy and, most of all, contests Kant’s Copernican analogy� In his view, the Kantian turn is better understood as a “reversal of the [Copernican] reversal” (119)� It constitutes a veritable “Ptolemaic counter-revolution” (118)� To be sure, Meillassoux is not alone with this criticism� Thus, the eminent physicist and mathematician John D� Barrow contends that adopting Kant’s approach in the physical sciences would indeed have been “a step backwards into the pre-Copernican era in which Man was the focus of all things” (Barrow 89)� In terms not unlike those of Meillassoux’s posthumanist critique, the Cambridge physicist claims that Kant’s idealism assigns to the human mind “a place at the Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 247 focus of the Universe,” whereas modern physicists situate the human being “no longer at the center of their world model” (ibid�)� However, such criticism conveniently forgets that determining the conditions of knowledge and the modern practices of the physical sciences belong to different epistemic domains� 6 Such concerns notwithstanding, Meillassoux maintains that from the transcendental viewpoint, “the condition for the conceivability of physical science consisted in revoking all non-correlational knowledge of this same world” (118)� In his view, however, scientific realism trumps epistemology, and he suggests that Copernicus’s achievement ought to be seen in the wider context of the early modern scientific revolution in the West, whose most momentous consequence was the thoroughgoing mathematization of nature� 7 The Copernican and Galilean revolutions were intimately connected, as their contemporaries recognized� The “decentering which presided over the mathematization of nature, viz�, the decentering of thought relative to the world within the process of knowledge,” writes Meillassoux (115), lay at the bottom of both and has been of far greater consequence than the proverbial decentering of the terrestrial observer� In fact, it was precisely the mathematization of nature that led to the discovery of “the eternal and frightening silence of infinite space” and thus of a “power of persistence and permanence that is completely unaffected by our existence or inexistence” (116)� 8 The philosophical equivalent of Galileo’s mathematizable world is Descartes res extensa, which in Meillassoux’s interpretation “acquires the independence of substance, a world that we can henceforth conceive of as indifferent to everything in it that corresponds to the concrete, organic connection that we forge with it” (115)� The world of modern science is thus completely detached from the human lifeworld� The most consequential achievement of science is “the paradoxical unveiling of thought’s capacity to think what there is whether thought exists or not” - a realization that makes “the thought of thought’s contingency for the world” possible (116)� As a consequence, Meillassoux postulates “a world that is essentially unaffected by whether or not anyone thinks it,” for he assumes that due to the fundamentally “dia-chronic” 9 nature of scientific statements, the question of the observer has become irrelevant (ibid�)� These contentions are debatable for at least two reasons: on the one hand, it is remarkable that Meillassoux’s argument relies exclusively on the early modern paradigm of physical science, approximately from Copernicus to Newton, without so much as a nod to more recent developments (most notably the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics) that have determined research in physics in more recent times, and which have assigned great prominence to the observer� 10 Discussing the challenges of recent discoveries in physics, Werner Heisenberg stresses that in quantum mechanics, “one cannot use the word ‘phenomenon’ 248 Peter Gilgen without at the same time stating with precision, what kind of experimental arrangement [Versuchsanordnung] or means of observation [Beobachtungsmittel] ought to be envisioned” in the respective context, and he points to the impossibility “of objectivizing the result of an observation as it is done in classical physics and in everyday experience�” 11 As Heisenberg states elsewhere, it cannot be decided whether this difficulty is situated at the level of epistemology or ontology� 12 Moreover, contemporary cosmologists as well as thinkers in the tradition of cybernetics have assigned a heightened role to the (human) observer through whom the universe is able “to see itself” (Spencer Brown 105)� 13 In a recent essay, Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson - two physicists and a prominent philosopher of mind - put into question the idea “that science can give us a complete, objective description of cosmic history, distinct from us and our perception of it” (n� pag�)� In their view, it is precisely the urge to discover “how reality is in itself” that “not only distorts the truth, but creates a false sense of distance between ourselves and the world�” Moreover, this divide is due to “the Blind Spot, which science itself cannot see� In the Blind Spot sits- experience: - the sheer presence and immediacy of lived perception.” From this vantage point, Frank, Gleiser and Thompson take aim at scientific materialism with its two fundamental tenets of objectivism and physicalism, to both of which Meillassoux subscribes uncritically� In regard to scientific objectivism, the authors remind us that “[w]e never encounter physical reality outside of our observations of it�” Everything - elementary particles, genes and even the arche-fossil - is “manifest to us only through our measurements, models and manipulations�” The consequence of this state of affairs is not scientific relativism, but rather the insight that not all models and methods of investigation work equally well� Some work better, and this can be tested� Yet such tests cannot “give us nature as it is-in itself, outside our ways of seeing and acting on things�” From this it follows that experience - and thus the subject of an experience, the observer - “is just as fundamental to scientific knowledge as the physical reality it reveals�” As far as the problem of physicalism is concerned, Frank, Gleiser and Thompson reject the view that there is nothing but physical reality and “that everything, including life, the mind and consciousness, can be reduced to the behaviour of the smallest material constituents�” In such a picture of the world, life and mind have fallen through the cracks� Moreover, the semantics of the term “physical” has undergone significant changes since the times of Descartes and Galileo� Thus, matter “was once thought to be inert, impenetrable, rigid, and subject only to deterministic and local interactions,” but nowadays we recognize “several fundamental forces, particles that have no mass, quantum indetermina- Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 249 cy, and nonlocal relations�” And these changes may not be the end of it� We can expect further shifts in our concept of physical reality in the future� As Frank, Gleiser and Thompson see it, scientific materialists tend to forget that “[o]bjectivism and physicalism are philosophical ideas, not scientific ones” and that “immediate experience and the world can never be separated�” Meillassoux’s exaltation of the timeless mathematical laws of nature in tandem with his extreme objectivism ignores the problems into which scientific materialism has run in quantum theory - not to mention the vast field of the life sciences� In fact, his speculative materialism is yet another instance of the widespread tendency to understand science as promising absolute knowledge of reality, independent of our interactions with it� Against such doctrinal prejudice, Frank, Gleiser and Thompson defend what they call “the necessity of experience�” 14 In Meillassoux’s telling, philosophy since Kant has been bewitched by the idea that “we only ever have access to the correlation between thinking and being, and never to either term considered apart from the other” (5)� The primacy of epistemology over ontology in modern philosophy derives from the alleged inevitability of the correlation between subject and object� Meillassoux contends that the correlation can and ought to be broken, so that thinking and being can each stand on their own� 15 As an alternative to Meillassoux’s complete separation of subject and object, a number of speculative realists and object-oriented theorists have proposed a return to ontology, specifically a flat ontology, in which the subject holds no privileged position, but is seen as just one entity among others� The question concerning the subject’s ability to know is replaced by speculations about access between any objects in the universe� Precisely the inevitability of experience - now understood in the extended sense of any type of encounter between different objects in the world - led these theorists to reassess the claims of aesthetics� They do not consider the retreat to a resolutely pre-critical materialist ontology a promising way of addressing reality as independent and outside of human thought� Although similarly dissatisfied with modern philosophy for leaving the inanimate world “by the wayside, treated as little better than dust or rubble” (“Object-Oriented Philosophy” 94), Graham Harman distinguishes his own object-oriented ontology from Meillassoux’s speculative materialism by rejecting the latter’s deployment of natural science to combat correlationism� On the contrary, Harman maintains, modern science is profoundly correlationist and only ever manages to offer us “the thing made dependent on our knowledge and not the thing in its untamed, subterranean reality” (The Quadruple Object 54)� Unlike Meillassoux, Harman does not propose to step out of “the long shadow of Kant” (Guerilla Metaphysics 170) by reversing modern philosophy’s direction� 250 Peter Gilgen On the contrary, he aims at a radical broadening of the transcendental turn and thus a generalization of the gap between the human subject and the thing-initself - a sort of dissolution of the correlation from the inside� In Harman’s account, every object in the world is withdrawn and “translated” only partially in every encounter with another object� The condition of the human observer who only ever has access to phenomena but never to noumena, according to Kant, can thus be extended to all entities in the world: they only ever encounter each other in a limited capacity without being able to get in touch with each other’s withdrawn core or substance� Such an ontological approach amounts to a fundamental aesthetics, for unlike modes of philosophizing that have “aspired to be like science or deductive geometry in attaining knowledge, […] aesthetics relies on the non-literal character of its objects” (Harman, Art and Objects 31)� In other words, object-oriented ontology as aesthetic philosophy recognizes that objects are indeed withdrawn and thus “unparaphraseable in terms of qualities” (ibid�)� Timothy Morton, who came to recognize that his earlier ecological work was quite compatible with Harman’s philosophy, subsequently adopted the language of object-oriented ontology� He has quickly become the foremost proponent of object-oriented ecological thinking� Morton urges the rejection of the concept of “Nature,” not the least “because Nature is correlationist” (164)� If standard ecocriticism has shown too strong an adherence to an essentialized notion of nature as the totality at the bottom of all phenomena, the problem with other forms of speculative realism, according to Morton, is their stern commitment to “Non-Nature,” whether in the form of amorphous matter or flux, which amounts to a “nihilism” of sorts since such theories tend to lose sight of “objects” altogether (ibid�)� In his view, only object-oriented ontology offers an acceptable way out of this impasse� Morton approvingly quotes the following rhetorical question from an essay in which Harman for the first time stated the aims of object-oriented philosophy: “Will philosophy continue to lump together monkeys, tornadoes, diamonds, and oil under the single heading of that-which-lies-outside? ” (“Object-Oriented Philosophy” 95; qtd� in Morton 170)� The implied answer is of course that such philosophical generalizations, undesirable as they may be, may well persist in the absence of a compelling alternative� Intended as the required alternative, Harman’s and Morton’s object thinking may itself be charged with indiscriminate generalization� After all, the basic and endlessly reiterated insight of object-oriented ontology is that “‘objects’ are far more wondrous than we commonly think” because they possess a “dark side one can never know” (Morton 176)� The claim that every object possesses an “inside [that] is radically unavailable” is matched by the refusal of any reduction of (our) complex experience� In theory, object-oriented ontology does not allow heuristic discriminations� One always Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 251 must keep everything in the picture� Such confusio, in keeping with Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten’s inaugural definition of the discipline, 16 would indeed seem to be a singularly fertile field for aesthetics, were it not for the fact that object-oriented philosophy treats aesthetics not only as foundational, but also as coextensive with the entirety of its ontological concerns� In contrast to Harman and Morton, Steven Shaviro offers a more clearly circumscribed speculative realist engagement with aesthetics and especially with Kant’s own momentous contribution to aesthetics, the Critique of the Power of Judgment� He grants that our perceptions “are responding to, and affected by, the actual properties of the actual objects” (Shaviro, Universe 117)� At the same time, he reiterates Kant’s insight that “we do not have unmediated access to these properties” (ibid�)� Our knowledge and even “[t]hinking per se” is inevitably a matter of correlation - not in the sense of a static “correspondence between an internal model and an outside state of affairs,” but as a dynamic “process of continual feedback, response, and adjustment” (118)� On this basis, Shaviro has offered a profound meditation on the posthumanist speculative potential of aesthetics� 17 Shaviro takes exception to Meillassoux’s stark dualism� In his view, the effort to liberate thinking and being by making them mutually independent pushes the “bifurcation of nature” 18 to the extreme� Doubting that such a move is possible or even desirable, Shaviro sees more promise in Alfred North Whitehead’s vision of a world that has mended this bifurcation, and in which a thing is no longer seen as merely an inert, passive object, but as “an actual entity [that] is present in other actual entities�” 19 Such an approach acknowledges that things have “powers, by virtue of which they are able to affect things other than themselves,” and “move us or force us to feel them�” This is why things “elude the correlational schemas in which we would wish to contain them�” 20 Shaviro’s disagreement with Meillassoux is not limited to the technical question of how best to overcome the limitations of correlationism� Unlike some speculative realists, Shaviro never countenances a return to a type of pre-Kantian dogmatic metaphysics as the solution to the correlationist problem� On the contrary, what is needed in his view is precisely a relational or immanent critique of sorts that would unearth contradictions and follow paths not taken in the history of philosophy in order to unsettle established positions and break through the correlationist circle� The aim is ultimately to leave behind all vestiges of idealism and regain a concrete sense of material reality� Unwilling to take on Meillassoux’s and Badiou’s heavy metaphysical baggage, Shaviro finds an ally in Whitehead� He is especially impressed by the latter’s questioning of the prominence of clear and distinct perceptions in modern philosophy, which comes at the expense of “‘perception in the mode of causal 252 Peter Gilgen efficacy,’ or the ‘vague’ (nonrepresentational) way that entities affect and are affected by one another through a process of vector transmission�” 21 Along the same lines, Whitehead also proposed to substitute the term “prehension” for “perception” in order to avoid the notion of exclusively passive reception that is implied by the latter� For Whitehead, a cause does not have “the power to define how it will cause� Nothing has the power to determine how it will matter for others�” 22 These views, we may note, indicate significant potential convergences between Whitehead’s process philosophy and the tradition of systems theory, including such predecessors as Jakob von Uexküll’s biological environmental science� Throughout, Whitehead’s larger aim is the mending of the bifurcation between “the nature apprehended in awareness and the nature which is the cause of awareness�” 23 To this purpose, an account of nature is needed that assigns the same ontological status to subjective manifest images such as “the red glow of the sunset” and the objective concepts of science such as “molecules and electric waves” into which the former can be analyzed� 24 Hence Shaviro’s suggestion that the intended renewal of philosophy must privilege aesthetics� For him, “aesthetics becomes first philosophy” precisely because it offers a plausible way to bypass our habitual perceptions that continuously reproduce the bifurcation of nature� 25 Following Harman, whose speculative theory he presents in some detail and, for the most part, with tacit approval, Shaviro explicitly endorses two tenets that are of central importance for his own aesthetic philosophizing� Both of them are in evidence in a passage that is as brief as it is suggestive� “When objects in the world encounter one another,” Shaviro writes, “the basic mode of their relation is neither theoretical nor practical and neither epistemological nor ethical� Rather, before either of these, every relation among objects is an aesthetic one” (52 f�)� Aesthetic experience is construed as evading all established categories� It is conceived as an encounter with things in the world that is purely affective and free of any sort of determination� As such, it is prereflective and involves - this is Shaviro’s second point - “feeling an object for its own sake, beyond those aspects of it that can be understood or used” (53)� In addition to emphasizing the purity of the aesthetic encounter as well as its remoteness from, and irreducibility to, instrumental reason and the market, the claim that we feel an object “for its own sake” recalls and inflects Kant’s insistence on the disinterestedness of aesthetic judgment� Shaviro’s passage thus not only outlines the contours of his entire aesthetic theory, but also displays a deliberate affinity with Kant’s “Analytic of the Beautiful�” In fact, one easily loses sight of important differences between Kant’s analytic and Shaviro’s more comprehensive adaptation of Kantian aesthetic themes within a framework that relies on Whitehead’s monist gradualism and affect theory� Yet upon closer Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 253 examination, it becomes clear that Shaviro’s adaptation of Kant in the spirit of Whitehead takes hermeneutic liberties� This is nowhere more evident than when Shaviro tacitly disregards some of Kant’s rigorous distinctions and runs roughshod over them� A brief examination of just two of these misreadings will call attention to Shaviro’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Kantian notions of beauty and aesthetic judgment, which has considerable consequences for the viability of his own theory of aisthesis� As a consequence, we will be forced to find a more coherent way to deploy Kant’s insights in posthumanist terms� The first example concerns Shaviro’s confusion of aesthetic ideas and beauty� According to Shaviro, “Kant defines beauty as ‘an intuition (of the imagination) for which a concept can never be found adequate’” (154)� 26 This leads him to the conclusion that for Kant “beauty involves an immediate excess of sensation: something that stimulates thinking but that cannot be contained in, or expressed by, any particular thought” (ibid�)� The problem with this claim, in addition to its implausibility, is that Kant is not speaking of beauty at all in the quoted passage� Rather, he compares the novel concept of aesthetic ideas to ideas of reason, which are familiar from the first Critique� Neither type of idea can be converted into cognition because in both of them concepts and intuitions are at odds with each other, albeit in distinct ways� An idea of reason - e�g�, “God” - contains “a concept (of the supersensible) for which no suitable intuition can ever be given” (AA 5: 342)� It is something that can be thought, but it is not something within the bounds of sense and thus of our experience� We cannot know the object that is designated by such an idea� As Kant states in no uncertain terms, such an idea is “an indemonstrable concept of reason” (ibid�)� In the case of an aesthetic idea the situation is reversed� This peculiar idea - and not beauty, as Shaviro would have us believe - is defined by Kant as “an intuition (of the imagination) for which a concept can never be found adequate” (ibid�)� It is an “inexponible representation of the imagination,” which is to say that the understanding, “by means of its concepts, never attains to the complete inner intuition that the imagination has and connects with a given representation” (AA 5: 342f�; translation modified)� The reference to genius as “the faculty of aesthetic ideas” in the following paragraph makes clear that the context of Kant’s discussion is art� Works of art, especially poetry, exhibit aesthetic ideas, 27 which exceed and therefore cannot be translated into concepts of the understanding� Kant’s “Analytic of the Beautiful,” which primarily deals with natural beauty, includes but a single mention of ideas in § 17, where Kant discusses “the ideal of beauty�” This ideal is linked to the human image and moral vocation� In contrast, an “ideal of beautiful flowers” - and, in fact, of natural beauty tout court - “can- 254 Peter Gilgen not be conceived” (AA 5: 233)� Shaviro’s conflation of aesthetic ideas and beauty is thus not supported by Kant’s argument� The point is not to dismiss Shaviro’s reading of Kant as shoddy, but to stress that his tacit transfer of the definition of aesthetic ideas to beauty has the most un-Kantian consequences of reducing the latter to pure intuition and calibrating aesthetics to the taste of the senses� The second example of Shaviro’s willful reading of some of Kant’s more important distinctions picks up where the first one left off� The distinction between the beautiful and the agreeable is operative throughout Kant’s critique of aesthetic judgment and is, in fact, foundational for any such critique� Yet when it comes to the difference between the taste of reflection and the taste of the senses, Shaviro’s account is inconsistent at best� On the one hand, he wishes to assign a critical function to aesthetics� “The beautiful is not anything like […] an individual (or consumer) ‘preference,’” he writes after having explained that, according to Kant, the beautiful must be distinguished from the agreeable (149)� However, this agreement does not last long� The more Shaviro attempts to bring Kantian aesthetic judgment in line with Whitehead’s comprehensive notion of “feeling,” the more he is forced to erase the boundary between the taste of reflection and the taste of the senses - a boundary without which there is no aesthetic theory to speak of� In the process, aesthetic judgment gives way to “aesthetic feelings” (153) and, as we saw above, beauty is premised on “an immediate excess of sensation” (154)� Occurring “without phenomenological intentionality or ‘aboutness,’” Shaviro’s aesthetic encounter is ultimately predicated on prereflective affects (153)� The fundamental distinction that determines Kant’s project of a “critique of aesthetic judgment” - namely, the distinction between the “merely agreeable” and the “beautiful” - hinges on the precise relation between feeling and judgment� A clarification of this relation was necessary since Kant’s novel conception of aesthetic judgment on the basis of a transcendental critique had to contend with the aesthetic empiricism of such thinkers as Burke and Diderot, and thus the subjectivism of the purely agreeable� Shaviro’s levelling of Kant’s distinction has the effect of stripping aesthetic judgment of its claim to subjectively universal validity in favor of the pure subjectivism of qualia and the senses - a consequence that becomes apparent in Shaviro’s declared aim of overcoming the division between subject and object in strictly subjective affective terms� But if pure, primordial affectivity determines all taste, the space of reflection between the subject and the object that is judged beautiful collapses� If the historical situation in the late 18th century required a differentiation between aesthetic, moral, and cognitive judgements, 28 the distinction that is most pertinent from the point of view of Kant’s systematic aims is drawn between the beautiful and the agreeable, that is, the taste of reflection and the taste of Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 255 the senses� For only if this distinction can be established convincingly - a point that to this day has been frequently put into question by critics of Kant - can there be aesthetic judgment� In contrast to Shaviro’s binary distinction between the cognitive regime, under which he groups all reasoning and judging, and a more fundamental level of prereflective experience that includes affect and feeling, Kant’s “Analytic of the Beautiful” traces the contours of a third space, in which a type of judgment takes place that is neither objective as in the case of cognition, nor simply coincides with sensation, which would be equivalent to being no judgment at all� The “expectation of a universal assent” (AA 5: 240) that is contained in the aesthetic judgment requires that one observe one’s own observations� This reflection is free of interest and cognitive constraints� In terms of communication, the judgment “x is beautiful” would thus amount to the demand to suspend the objectivity of the object and instead “observe one’s own mode of observation under the conditions of this suspension and thus without firm conceptual determinations” (Gilgen, “Schlüssel” 61)� It is thus not simply the physical object as such that keeps the aesthetic communication going� Rather, the object’s peculiar “appellative character” (ibid�) distinguishes the aesthetic situation� In Kant’s original wording, the judging subject’s expectation of universal assent amounts to more than just an expectation: it is an imposition (Zumutung) on all others� In a manner of speaking, the judging subject is similarly imposed upon - namely, by the irresistible appeal of the beautiful object, an appeal that unfolds its full potential only in the second-order reflection it instigates, and which cannot be reduced to the mere gratification of the senses� Those who are, in Kant’s words, “intent only on enjoyment” are too closely attached to the object of their desire� Their satisfaction “presupposes not a mere judgment about [an object] but the relation of its existence to [the subject’s] state insofar as it is affected by such an object [durch ein solches Objekt affiziert wird]” (AA 5: 207)� Kant thus goes to great lengths when differentiating aesthetic judgment from merely being affected by an object� Those who relish the latter, as Kant puts it succinctly, “put themselves above all judging” (AA 5: 207)� To be sure, experiencing beauty is irreducibly tied to the body� For this reason, Kant is critical of “intellectual beauty or sublimity” because they are “kinds of aesthetic representation that would not be found in us at all if we were simply pure intelligences” (AA 5: 271)� Critiques of Kant’s conception of aesthetic pleasure “as completely desensualized” are mistaken� 29 Experiences that are not accompanied by bodily awareness cannot be called “aesthetic” in the Kantian sense� Both the body and the mind play an irreducible role in a genuine aesthetic experience� Kant never wavers on this point� 256 Peter Gilgen Early on in The Universe of Things, Shaviro makes it clear that we are not suffering from too few connections with things in the world� Today, “our fundamental condition is one of ubiquitous and inescapable connections� We are continually beset by relations, smothered and suffocated by them,” most of all by “the overcodings of ubiquitous flows of capital” (33)� Under such circumstances, the actual challenge is to find “a space that is open for decision” (34) and not already under the spell of relentless consumerism� Our examination of aesthetic pleasures indicates that such a space, above all, would have to be conducive to aesthetic judgment� Eli Friedlander has suggested that Kantian formalism ought not to be understood primarily as a matter of the spatio-temporal form of the object� In his reading, the “space of form” opens between the subject and the object in an aesthetic encounter� This much, as Friedlander shows, can be derived from the third moment of Kant’s “Analytic of the Beautiful,” in which judgments of taste are examined in regard to “the relation of the ends [Zwecke] that are taken into consideration in them” (AA 5: 219)� Unlike its determining counterpart, reflecting judgment does not subsume the particular object under a universal concept� Rather, it aims at finding the terms that capture the object in its particularity (cf� AA 5: 179)� This means, as Friedlander puts it, that we want to do more than just say something right: “we feel the demand to account for that singularity just right in words, as though the concepts deployed strive to come together as a proper name” (30)� Rather than attempting to pin down beauty conceptually, we “allow it to grow on us by deploying reflection that is true to singularity” (31)� It is important to distinguish the opening of the space of form from the receptivity of the senses� In an aesthetic encounter, our active engagement with the object through the free play of our cognitive powers creates this space� As Friedlander points out, the space of form is actually opened by the movement of the mind, yet at the same time it also depends on the object� “We have in effect,” he concludes, “the formation of a space which is neither wholly in the mind nor wholly in the object but rather […] a space in which the capacity of the mind is identified by the involvement with the object and the form of the object revealed by the movement of the mind” (39)� In short, the object of our contemplation must possess some suitable structure or composition in order to keep our attention preoccupied� It must lend itself to the free play of our cognitive powers, the imagination and understanding, which provides the determining ground of the aesthetic judgment� This “formal purposiveness” of the object, as Kant calls it (AA 5: 222), creates the necessary reflective distance for the space of form to open� In contrast, mere “charms” (Reize) provide no such distance� They are agreeable, and as such, they are quickly absorbed and consumed� 30 Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 257 On what basis, then, can Kant’s free play without a concept actually unfold? There is no agreement in the vast scholarship on this question� Paul Guyer groups the different interpretations that have been suggested under three headings: “precognitive,” “multicognitive,” and “metacognitive” (147)� To be sure, all three interpretations have some support in Kant’s text� The precognitive reading - of which Shaviro provides a forceful example - stresses that the harmony of the imagination and understanding comes about when the subjective conditions of cognition are satisfied, but no “subsumption of the representations of an object under a determinate concept” takes place (148)� The multicognitive reading interprets the harmony of the cognitive powers as “a condition in which it seems to us as if we are simultaneously cognizing the object under a number of different concepts” (ibid�)� Guyer argues that neither of these readings, common as they are among readers of Kant, provides a complete and sufficient definition of Kant’s free play� They both fail to explain how a judgment of beauty about a particular object may be made without a determinate concept� To remedy this fundamental shortcoming, Guyer proposes a third, metacognitive interpretation of Kantian free play� He acknowledges that “for Kant all consciousness of an object must involve its subsumption under some determinate concept” (149)� We must be able to state which object we find beautiful when making an aesthetic judgment� It is “the you of the roses,” to use the poet Gottfried Benn’s felicitous formulation, that addresses us and that we address in turn, not some amorphous material substrate at the bottom of all phenomena� Although Jean-Marie Schaeffer’s theory of aesthetic behavior frequently parts company with Kant, he agrees on this premise� Schaeffer maintains that all our basic experiences, including aesthetic ones, “are always categorically specified�” Whatever else they may be, they are always also “acts of identification” and thus involve our cognitive powers (106)� Shaviro’s aesthetic theory, in contrast, is resolutely precognitive� 31 As a consequence, it levels the free play of the cognitive powers and cannot provide a sufficient criterion to distinguish the experience of beauty from merely agreeable affects� This is a major shortcoming, considering the foundational role that aesthetics plays for him and others intent on formulating a version of speculative realism or object-oriented thinking that provides a viable alternative to Meillassoux’s relentlessly “eliminativist” approach� 32 This flaw is no accident� The framework of speculative realism, for which the problem of correlationism is paramount, necessarily excludes the space of form (as well as Shaviro’s own hoped-for “space that is open for decision”)� Logically, there are only two ways of overcoming correlationism: either through complete elimination of the correlation, as in Meillassoux, or through the erasure of the boundary between subject and object that undoes the bifurcation of nature that Whitehead 258 Peter Gilgen diagnosed� As Shaviro points out, the former approach ultimately leads to “a stark dualism of an absolute thought without being and a being entirely devoid of thought” and thus merely reaffirms the bifurcation (113 f�)� But neither can Shaviro’s adaptation of Whitehead’s comprehensive aisthesis avoid levelling the space of form� Experiences of beauty as described by Kant are irreducibly correlationist, precisely because a certain reflective distance is necessary for the emergence of the required space of form� In Whitehead’s and Shaviro’s accounts, the aesthetic judgment has tacitly been absorbed by aesthetic contact, which is said to happen “on a level beneath the threshold of conscious perception or beyond its capacities to recognize or relate” (Shaviro 148)� The point about beauty is not that there are some mystical moments when human observers forget themselves and unconsciously slip into modes of interacting with the world that lie “on the hither side of conscious perception” (Gilgen, “Intimations” 137)� 33 The experience of beauty is not reducible to a mere affect below the threshold of conscious perception� It is not precognitive in its totality� Rather, the experience of beauty “arises in a moment of encounter that momentarily suspends the organization of our perception�” In other words, it lies “on the far side of everyday perception” (138)� Shaviro is quite right when pointing out that aesthetic experience cannot be enlisted without further qualifications in the diverse projects of speculative realism and object-oriented ontology� After all, such experience is of necessity asymmetrical, for it is “posed in terms of a subject” that encounters objects merely as “a world of experiencings” (63)� Yet for no less an aesthetic theorist than Adorno the beauty of nature, although dependent on the subject’s receptivity, is precisely “not reducible to the subject,” but “points to the primacy of the object in subjective experience,” without which there would be no beauty at all (Adorno 71)� For Shaviro, however, the consequence of the stated asymmetry is his commitment to Whitehead’s gradualism and, more generally, the orientation of speculative posthumanism, when he suggests that we rather should “be open to the prospect that ‘having-experience’ is already intrinsic to all existing actual entities” (64)� In his view, the mere being-acted-upon or being-affected by other entities qualifies as “having-experience�” Consequently, the status of subject-of-an-experience is conferred to any entity that is acted upon by another, and all entities in the world are considered conscious in a rudimentary sense� From the viewpoint of such panpsychism, correlationism appears as a pseudo-problem� For, as Shaviro points out, “only when our experience has been sundered in two,” does the “need for a correlational structure in order to put it back together again” arise (65)� The bifurcation of nature, its division into subject and object, is the primary problem, of which the correlation between Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 259 our thinking and the things in the world is the putative solution� In contrast, panpsychism eliminates the problem before it even arises� 34 As much as Meillassoux, albeit for different reasons, Shaviro rejects Kant’s transcendental solution and calls it a “critical sleight of hand” that mainly “reinforce[s] the solipsistic primacy of thought thinking only about itself” and keeps us barred from the “great outdoors” (66)� However, as our argument has shown, no deeper understanding of our ecological being-in-the-world is gained by denigrating our natural perceptional limits and thinking of them merely in terms of an imprisonment rather than as our windows on that world, the enabling perceptual frames that allow us to make sense of what we perceive� After all, as Mary Midgley remarks, “we do see rivers and trees, not just impenetrable sense-data” (278)� Whereas the mathematically oriented speculative realists, such as Meillassoux, may be willing to bite the bullet and thus end up in a very abstract and grey world indeed, their aesthetically oriented peers, such as Shaviro and Harman, have a hard time explaining why a certain “objective” layer of reality - namely the one that contains and is articulated in terms of rivers and trees - is far more prominent in our experience of the world than the dance of subatomic particles, let alone addressing the question whether such distinct epistemic regions can be integrated in one unified metaphysics� Perhaps it is better to think of Meillassoux’s “great outdoors” as the equivalent of what the biologist and idiosyncratic Kantian Jakob von Uexküll called the “surroundings” (Umgebung), the objective totality of the world that encompasses all organisms, but as such remains inaccessible to any subject-in-the-world� In contradistinction to the unbounded inclusiveness of our “surroundings,” Uexküll proposes the term “environment” (Umwelt) for the specific perceptual “bubble” that envelops every organism and “contains all the features accessible to the subject” (43)� Uexküll draws a distinction between the “search image” and the actual “perception image” of a certain object in the world that may attract the subject’s attention� 35 If there are discrepancies between the two - for instance when a familiar object has been replaced by a comparable but different one - the perception image is “wipe[d] out” by the search image (114)� Only the interruption of routines due to a noticeable discrepancy between search image and perception image suspends the subject’s habitual reliance on the accuracy of the search image and draws renewed attention to the perception image: what is actually there? More often than not, as Uexküll points out, we do not “search for a certain object with a unique perception image,” but “for an object that corresponds to a certain effect image” (117)� If we would like to sit down, we usually are not looking for any chair in particular, but for any kind of seating� In such cases, no determinate “search image” but merely a vaguer “search tone” is involved 260 Peter Gilgen (ibid�)� Uexküll suggests that different moods can be defined as different “search tones” - that is, specific contextual dispositions towards one’s surroundings� To be sure, such tones or dispositions involve a particular orientation or directedness towards the subject’s surroundings, as the qualifier “search” in their label indicates� The features and objects in one’s surroundings are never perceived as such, as long as one’s perception is guided by a particular “search tone�” In this way, every organism accomplishes the projection of its own environment� It is a specific evolutionary achievement� The environments of primitive organisms, such as the paramecium, are impoverished in comparison with those of higher animals� They contain a much smaller number of “search tones” and are hardly amenable to expansion� This is true not only of unicellular organisms but even of such animals as the tick, the famous opening example of Uexküll’s book� Against Meillassoux’s anti-Kantian eliminativism and Shaviro’s and Harman’s boundless generalization of aesthetic contact - the two extremes of object-oriented theorizing - I would like to suggest a more modest and also more precise Uexküllian reading of Kant’s analysis of aesthetic judgment� In this reading, the significance of Kant’s experience of natural beauty lies in the possibility of widening our human environment, our circle of concern, as a consequence of being touched unexpectedly by entities that we habitually encounter as mere objects in the world or simply do not see as long as they have no direct relevance in our particular environments� The touch in question is of a different quality than the amorphous material resistance of the world that occasionally presses in on us and thwarts our intentions� Within the aesthetic space of form an encounter takes place: the beautiful song of a nightingale affects us; the unexpected beauty of a rose strikes us� Such experiences bring about a momentary detachment from our routines� In keeping with Adorno, natural beauty may thus be conceived as “the trace of the nonidentical in things under the spell of universal identity” (73)� Such eye-opening experiences always come as a surprise� We cannot plan for them� Although we may search out places and events that are likely to generate aesthetic opportunities, the experience of beauty is not a matter of active pursuit, nor of passive waiting, but of being ready at the right moment and letting it happen� It exceeds the bounds of our environment and our language - except for the fact that we have the name “beauty” at our disposal to designate such moments of unexpected transcendence or excess� 36 In other words, whenever we experience beauty it is as if a crack had opened in the bubble that is our habitual environment� That’s where the light gets in� In such exceptional moments, our world stands illuminated� It appears in a different light� Once the space of form draws us in, our mood and our attunement to the world are intensified, and our awareness of them is heightened� That is what experiencing beauty means� We are in the thrall of beauty, and the object that Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 261 attracts our attention addresses us as an unassimilable other, rather than the mere target of our actions and reflections� We are called upon and captivated by the beauty of particular things and events in the world, and in such moments, short-lived as they are, we can imagine a way of being in the world that exceeds our habitual ways of living and eschews the deadening routines that reinforce the dominant ecological and political arrangements� This aesthetic opening of the human is no mere inflection of, or addition to, an existing concept� Rather, it marks a fundamental human potentiality: an historical possibility, a development in time, a certain malleability that exceeds the present bounds of human existence at any given moment� The experience of natural beauty points to a greater range of possibilities of being-in-the-world than the ones that are realized in our actual lifeworld� Consequently, beauty also puts into question an impoverished and narrow account of human experience premised exclusively on cognition, calculation, and consumption� The truly posthumanist potential of Kantian natural beauty consists in awakening and enlivening our mental powers, which have been lulled and blunted in the execution of everyday routines� We are called to respond to the beauty of nature with a kind of judgment that cannot be defined in strictly objective, narrowly epistemological terms� The touch of beauty sets our cognitive powers on high alert at a moment’s notice� On such fleeting occasions, we catch a glimpse of a far richer and infinitely variegated world and get a sense of the great outdoors - the abundance of nature that surrounds and exceeds our environments� Notes I would like to thank Carsten Strathausen, Johannes Wankhammer, and Melissa Zinkin for their useful suggestions and critical questions that have greatly improved this essay� 1 In general, “posthuman” and “posthumanism” have become the comprehensive terms to refer to critical approaches that put into question human exceptionalism and pay close attention to the ontology of all kinds of objects, including animals, plants, nonorganic systems, machines, cyborgs, ecosystems, the environment and such hard-to-grasp distributed or hyperobjects as the climate and the natural environment at large� However, as Richard Gruisin has pointed out, speaking about the nonhuman as opposed to the posthuman turn has the advantage of not being committed to an implicit teleology, “in which we begin with the human and see a transformation from the human to the posthuman, after or beyond the human” (see Gruisin ix)� Regardless, “posthuman” and “posthumanism” have by now established themselves as the critical terms of choice� 262 Peter Gilgen 2 Aesthetics was rejected as part and parcel of the ideological apparatus that undergirds a distinctly modern hegemonic technology of power� At one end of the theoretical spectrum, aesthetics was chastised for uncritically propagating phenomenality without scrutinizing its textual material constitution (de Man); at the other end, it was unmasked as a compensatory strategy that hides social differentiations and class antagonisms (Eagleton, Bourdieu)� 3 As Rebekah Sheldon puts it: “Against the racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia justified through recourse to an authorizing and law-giving nature, we do the good work of unveiling its construction” (197)� 4 All references to Kant are by volume and page to the Akademieausgabe (AA), with the exception of the Critique of Pure Reason, where the page numbers of the A (first) and B (second) editions are cited� The multi-volume Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant contains page references to the Akademieausgabe, except in the case of the Critique of Pure Reason, where the A and B editions are cited in the margins� 5 For a forceful critique of Badiou’s attempt to derive an ontology and a politics from set theory see Ricardo L� Nirenberg and David Nirenberg, who write: “Alain Badiou calls himself a Platonist and proclaims the revolutionary political power of his philosophy of numbers� […] We can embrace the politics if we so wish� But we should not confuse this choice with mathematics, nor can we call it philosophy” (612)� I thank Carsten Strathausen for bringing this review to my attention� 6 In particular, we should not forget that Kant distinguishes the transcendental from the empirical level� Transcendental idealism does by no means entail empirical idealism� On the contrary, for Kant it is entirely compatible with empirical realism (in both scientific and ordinary experience), as Henry E� Allison shows� 7 This understanding of early modern science and its deeper philosophical impact is neither new nor particularly controversial� See, e�g�, Husserl and Koyré� Meillassoux calls the latter “indispensable” (136, note 1), whereas Husserlian phenomenology is treated rather superficially as a further stage of “correlationism” that attempts to solve the problem of the “dia-chronicity of scientific discourse” simply by “eternaliz[ing] the correlation,” which is to say, by its “eternalization of the transcendental ego” (122)� 8 The pathos of this passage is curiously reminiscent of Pascal, who is, however, not mentioned at all in After Finitude. 9 When Meillassoux speaks of “dia-chronicity,” he has in mind the disconnect that characterizes “statements about events that are anterior or ulterior to every terrestrial-relation-to-the-world” (112) - events that occurred in times and places that exceed the human presence in the universe� His most Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 263 elaborate example is the “arche-fossil�” Meillassoux believes that all correlationist philosophy founders on that rock� 10 Timothy Morton, “Here Comes Everything,” is of course correct when pointing out that Heisenberg’s observer is “not a subject per se, but a measuring device involving photons or electrons (or whatever)” and that in the process of observing or measuring “one aspect [namely, either the position or momentum] of the observed is occluded” (180)� Yet, as Frank, Gleiser and Thompson point out, the results of such measuring procedures are “our measurements, models and manipulations” (emphasis added)� 11 Heisenberg, Der Teil und das Ganze 127 (all translations from Heisenberg are my own)� 12 See Heisenberg, Physik und Philosophie 32� 13 The calculus of form begins with the injunction “draw a distinction” (3), which, as Spencer Brown points out, could be equally well expressed as “let there be a distinction” (84)� Everything else follows from this initial “cut” that divides the world “into at least one state which sees, and at least one other state which is seen” (105)� We therefore “cannot escape the fact that the world we know is constructed in order […] to see itself” (85) - which is to say, to see itself through the eyes of an observer, who is “made of a conglomeration of the very particulars he describes” (ibid�), but is nonetheless distinct from that which she observes insofar as she draws a distinction� Spencer Brown’s calculus strongly influenced second-order cybernetics and systems theory -both decidedly constructivist theories that reject the ontological realism propagated by Meillassoux and other speculative realists� Along similar lines, Frank, Gleiser and Thompson make their case for “a new scientific culture, in which we see ourselves both as an expression of nature and as a source of nature’s self-understanding” (n� pag�)� 14 Frank, Gleiser and Thompson provide a concise description of how the scientific method works that stands in marked contrast to Meillassoux’s scientism: “First, we set aside aspects of human experience on which we can’t always agree, such as how things look or taste or feel� Second, using mathematics and logic, we construct abstract, formal models that we treat as stable objects of public consensus� Third, we intervene in the course of events by isolating and controlling things that we can perceive and manipulate� Fourth, we use these abstract models and concrete interventions to calculate future events� Fifth, we check these predicted events against our perceptions�” In their view, the problem arises “when we start to believe that this method gives us access to unvarnished reality� But experience is present at every step� Scientific models must be pulled out from observations, often mediated by our complex scientific equipment� They are idealisations, not actual things in the world�” 264 Peter Gilgen 15 It should be said, that Meillassoux distinguishes between the correlation of subject and object and the one between thinking and being� It is the latter that is the “more originary,” which is the reason why a mere critique of representation does not break decisively with correlationism (8)� However, this distinction is meaningful only if direct access to being outside the correlation can be established� To be sure, Meillassoux’s idiosyncratic understanding of science and especially its peculiar temporality, which via his argument concerning the “arche-fossil” is declared to be independent of consciousness, does nothing of the sort� 16 See esp� § 7 of Aesthetica, Baumgarten 4� 17 Shaviro’s engagement with aesthetics spans his two books Without Criteria and The Universe of Things. The latter includes a complex concluding meditation on “aisthesis” and will be at the center of my reading� All further references to this book will be indicated parenthetically� 18 Whitehead introduces this term in The Concept of Nature 30f� 19 Shaviro 8, quotes Whitehead, Process and Reality 49f� 20 Shaviro 8, refers to Whitehead, Process and Reality 57-59 here� It is noticeable that the recourse to affect bundles many of Shaviro’s references to, and borrowings from, affect theory in both Without Criteria and The Universe of Things� Moreover, his insistence on the specific powers of things is also reminiscent of Bennett’s meditation on “thing power,” with which Shaviro engages in passing� 21 Shaviro 28, summarizes and quotes a longer argument in Whitehead’s Process and Reality, esp� 61-70 and 120-22� It also should be noted that the term “vector transmission” is borrowed from epidemiology and indicates further affinities of Shaviro’s thinking with Bennett’s vital materialism� 22 As has been pointed out by Isabelle Stengers 40, quoted by Shaviro 38� 23 The Kantian distinction between phenomena and noumena, Wilfrid Sellars’s distinction between “manifest image” and the “scientific image,” and the traditional distinction between secondary and primary qualities are all examples of the “bifurcation of nature” that Shaviro, following Whitehead, hopes to remedy (1 f�)� 24 Whitehead, The Concept of Nature 29, quoted by Shaviro 2� 25 Harman, “On Vicarious Causation” 205� This fundamental tenet of Harman can be found in different iterations in many of his publications� Shaviro quotes Harman’s pithy statement repeatedly in The Universe of Things (13, 42, 53), not without offering his own justification of aesthetics as prima philosophia� 26 The Kant passage is from AA 5: 342� Natural Beauty: From Speculative Realism to Kantian Form 265 27 As Kant puts it: “it is really the art of poetry in which the faculty of aesthetic ideas can reveal itself in its full measure” (AA 5: 314)� 28 On this differentiation see Guyer, “Kant on the Purity of the Ugly” 147-51� 29 Schott 150� A similar, widely influential critique that mainly targets Kantian “disinterestedness” in opposition to “the body” is voiced by Eagleton� 30 See Kant’s discussion in §§ 13 and 14 (AA 5: 223-26)� 31 To be sure, some of his descriptions of aesthetic experience would also lend themselves to a multicognitive interpretation� 32 The term was proposed by Shaviro 91� 33 Compare Shaviro, who insists that aesthetics “must be situated before - or better, on the hither side - of knowledge” (148)� 34 Shaviro discusses the merits and, as he sees it, inevitability of panpsychism at length in chapters 4 and 5 of The Universe of Things. 35 See esp� the chapter “Search Image and Search Tone” (113-18)� 36 This is one of the reasons why the grammatical form of aesthetic judgments calls for an explanation, as Schaeffer contends (159)� Works Cited Adorno, Theodor W� Aesthetic Theory� Ed� and trans� Robert Hullot-Kentor� Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997� Allison, Henry E� Kant’s Transcendental Idealism: An Introduction and Defense� New Haven: Yale UP, 1983� Badiou, Alain� Being and Event. 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Trans� Joseph D� O’Neil� Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2010� Whitehead, Alfred North� The Concept of Nature� Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1964� —� Process and Reality� New York: Free Press, 1978� “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 269 “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” Jennifer Caisley University of Cambridge Abstract: This paper reads Goethe’s 1784 geological essay “Granit II” as an early expression of his theories of “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” revolving around the experience-driven presentation of these terms� It alleges that the presence of these concepts in this essay on geology suggests that Goethe’s exploration of these terms began much earlier than critics have assumed to date� Drawing on Goethe’s theories of heightening and polarity as expressed with reference to the natural world, it defines three key components that characterize “Steigerung” and “Polarität”: namely, directional movement, constant movement, and the interplay between “Materie” and “Geist�” On the basis of this, it analyses “Granit II” with regard to each of these three components, before highlighting discrepancies that arise� Ultimately, it concludes that “Granit II” can be seen as an early attempt by Goethe to elaborate on his theories of heightening and polarity before they were condensed and summarized subsequently in his oeuvre� Keywords: Goethe, geology, “Steigerung,” “Polarität,” “Granit II” “Da ist für mich nichts Neues zu erfahren, Das kenn’ ich schon seit hunderttausend Jahren” (Faust II, Act 4, “Hochgebirg,” line 10210) cries Mephistopheles in “Hochgebirg,” a scene written in 1831 or thereabouts, which takes place in Act 4 of Goethe’s magnum opus Faust II� As Goethe critic Albrecht Schöne’s commentary in the Frankfurter Ausgabe of the play explains, this particular part of “Hochgebirg” sees Faust and Mephistopheles discussing the “Geologenkontroverse” (FA I 7/ 2: 647)� This term refers to the debate among geologists in the eighteenth century as to how the earth was formed, with the “Neptunists,” on the one hand, attributing the creation of the world to the movements of the 270 Jennifer Caisley oceans, and the “Vulcanists,” on the other, believing it to be the work of volcanic magma� Mephistopheles wants none of it, and attempts to bring proceedings to an abrupt close by saying “Da ist für mich nichts Neues zu erfahren�” With the double meaning of “erfahren” as both “learn” and “experience,” Mephistopheles is telling Faust that not only does he know everything there is to be known about geology: it is also incapable of offering him any new experiences either� Mephistopheles is dismissive of the geological controversy because, in his eyes, the debate belongs in the past, not the present� For him, engagement with the mountain environment is not a stimulating, productive endeavor on any level� The “Geologenkontroverse” debated by Mephistopheles and Faust is also depicted in Goethe’s 1784 essay on geology known as “Granit II” (also referred to as “Über den Granit”), on which this article will focus� Although written almost fifty years prior to “Hochgebirg,” it explores in detail the issue of the creation of stones that was so dismissed by Mephistopheles� This piece was likely drafted during or shortly after Goethe’s third journey through the Harz mountains and may have been directly influenced by his experience of the mountains on this trip� It opens with a brief overview of the history of this specific kind of stone, and an attempt to explain the attraction to it that so many travelers, researchers and hikers have felt� Starting with an impersonal, detached narration, this section gradually becomes more subjective in nature, moving to include the reader in a snippet narrated in the first-person plural (“soviel wissen wir von diesem Gesteine” [FA I/ 25: 313]) before shifting entirely to a narrative voice in the first-person singular� The remainder of the essay sees this anonymous protagonist undergo a process of reflection triggered by the thought of the granite mountain, covering topics from the mountain’s creation through to its surroundings, and its positioning within the natural environment more broadly� The title of the essay itself is somewhat misleading: unlike many of Goethe’s other works on geology, the essay focuses less on the granite rock itself (and its properties) and more on the speaker’s lived (or imagined) experience of the mountain environment� The majority of the work is a record of the considerations that this interaction with the environment triggers, causing the speaker’s thoughts to oscillate between the distant past and the present day� This article posits that this temporal oscillation can be read as one expression of the interplay between Goethean “Steigerung,” or heightening, and “Polarität,” or polarity, in “Granit II�” These terms appear in various guises throughout Goethe’s writings on natural philosophy� “Steigerung,” for example, is discussed in detail in Goethe’s Farbenlehre. In this, he dedicates an entire sub-section to the issue of “Steigerung,” defining this concept as something that “erscheint uns als eine in sich selbst- Drängung, Sättigung, Beschattung der Farben” (FA I 23/ I: 180)� In this specific context of color theory, “Steigerung” represents a “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 271 deepening of the color in question, with it taking on a more vivid, intense hue� However, Goethe also proffers a more generally applicable explanation of “Steigerung” in this passage, stating: “Es ist dieses eine der wichtigsten Erscheinungen in-der Farbenlehre, indem wir ganz greiflich erfahren,-daß ein quantitatives Verhältniß einen qualitativen-Eindruck auf unsre Sinne hervorbringe” (FA I 23/ I: 180)� Here, Goethe emphasizes the experience-driven nature of “Steigerung” as a force which is able to turn quantitative situations into qualitative ones, thereby repositioning human subjectivity at the heart of lived experience� While polarity, or “Polarität,” is encountered at various points throughout Goethe’s scientific writing, most prominently in his work on magnets and magnetism, Goethe also devotes an entire discussion to it in the “Entoptische Farben” section of his Farbenlehre� In the context of light and shade he says that [Farbe], so wie Hell und Dunkel, manifestiert sich überhaupt in polaren Gegensätzen� Sie können aufgehoben, neutralisiert, indifferenziert werden, so dass beide zu verschwinden scheinen; aber sie lassen sich auch umkehren und diese Umwendung ist allgemein bei jeder Polarität, die zarteste Sache von der Welt� (FA I/ 25: 688) According to this definition, polarity is not something that is fixed, nor something that is unproductive: rather, it represents a fluid balance between two entities that may well be opposites, but which nonetheless interact with one another in ways that are “zart” and delicate� Despite these two definitions both being drawn from Goethe’s work on colour theory, Goethe’s most detailed discussion of these terms with respect to their interaction with each other comes in his 1828 explanatory note on his essay “Die Natur,” a paean to the natural world written in late 1782/ early 1783� In this note, he discusses the zwei großen Triebräder aller Natur: der Begriff von Polarität und von Steigerung, jene der Materie, insofern wir sie materiell, diese ihr dagegen, insofern wir sie geistig denken, angehörig; jene ist in immerwährendem Anziehen und Abstoßen, diese in immerstrebendem Aufsteigen� Weil aber die Materie nie ohne Geist, der Geist nie ohne Materie existiert und wirksam sein kann, so vermag auch die Materie sich zu steigern, so wie sich’s der Geist nicht nehmen läßt, anzuziehen und abzustoßen; wie derjenige nur allein zu denken vermag, der genugsam getrennt hat um zu verbinden, genugsam verbunden hat um wieder trennen zu mögen� (FA I/ 25: 81) Due to its thorough yet concise engagement with these two terms, this is the definition on which this article will base its understanding of “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” This passage suggests that it is possible to identify three major elements that play a role in Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” The first of these is the concept of directional movement� For polarity, this is a movement 272 Jennifer Caisley upwards that is always and inextricably paired with a movement downwards (“jene ist in immerwährendem Anziehen und Abstoßen, diese in immerstrebendem Aufsteigen”), while for “Steigerung,” this is a movement that is in continual ascendance (“immerstrebendem Aufsteigen”)� Regardless of the direction of the movement in question, it is always associated with the concept of constant movement, flux and development� This is the second element that is central to both “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” In the passage above, this is indicated by the terms “immerwährend” and “immerstrebend,” and the association offered by the image of “Triebräder” as wheels in constant motion� This second element functions in parallel to the first element mentioned: for “Steigerung” or “Polarität” to be present, the directional movement in question must also be a dynamic one� Finally, the passage also highlights the association between “Materie” and “Geist” that parallels the association between “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” This represents the third element that denotes “Steigerung” and “Polarität”: the fact that both concepts rest on a shifting, interconnected basis of “Materie” and “Geist,” with each of the components of these two pairs being as inseparable from each other as the overarching pairs themselves� As this article will show, all three of these key aspects can be found in Goethe’s “Granit II,” enabling it to be read as an early version of Goethe’s approach to heightening and polarity before he brought this together to form a coherent, cohesive theory of their interaction, as in his note on “Die Natur�” In the modern age, critics have approached the topics of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” from a range of different angles, with some applying the terms to literature studies and others focusing more on the philosophical or aesthetic resonances of the terms� Rudolf Steiner’s 1921 work entitled Goethes Weltanschauung examines various aspects of Goethe’s thought, including his approach to “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” Focusing purely on the concepts in a philosophical context rather than applying them to a work of literature, Steiner repeats Goethe’s assertion that “Polarität” is intrinsically connected to the material realm, and “Steigerung” to the non-material� He claims that Goethe’s work on polarity and heightening marks “den höchsten Grad der Reife” (Steiner 62) of his philosophical endeavors, and sees its roots in Goethe’s work as a natural scientist: “Als Naturforscher mußte Goethe auch in den Erscheinungen, deren Idee nicht in ihrem individuellen Dasein sichtbar wird, die Kräfte der Natur verfolgen” (65)� In his summary of Goethe’s thought on this subject, Steiner writes that “In der Herausarbeitung des Geistigen aus dem Materiellen duch die schaffende Natur besteht das, was Goethe Steigerung nennt” (62)� This summary emphasizes the process-driven nature of “Steigerung”: a process of “Herausarbeitung” that never seems to reach a conclusion� However, as Steiner makes explicit, “[e]ine tote geistlose Materie kennt Goethe nicht” (63)� Consequently, “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 273 in Steiner’s interpretation of Goethe’s theory of “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” there is no substance that cannot undergo a process of “Steigerung�” A few decades after Steiner’s work, Elizabeth Wilkinson also explores the connection between Goethe’s theory of “Steigerung” and his literary output in her 1949 article entitled “‘Tasso: Ein gesteigerter Werther’ in the Light of Goethe’s Principle of ‘Steigerung�’” Wilkinson takes a two-pronged approach to her assessment of the term “Steigerung,” examining on the one hand what she terms the “spatial image” of upwards movement, while also assessing the figurative meaning of this� She describes this figurative meaning of “Steigerung” as “increasing or stepping up the inner potency, raising to a higher power” (305)� Wilkinson’s assessment of “Steigerung” relates directly to whether Goethe’s dramatic figure Torquato Tasso can be viewed as “more Wertherish than Werther,” as she puts it� Ultimately, she urges that a cautious approach be followed with regard to applying Goethe’s philosophical terms to his literary writings (305)� While providing a helpful approach to “Steigerung” itself for the framework of this article, by emphasizing the duality of its literal and metaphorical meanings, her article focuses squarely on “Steigerung” in a literary, rather than scientific or philosophical context� Sixty years or so on from Wilkinson, Charlotte Lee’s 2014 monograph on Goethe’s late output takes a cross-genre approach to the work that Goethe produced over the last few years of his life, including an exploration of the term “Steigerung�” She looks at this concept through a narrow lens, focusing on what she terms “poetic Steigerung”: “the self-conscious transformation of motifs from the past to yield strikingly new work in the present” (Lee 10)� She repeats this definition later in her study, suggesting that poetic Steigerung is an “aesthetic manifestation” of the process of retrospective writing (38)� This is particularly apt in the context of Goethe’s later work, which she reads as intrinsically connected to this process of “Steigerung�” While her monograph does not go on to explore the role of “Steigerung” outside the sphere of literature, or even outside the sphere of Goethe’s late literary output, Lee approaches this concept in terms that can also be applied to Goethe’s scientific works by virtue of its focus on newness, transformation and recreation� While Lee and Wilkinson focus on “Steigerung” in the literary sphere, Steiner assesses it from a philosophical perspective� However, critics have also looked at this term with reference to Goethe’s geology� These include Margrit Wyder, whose 2004 chapter “Von der Stufenleiter der Wesen zur Metamorphosenlehre” discusses Goethe’s morphological approaches with regard to various aspects of his science, from botany (the field with which Goethe’s morphology is most commonly associated) to geology� On this latter subject, Wyder explores Goethe’s essay “Granit II,” on which this article focuses� Her discussion 274 Jennifer Caisley of “Granit II” challenges Steiner’s assertion that every “Materie” can be engaged in “Steigerung,” instead alleging that geological masses are aligned with “Stetigkeit,” rather than “Steigerung�” As Wyder argues, “es fehlte die in den organischen Reichen zentrale Steigerung, denn der Granit als ältestes Gestein war nach Goethes Überzeugung zugleich das vollkommenste” (50)� For Wyder, the simple fact that granite is of near-eternal age means that it is incapable of exerting the newness and excitement that “Steigerung” and “Polarität” can bring� While Goethe may well have considered granite to be “vollkommen,” nowhere in “Granit II” itself does he suggest that granite has become static, fully formed, and ultimately incapable of further development� Indeed, as this article will show, counter to Wyder, the “Steigerung” and “Polarität” so central to Goethe’s understanding of the natural world are fully visible in “Granit II�” While Wyder challenges the suggestion that Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” can be associated with matters of geology, Wolf von Engelhardt’s 1992 chapter “Morphologie im Reich der Steine? ” argues precisely the opposite view� Engelhardt assesses various extracts from Goethe’s writings on geology, starting with his letters from Ilmenau in the late 1790s, to pin down instances in which Goethe’s morphological thought is associated with the geological sphere� Engelhardt’s conclusion on this subject is clear: […] Goethe meinte, dass Gebirge, Gesteine und Mineralien ein auch die anorganische Welt bewegendes Streben zur Gestalt ausdrücken, dass sich die leblosen Dinge der Naturanschauung als gewordene und werdende offenbaren und geologische Erklärung darin besteht, Vorstellungen zu entwickeln über die in der Erdvergangenheit stattgehabten Prozesse des Werdens und Wandelns der Gestaltung interner Gefüge und äußerer Formen von Mineralien, Gesteinen und Gebirgen� (50) Engelhardt’s beliefs align with this article’s hypothesis, namely that the organic movements often associated with plants and the realm of conventionally living objects are also connected to the geological sphere in Goethe’s writings� However, the source of these beliefs is the point at which this article diverges from Engelhardt’s work� While the body of Engelhardt’s chapter does make brief reference to “Granit II,” it does not consider any material prior to 1796 in its argument regarding the visibility of Goethe’s morphology in his geological writings, instead claiming that the roots of these thoughts originate around 1800� Rather, this article argues that the origins of this approach can be found at least fifteen years earlier, in Goethe’s “Granit II�” Questions relating to the position of “Polarität” and “Steigerung” in the natural world can also be coded as an exploration of the extent to which apparently solid natural objects, such as rocks and mountains, can house energies of their own� In many ways, this aligns with the approach taken by ecocriticism, “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 275 which “views human beings, bodies, and culture as participants in ecological interactions and exchanges with the rest of the energetic and material world, including both biotic and abiotic forms” (Sullivan 116)� Some ecocritical thinkers have begun to apply this reading to Goethe’s work� The most notable among them, Heather Sullivan, has even explored Goethe’s discussions of geology from this perspective� In the specific context of Goethe’s presentation of mountains within Faust, she alleges that Faust, Mephistopheles and their fellow characters interact with the mountains in the play in a material, rather than a spiritual, sense, representing “participation in nature’s flows, changes, and conflicts that draw us in” (Sullivan 120)� As this article will show, the interplay between natural energy flows and mountains (or rocks more generally) can, in fact, be viewed specifically as the interaction between such geological masses and “Polarität” and “Steigerung” specifically� Moreover, these “energy flows” are not only to be found in Faust: they can also be seen across Goethe’s geological work� Sullivan is not the only critic to associate geological masses with flows and energies, and to stress the importance of this both for Goethe’s work and more broadly� Peter Schnyder’s comparative work on Goethe and Stifter, for example, revolves around the question of “die dynamisierte Erde” (Schnyder 541) in their writings, suggesting that the solid, seemingly static earth is actually a dynamic, almost living entity� This aligns with Jason Groves’ exploration of Goethe’s fiction writings from an ecocritical perspective, which sees him posit a “geological turn” (Groves 95) during the Goethezeit� This geological turn “takes on a new urgency in the geological epoch of the Anthropocene” (96), in his eyes, as scholars begin to assess the position that humans take, and the impact they have, within the natural world� This relationship between humans, on the one hand, and geology, on the other, is problematized by Georg Braungart� He discusses the (at the time) surprising revelation that the history of the earth, and with it, of geology, did not align temporally with the history of human life on it: “[E]rst langsam öffnete sich die Schere zwischen der Geschichte der Erde und der des Menschen” (56)� In turn, this emphasized the independent existence of the natural world, rather than its dependence on human influences� Indeed, many of the key concerns of these ecocritical scholars, revolving around the independent activity to be found within the natural world, were prefigured in Goethe’s geological writing, as highlighted by the presence of “Polarität” and “Steigerung�” Against the backdrop of previous critics’ work on the interplay (or perceived lack thereof) between forces and the natural world more broadly, or “Polarität,” “Steigerung,” and Goethe’s geological writings specifically, the interaction between these concepts and “Granit II” itself is to be considered� Indeed, the first of the three aspects of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” under consideration, namely, the concept of directional movement, is also the one which is most explicitly 276 Jennifer Caisley mentioned in “Granit II�” In the first section of the essay, which sees the protagonist discuss how previous generations (and indeed, previous cultures) viewed granite, the protagonist states: “Jeder Weg in unbekannte Gebürge bestätigte die alte Erfahrung, daß das Höchste und das Tiefste Granit sei” (FA 1/ 25: 313)� As both the highest entity and the lowest at the same time, granite is the geological embodiment of “Polarität,” which encompasses opposing forces moving in harmony with one another� As the protagonist subsequently explains, this height and depth applies to granite in the most literal sense� Granite is the bedrock of the earth upon which all other structures are built - and yet, it can also be the material from which the tallest of these structures, mountains, are composed� However, this association between height and depth can also be read metaphorically, with granite at once representing stability and firmness, along with lofty, ethereal, ever-changing heights� This is implied by the constant reaffirmation and recreation of the “alte Erfahrung” described in this phrase� While this “Erfahrung” may well be old and solid (just like granite), it is also being recreated afresh with every new interaction with unexplored mountains� These “Erfahrungen” also have another role to play with regard to the upward and downward movements of Goethean “Polarität�” As he sits on the mountaintop, the protagonist of “Granit II” is “zu höheren Betrachtungen der Natur hinauf gestimmt” (FA 1/ 25: 314)� This upward movement is swiftly paired with its downward counterpart as the protagonist looks down from his elevated position: he “[sieht] diesen ganz nackten Gipfel hinab” (FA 1/ 25: 314)� The notion of a mountainous summit incorporating both ascent and descent may initially seem paradoxical, but brief consideration of the topography of a mountain peak reveals otherwise: even sketching out in the air the inverted V-shape of a mountain requires an upward and a downward line� Like the journey up a mountain, this process of “Polarität” is a movement that travels both upward and also, strikingly, downward� As Charlotte Lee comments with reference to “Steigerung,” this is “an ascent that also incorporates depth” (58)� This applies equally to a mountain: an ascent to the top of the mountain being inextricable from the physical descent down from the mountain, or the visual descent of the individual’s gaze into the valley below� In this text, however, the focus is squarely on the visual, and by extension, psychological, ascent and descent of the mountain� There is no description of how the protagonist reached its summit, nor of how he managed to get back down to the ground again� To a certain extent, this removes the physical aspect of “Polarität” and leaves behind both its connotations of visual ascent and descent, along with its metaphorical associations� However, this pairing of opposing movements does not only apply in a vertical sense in “Granit II”: it also is referred to in a broader form on a temporal “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 277 plane� Throughout the text, the protagonist’s narration jumps back and forth between various points in time, all of which are simultaneously anchored in the narrative present as the protagonist relays his thoughts to the reader� The essay starts with the protagonist’s discussing granite’s role in Ancient Egypt, before rapidly fast-forwarding to the narrative present and offering a brief exploration of the value placed on this stone at that point in time� However, he then skips back to an even earlier point in time, to primeval days when the world (and more specifically, granite itself) was being formed� Suddenly, his narration jumps forward to the present day to discuss his personal interaction with the mountain at that particular moment, but almost immediately after, he returns to imagining the origins of the mountain once again� This oscillation between the narrative present and the past occurs at least twice more in the text, before it ends with a forward-looking hope that engagement with the mountain will give his “Bemühungen andern Gelegenheit […] weiter zu gehen” (FA 1/ 25: 316)� This flickering between various times, whether the distant past, present or future, evokes the movement upwards and downwards of “Polarität,” albeit in this instance, this movement “upwards” is “forwards,” and “downwards” is “backwards�” Perhaps the clearest reference to this linking of opposing forces comes at the very end of the essay, when the protagonist discusses returning to his study and his books, after his time in the natural environment observing the mountain directly� He discusses the opposing opinions held by many on the topic of granite and asks: “Wie vereinigen wir alle diese Widersprüche und finden einen Leitfaden zu ferneren Beobachtungen? Dies ist es was ich zu tun mir gegenwärtig vorsetzte [ ]” (FA 1/ 25: 316)� The mountain environment and the protagonist’s experience alike bring together seemingly opposing forces� However, so too does the project he is engaged on, which aims to unify seemingly contradictory approaches, thereby mirroring the workings of “Polarität” in combining diametrically opposed movements� These approaches themselves are intrinsically connected to the mountain environment in question, which once again seems to act as a trigger for such experiences� As such, the opposing movements so central to “Polarität” appear to be reflected in “Granit II” not only within the natural world per se, but also with regard to human interaction with it� “Polarität,” however, is only half of the pairing that forms part of the scope of this exploration� Nevertheless, the geological essay also contains plenty of material that suggests “Steigerung” is evident in the work, also� Descriptions of upward movements are scattered throughout the text, whether in the description of the obelisks erected by the Ancient Egyptians, and their remnants being re-erected in the present, or in the explanation that granite now “sich […] emporhob” in the eyes of natural scientists (FA 1/ 25: 313)� However, at one point 278 Jennifer Caisley in the essay, the similarities between the upward movement of “Steigerung” and “Granit II” are made particularly clear on a linguistic level� In his discussion of polarity in his note on “Die Natur,” Goethe uses the verb “anziehen” to describe the upwards trajectory followed when an entity is “gesteigert�” The same verb is used by the protagonist in “Granit II” to express the sensations he experiences while sitting atop the mountain: In diesem Augenblicke, da die innern anziehenden und bewegenden Kräfte der Erde gleichsam unmittelbar auf mich wirken, da die Einflüsse des Himmels mich näher umschweben, werde ich zu höheren Betrachtungen der Natur hinaufgestimmt, und wie der Menschengeist alles belebt, so wird auch ein Gleichnis in mir rege, dessen Erhabenheit ich nicht widerstehen kann� (FA 1/ 25: 314) These “Kräfte der Erde” that seem to flow directly into and through the protagonist’s body, via the mountain upon which he is sitting, exert a force not only in the same direction as “Steigerung,” but a force that is even described in exactly the same way� Indeed, this paragraph is replete with terms referencing upward movement, from “anziehend,” to “Himmel,” “höhere” and “hinaufgestimmt�” As such, it can also be read as a depiction of upward movement analogous to “Steigerung�” Here, this “Steigerung” reaches its zenith in the form of sublimity, or “Erhabenheit�” Interaction with nature enables the protagonist not only to have a closer experience of nature: it also elevates the protagonist’s experience of human existence itself� It is clear that the directional movement inherent to “Polarität” and “Steigerung” is present in “Granit II�” However, many of these instances depicting the opposing movements of “Polarität,” or the clear upward movement of “Steigerung,” also go hand in hand with the constant dynamism involved in these movements� This is the second of the distinguishing features of these two concepts: namely the never-ceasing, endless nature of the movements associated with them� The protagonist’s experiences of the mountain environment are refreshed and renewed time and again, along with his ever-moving oscillations through various temporal moments� In turn, they also see “Granit II” prefigure the second key aspect of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” in this regard: the notion of them being constantly rotating “Triebräder” driving these experiences forward� These “wheels,” to use Goethe’s term, are constantly in motion, rolling onwards steadily and unceasingly� At first glance, mountains (and the mountain environment more broadly) might seem to be rather static, and consequently, not connected to either “Steigerung” or “Polarität�” However, closer examination of their presentation in “Granit II” suggests that this is far from the case� “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 279 This notion of constant movement is most clearly depicted with regard to interaction with the granite rock itself, a stone which is (according to the protagonist) full of differences and contradictions� As he states: Höchst mannigfaltig in der größten Einfalt, wechselt seine Mischung ins Unzählige ab� Die Lage und das Verhältnis seiner Teile seine Dauer seine Farbe ändert sich mit jedem Gebürge und die Massen eines jeden Gebürges sind oft von Schritt zu Schritte wieder in sich unterschieden, und im ganzen doch wieder immer einander gleich� (FA 1/ 25: 313) This long description by the protagonist accords with his description of his forebears’ viewing of the “wunderbare Abwechslung ihres [Granits] Kornes” (FA 1/ 25: 313)� While in neither of these instances is the rock itself moving or changing, it nevertheless gives the individual interacting with it an experience that is ever-fresh and ever-new, by dint of its varied, diverse nature� This further reinforces the subjective, sensorily-based nature of the movements of both “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” and the constant flux associated with them� Indeed, this is not the only instance in the text in which granite is associated with movement and change� While the previous extract dealt with granite as a stone either removed from the ground and carved into the shape of an obelisk, say, or in the natural shape of a mountain, subsequent passages in “Granit II” examine granite’s role as a bedrock upon which natural environments (or even entire communities) grow� As the protagonist states: Schon fängt das Moos zuerst sich zu erzeugen an schon bewegen sich seltner die schaligen Bewohner des Meeres es senkt sich das Wasser die höhern Berge werden grün, es fängt alles an von Leben zu wimmeln�-- - Aber bald setzen sich diesem Leben neue Szenen der Zerstörungen entgegen� In der Ferne heben sich tobende Vulkane in die Höhe, sie schienen der Welt den Untergang zu drohen jedoch unerschüttert bleibt die Grundfeste auf der ich noch sicher ruhe […]� (FA 1/ 25: 315) There is constant movement atop the granite foundation, although this foundation ultimately remains fixed� This is not, however, to say that the granite foundation is unchanging: it births volcanoes and reveals itself from the depths of the waters which had previously covered it� Much like “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” forces which are always in flux and yet ever present, the geological environment underpins everything that happens in association with it� Indeed, atop this sturdy foundation, the amount of movement is striking� The lack of punctuation, with clauses running from one into the next, in this passage reflects this movement on the level of the text, while its content suggests a situation marked not only by constant flux, but also by repeating cyclical developments� 280 Jennifer Caisley The passage is described by verbs of movement and change: “erzeugen,” “sich bewegen,” “senken,” “werden,” “wimmeln,” “sich heben�” The final verb of this section, “ruhen,” contrasts markedly with its predecessors, further reinforcing the stability provided by the rocky foundation� The cyclical nature of this movement, akin to the “Triebräder” of “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” is also highlighted in this passage� The chaos of the initial creation gradually subsides, and stability returns to the environment, before distant volcanos threaten to destroy the entire situation, bringing the chaos back again� The wheel of development rolls on, destroying then reforming the natural environment� In addition to these instances of ongoing flux, change and development, circular imagery is also used in “Granit II,” evoking the specific nature of the movement traced by the “Triebräder” of “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” This reference to circular movement comes in a description of the protagonist’s interaction with the mountain environment� He states: Und so wird jeder der den Reiz kennt den natürliche Geheimnisse fuer den Menschen haben, sich nicht wundern dass ich den Kreis der Beobachtungen den ich sonst betreten, verlassen und mich mit einer recht leidenschaftlichen Neigung in diesen gewandt habe� (FA 1/ 25: 314) The protagonist’s interaction with the mountain environment, or with the secrets of nature more broadly, gives rise to a cyclical series of experiences with the natural world, led by the sense of vision and driven by curiosity� The “Kreis der Beobachtungen” mimics the wheel-like motions of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” by virtue of its circular shape� The nature of this “Kreis” is never fully defined, or even discussed, but it is clear that it is triggered by the mountain environment, just as these two concepts are� The third, and final, aspect of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” to explore with regard to “Granit II” is the interplay between “Materie” and “Geist” in the text� In his note on “Die Natur” that discusses his view of “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” Goethe associates each of these concepts with “Geist” and “Materie” respectively� He then explains that “Geist” and “Materie” are intrinsically connected to each other, just as “Steigerung” and “Polarität” are� Firstly, he explains that material can never exist without spirit, nor vice versa (“Weil aber die Materie nie ohne Geist, der Geist nie ohne Materie existiert und wirksam sein kann” [FA I/ 25: 81]): the two concepts simply cannot be separated from one another� Consequently, material entities associated with polarity can be heightened, just as much as spiritual entities associated with “Steigerung” can experience “Polarität” (“so vermag auch die Materie sich zu steigern, so wie sich’s der Geist nicht nehmen läßt, anzuziehen und abzustoßen” [FA I/ 25: 81])� As a result, examining the presence of an interplay between “Materie” and “Geist” in “Granit II” offers “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 281 the final reinforcement of the hypothesis that “Steigerung” and “Polarität” are also explored in the text� As Helmut Koopmann explains in the Goethe-Handbuch, “es gibt seht verschiedenartige Bedeutungen des Begriffes ‘Geist’ bei Goethe” (546)� He goes on to explain that most of these meanings arise in conjunction with other terms, such as “Materie” in the example of “Steigerung” and “Polarität,” and summarizes that “Geist” is inextricably linked to the “transsubstantielle Sphäre�” Other critics have emphasized this connection between “Geist” and “Materie,” in particular� These include David John, whose 2013 article reads Goethe’s approach to the intersection of these two concepts as a “dualistic materialism” ( John 69) in which neither concept is more prominent than the other, particularly in Goethe’s work on science and natural philosophy� Preceding John, Eckart Förster’s 2001 work also explored the role played by the crossover between “Geist” and Goethe’s scientific work� He alleges that Goethe’s belief in the crucial importance of seeing with the “Auge des Geistes” is a credo which “underlies his lifelong scientific work” (Förster 87)� By extension, this also underscores the importance of “Geist” for Goethe more generally in engaging with the material natural world, and, indeed, the inevitability of its presence, as suggested by the definition of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” discussed throughout this article� “Granit II” sees the term “Geist” arise no fewer than six times over the course of the essay, in various guises� Taking each of these appearances in turn reveals that “Geist,” with all its shades of meaning, is inextricably connected to “Materie” in the essay, and, as such, offers further emphasis that Goethe’s essay can be read as an early exposition of the interplay between “Steigerung” and “Polarität�” The first two references to “Geist” come early in the essay, as the unnamed protagonist is discussing the sense of attraction that the natural environment exerts on humans, and his related exploration of this environment� He states: Ich fürchte den Vorwurf nicht dass es ein Geist des Widerspruchs sein müsse der mich von Betrachtung und Schilderung des menschlichen Herzens des jüngesten mannigfaltigsten beweglichsten veränderlichsten, erschütterlichsten Teiles der Schöpfung zu der Beobachtung des ältesten, festesten, tiefsten, unerschütterlichsten Sohnes der Natur geführt hat� Denn man wird mir gerne zugeben dass alle natürlichen Dinge in einem genauen Zusammenhange stehen, dass der forschende Geist sich nicht gerne von etwas Erreichbarem ausschließen läßt� (FA 1/ 25: 313-4) This passage sees the narrator discuss two “Geister”: the “Geist des Widerspruchs” and the “forschende Geist�” In both of these instances, “Geist” is used to refer to a particular variety of feeling or thought that drives forward a certain action� While the “Geist des Widerspruchs” did not come to bear, as the protag- 282 Jennifer Caisley onist is keen to remind the reader, the “forschende Geist” did have a significant impact on his endeavors� Goethe’s statement that “Geist” is never present without “Materie” is borne out on multiple levels in this passage� Both the “Geister” in this passage are rooted in the physical materiality of the protagonist’s body, or, more accurately, his brain, thereby marking a direct connection between material and spirit in this passage� However, an indirect connection can also be established� The “Geist” driving the protagonist is triggered and stimulated by the protagonist’s interaction with the material mountain environment� The protagonist even appears to presage this connection in his statement that “alle natürlichen Dinge in einem genauen Zusammenhange stehen,” highlighting the interconnected nature of the natural world� The third occurrence of the term “Geist” in “Granit II” sees it linked even more closely to the protagonist’s interaction with his surroundings, and the experiences referred to in the previous sections� The sublime experience that the protagonist undergoes where the “innern anziehenden-und bewegenden Kräfte der Erde” impact on him does not just elevate him “zu höheren Betrachtungen der Natur,” as discussed specifically with regard to “Steigerung�” Rather, it also has an explicit connection to the “Geist” of humanity� As the protagonist states: “wie- der Menschengeist alles belebt, so wird auch ein Gleichniß- in mir rege, dessen Erhabenheit ich nicht widerstehen- kann” (FA 1/ 25: 314)� The protagonist becomes host to a force analogous to the “Menschengeist,” but one which is in this instance sparked by his experience atop the mountain� In this image, “Geist” is required for an object to be brought to life� In turn, this connects to the protagonist’s description of the mountain peak which opens this entire scene� In it, he states “diese Gipfel haben nichts Lebendiges erzeugt und nichts Lebendiges verschlungen, sie sind vor allem Leben und über alles Leben” (FA 1/ 25: 314)� Just as life cannot exist without the “Menschengeist,” without this “Menschengeist” being life in and of itself, so too is the mountain environment in question intrinsically connected to life-giving in their own way� The “Geist” of the protagonist’s mind therefore displays striking parallels with the solid materiality of the granite rock� The final three instances of “Geist” in “Granit II” occur a little later in the essay, when the protagonist is discussing the process by which the mountains were formed� As the narrator states: Er sieht sich nach jenen Thälern um,-über die sich sein Geist schon hinausschwang […]� Vorbereitet durch diese Gedanken, dringt die Seele in die vergangenen Jahrhunderte hinauf, sie vergegenwärtigt sich alle Erfahrungen sorgfältiger Beobachter, alle Vermutungen feuriger Geister� Diese Klippe sage ich zu mir selber stand schroffer zackiger höher in die Wolken da dieser Gipfel, noch als eine meerumfloßne Insel, in “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 283 den alten Wassern dastand; um sie sauste der Geist, der über den Wogen brütete, und in ihrem weiten Schoße die höheren Berge aus den Trümmern des Urgebürges und aus ihren Trümmern und den Resten der eigenen Bewohner die späteren und ferneren Berge sich bildeten� (FA 1/ 25: 315) The speaker describes the mountain as being surrounded by water that is whipped up into waves and surrounded by geological turmoil of all kinds, which ultimately give rise to the topological environment that he can experience today� The rich description is replete with sensory adjectives: the sound of the spirit of nature is onomatopoeically represented in the repeated sibilance of the letter “s” in “sausen,” while the visual image depicted by the speaker pans cinematically from the mountain upon which he imagines he is sitting to the mountains in the far-off distance� While the speaker grammatically erases himself from this passage by avoiding using “ich” to refer to himself and thereby covering his statements with a veneer of objectivity, the description is nevertheless a product of his creation� As with the previous statement, the “Geister” here are intrinsically linked to the material world� The “Geist” interacts directly with the water to create waves, blowing around the rocky island, that ultimately shape the form of the rock itself� The “Erfahrungen” expressed in this are also worth noting� Again, the protagonist’s experience is renewed, refreshed and replicated in the narrative present, being “vergegenwärtigt” through the interplay of “Materie” and “Geist,” despite the fact that it originally happened many years ago� The interaction between “Geist” and “Materie” in “Granit II” does not just arise with relation to the direct, specific references to “Geist�” Reading this term broadly (as Koopmann does, concluding that “Goethe zufolge ist der Geist das Immaterielle […], das der Zeitlichkeit nicht unterworfen ist” [347]) enables further resonances to be identified within the geological essay� Indeed, “Granit II” presents the mountain’s material and immaterial qualities as mutually inclusive in other respects� The essay is peppered with references to materiality, whether in the “ungeheuren Massen” (FA 1/ 25: 312) of granite from which the Egyptians carved sacred obelisks, or in the description of granite as the “ältesten, festesten, tiefsten, unerschütterlichsten [Sohn] der Natur” (FA 1/ 25: 314), with the superlatives in this latter quotation offering further emphasis as to the materiality of granite� Alongside these explicit references to the solidity of the stone itself, there are also implicit remarks made more subtly throughout the piece that foreground the issue of materiality, and by extension, the connected issue of immateriality, in the reader’s consciousness� This is the case, for example, when the speaker explains how the value of granite became firmly engrained in people’s minds, stating that “die Würde dieses Gesteins wurde […] endlich befestigt” (FA 1/ 25: 314)� Here, even an immaterial value associated with granite, its “Würde,” 284 Jennifer Caisley is made “fest,” or rendered material� However, the mountain is far from being a dead, static lump of rock with its materiality being its only attribute� As the protagonist states plainly: “diese Gipfel […] sind vor allem Leben und über alles Leben” (FA 1/ 25: 314)� The mountain in “Granit II” is imbued with a mysterious kind of life that is sensed by the speaker� This implies that, while granite might be nature’s oldest son, to borrow Goethe’s phrase, it is also creating a progeny of its own through the productive impact of its forces on the individual who interacts with it� It is clear that “Granit II” depicts a directional movement shaped by a constant dynamism, whether in opposing directions or in eternal ascendance, as well as the interaction between “Geist” and “Materie�” The evident presence of all three of these elements in “Granit II” suggests that the representation of the mountain environment in the essay is clearly aligned to Goethe’s beliefs that he would later summarize in his exploration of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” in the 1820s� However, while “Granit II” seems to neatly align with Goethe’s theories of these two concepts in many respects, this is not to say that these similarities are without their complications� One such instance comes when the protagonist reaches the zenith of “Steigerung,” as discussed above� As the protagonist states: Ich fühle die ersten festesten Anfänge unsers Daseins, ich überschaue die Welt ihre schrofferen und gelinderen Täler und ihre fernen fruchtbaren Weiden, meine Seele wird über sich selbst und über alles erhaben und sehnt sich nach dem nähern Himmel� Aber bald ruft die brennende Sonne Durst und Hunger seine menschlichen Bedürfnisse zurück� (FA 1/ 25: 315) This sudden, jolting switch from the elevated, near-sublime experience to the utterly human, grounded sensations of hunger and thirst can be read, on one level, as a further example of the pairing of “Geist” and “Materie” in the text� However, the situation is more complicated than this� In this instance, the sudden appearance of “Materie” means that the ever-ascending movement of “Steigerung” is broken, and the protagonist loses his access to this realm of elevated thoughts� The eternal ascendance of “Steigerung” does not seem quite as eternal in this instance: “Materie” appears to have almost sabotaged “Geist,” rather than operating harmoniously with it� Goethe’s description of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” in his notes on “Die Natur” do not mention what happens when one of the components of the various pairings underlying it is out of kilter with the other� The above depiction of the protagonist’s experience in “Granit II” could well provide an illustration of this: when any of the various elements are present in too strong a form (or, conversely, too weak a form), “Steigerung” fails to occur� This suggests a certain delicacy, not to say fallibility, to “Steigerung,” at least at this early stage of Goethe’s development of this concept� At the start of “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 285 its genesis in Goethe’s work, “Steigerung” was not necessarily solely an organic process that happened of its own accord: it required a particular set of conditions in order to make its presence felt� Examining “Granit II” through the lens of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” offers new ways in which to approach depictions of the mountain environment, and in turn, provides fresh insight into the genesis of Goethe’s theories of heightening and polarity� This insight implies that Goethe began to develop these theories much earlier than critics have thought to date� The three touchstones of directional forces, constant movement, and interplay between materiality and “Geist” are all present in “Granit II,” enabling the text to be read as a forerunner of Goethe’s theory of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” that substantially predates his other work on the subject� It is no surprise that instances of heightening and polarity can be found in Goethe’s writing on the natural world, given his belief in the intrinsic connection of these two concepts to nature� However, the specific connection of these two terms of representations of geology is rather unexpected� As discussed, these two terms are intrinsically connected to movement� It is logical to associate this movement with nature in terms of plants that grow, but it is rather less naturally connected to nature in the sense of mountains and rocks that are seemingly static� The same applies to materiality and “Geist”: a geological mass has rather more in the way of “Materie” than “Geist,” at first glance� Closer examination, however, suggests that “Geist” can take a range of forms in connection to the geological space, ranging from the protagonist’s own innate “Geist” inside his mind, through to a productive, external “Geist” that plays a role in creating the very entities that are being described� However, “Granit II” is also a text narrated by a shifting, unidentified narrator, meaning that these depictions of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” are always filtered through the subjective experience of this narrator� The term “Erfahrung” scattered throughout the text as an explicit marker of experience, along with more implicit markers of experience, is involved either directly or indirectly with all three of the aspects of “Steigerung” and “Polarität” discussed throughout this article� These experiences are being constantly relived by the sensing protagonist, as a result of the “Steigerung” and “Polarität” inherent to the mountain environment in question� Even the very end of the text emphasizes the subjectivity inherent in any experience of the natural environment� The protagonist uses the closing lines of the piece to offer a warning to readers that seems a little jarring, with its direct, detached, scientific tone, when compared to the rest of the text� He states: Nur möchte eine Warnung hier nicht überflüssig sein, mehr für Ausländer, wenn diese Schrift bis ihnen kommen sollte, als für Deutsche: diese Gesteinart von andern 286 Jennifer Caisley wohl unterscheiden zu lernen� Noch verwechseln die Italiener eine Lava mit dem kleinkörnigten Granit und die Franzosen den Gneis den sie blättrigten Granit oder Granit der zweiten Ordnung nennen […]� (FA 1/ 25: 316) This concluding warning serves as a reminder that subjectivity even operates on a linguistic level� As the protagonist summarizes, readers of the text from other cultural backgrounds could easily be misled by the term “Granit,” mistaking it for a different kind of stone� While the text itself depicts the protagonist’s new “Erfahrungen” on many levels, instead, in this extract, he suggests that the text itself can also offer “Erfahrungen” to its many readers, as they learn from the guidance that the protagonist provides� As a result, to return to the pronouncement by Mephistopheles with which this article opened, there is not “nichts Neues” but rather “viel Neues” to be learned from geological masses, both in terms of learning about them and experiencing them� In turn, these newly learnt findings and fresh experiences can aid us as readers to have a more comprehensive understanding of Goethe’s “Weltanschauung,” looking at geology and Goethe’s natural philosophy alike with fresh eyes to create a reading that falls neatly in step with contemporary scholarship on ecocriticism� Works Cited Braungart, Georg� “Poetik der Natur� Literatur und Geologie�” Natur - Kultur. Zur Anthropologie von Sprache und Literatur� Ed� Thomas Anz� Paderborn: Mentis, 2009� 55-77� Engelhardt, Wolf von� “Morphologie im Reich der Steine? ” In der Mitte zwischen Natur und Subjekt. Johann Wolfgang von Goethes “Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanze zu erklären.” 1790-1990� Ed� Gunther Mann et al� Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1992� 33-51� Förster, Eckart� “Goethe and the ‘Auge des Geistes’�” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 75�1 (2001): 87-101� Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von� Frankfurter Ausgabe: Sämtliche Werke, Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche. Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1992� Groves, Jason� “Goethe’s Petrofiction: Reading the Wanderjahre in the Anthropocene�” Goethe Yearbook 22 (2015): 95-113� John, David G� “The Duality of Goethe’s Materialism�” Lumen: Selected Proceedings from the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies 32 (2013): 57-71� Lee, Charlotte� The Very Late Goethe: Self-Consciousness and the Art of Ageing. London: Legenda, 2014� Mann, Gunter, Dieter Mollenhauer, and Stefan Peters, eds� In der Mitte zwischen Natur und Subjekt: Johann Wolfgang von Goethes Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanze zu erklären, 1790-1990: Sachverhalte, Gedanken, Wirkungen� Frankfurt am Main: Waldemar Kramer, 1992� “Granit II”: An Exploration of Goethean “Steigerung” and “Polarität” 287 Schnyder, Peter� “Die Dynamisierung des Statischen� Geologisches Wissen bei Goethe und Stifter�” Zeitschrift für Germanistik 19�3 (2009): 540-55� Steiner, Rudolf� Goethes Weltanschauung. Berlin: Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, 1921� Sullivan, Heather I� “Faust’s Mountains: An Ecocritical Reading of Goethe’s Tragedy and Science�” Heights of Reflection: Mountains in the German Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century� Ed� Sean Ireton and Caroline Schaumann� Rochester: Camden House, 2012� 116-33� Wilkinson, Elizabeth M� “‘Tasso: ein gesteigerter Werther’ in the Light of Goethe’s Principle of ‘Steigerung’: An Inquiry into Critical Method�” The Modern Language Review 44�3 (1949): 305-28� Witte, Bernd, ed� Goethe-Handbuch in vier Bänden� Stuttgart: J�B� Metzler, 1996� Wyder, Margrit� “Von der Stufenleiter der Wesen zur Metamorphosenlehre� Goethes Morphologie und ihre Gesetze�” Von der Pansophie zur Weltweisheit� Ed� Hans-Jürgen Schrader and Katharine Weder� Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2004� Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt Marius Reisener Universität Zürich Abstract: Die Rolle von Wilhelm von Humboldts ‘Geschlechter-Aufsätzen’ (1795) für den Geschlechter-Diskurs ist mehrfach nachgewiesen worden; ihre poetologischen Maskulinisierungsstrategien sind bisher wenig beachtet geblieben� Dem Beitrag geht es um die Implikatur von Geschlecht, mit der die Beschreibung poetischer und biologischer Hervorbringung in der anbrechenden Moderne versehen wurde� Alle drei - biologische und poetische Hervorbringung sowie ihre Beschreibungsweise - sind seither aneinander gekettet� Humboldt, bedeutet das, erklärt die Beschreibung von Hervorbringung zur männlich-autogamen Praxis: Poiesis wird Männersache� Keywords: poiesis, masculinity, Humboldt, genius, creation Zeugungstheorien und Poetologien haben gemeinsam, dass sie Lehren von Hervorbringung sind� Dass sich die Bereiche von Kunst und Leben, Herstellung und Fortpflanzung in einer spezifischen Bildsprache des Generierens überschneiden und dies eine lange Tradition hat, wird bei der Betrachtung des Ausgangspunktes solcher Denkbewegungen in der griechischen Antike deutlich - dieses Erklärungsmodell besaß schon immer eine kulturbildende Funktion� Mit der “Analogisierbarkeit von Kunst und Leben im Modus der Zeugung”, so Stefan Willer, ist jedoch “noch nicht viel gewonnen”: Der literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Aufgabe einer systematischen wie historischen Differenzierung des Vorgangs davon, wie “immer wieder Eigenarten künstlerischer Hervorbringung das induziert haben, was als natürlich zu gelten hat, und wie sich umgekehrt der Anschluß künstlerischer Konzepte des Hervorbringens an Begriffe von natürlicher Entstehung beschreiben läßt” (Willer 2005, 125), wurde im Bereich der Poetiken bereits nachgekommen� Dort lässt sich beobachten, dass spezifische Qualitäten, die ‘natürlichen’ Hervorbringungsweisen zugeschrieben werden, auch für das rhetorische Arsenal der Selbstbeschreibung von Kunstproduktion 290 Marius Reisener mobilisiert werden� Mit Bezug auf moderne Geschlechtlichkeit, wie sie seit dem 18� Jahrhundert diskursiv produziert wurde, wird ‘weibliche’ Hervorbringung dem Bereich der Natur und männliche dem der Kultur zugerechnet, sodass “Geburt bzw� Selbstgebären und Kunstschöpfung klar an das männliche Genie und an männliche Originalität gebunden wurden� Das Werk der Frau ist das Kind, das des Mannes das Buch bzw� das Kunstwerk […]” (Kanz 2009, 22)� Die Bedeutungskomplexe natürlicher und künstlerischer Hervorbringung stehen in unmittelbarer Abhängigkeit zueinander, wobei die Frage der Relation - die Position und Richtung des Bildspendevorgangs ist unklar - für dieses Feld bezeichnend ist� David Wellbery erkennt in diesem unklaren Bildspendeprozess eine eigentümliche Doppelbewegung, die “die zeugungssemantische Bestimmung der Kunstproduktion auszeichnet” (Wellbery 2002, 17)� Diese zeige eindrücklich die gleichzeitige Etablierung wie Suspendierung der Opposition zwischen den Sinnsystemen Kultur und Natur� Angesichts dessen werde ersichtlich, dass “der Komplex Kunst - Zeugung - Geburt als ein Topos zu begreifen [ist], an dem die paradoxe Einheit der semantischen Unterscheidung Natur/ Kultur verhandelt wird” (Wellbery 2002, 13)� Dieser Kollektiv-Topos kann semantisch vielfältig aufgeladen und dienstbar gemacht werden, und insofern die Naturalisierung von Geschlecht im Reden darüber nicht mehr allein tauglich war, um die Geschlechterdichotomie hinreichend zu stabilisieren (Stephan 2003, 13 f�), wurde auch dieser Topos zum Austragungsort eines Rückzugskampfes des Patriarchats� Ein solches Vorgehen ist Teil der Kompensationsleistung, die der moderne Mensch (und damit Mann) im Zustand des “Mängelwesens” - Herder wird 1772 zum Stichwortgeber - erbringen muss� Auch am nunmehr vergeschlechtlichten Kampfplatz moderner Poetiken soll dieser Malus abgefedert werden, die (literarisches) Kunstschaffen als Surrogat für biologische Gebärfähigkeit auszugeben bemüht sind (Kanz 2009, 35; Wellbery 2002, 22)� Motivisch wandern Konzepte der Selbst-Komplettierung oder der Autarkie männlicher Poeten und ihrer Produktionsweisen (Lindhoff 2002; Helduser-2005, 208 f�) in Form von Bildern wie etwa dem der Kopfgeburt in moderne Poetiken ein, mit dem Effekt, dass “die mütterlichen Qualitäten eines Gebärenden und eines Aufziehenden […] in der Vorstellung der paternalen Kopfgeburt männlich umkodiert” und naturalisiert werden (Begemann 1990, 237)� Im Handumdrehen beseitigt der Mann den Mangel, den er sich durch die Abspaltung spezifischer Eigenschaften an das nunmehr in struktureller Opposition gedachte Weibliche eingehandelt hat� Nur durch die Aneignung der für die Plausibilisierung von Zeugungspraktiken unerlässlichen Eigenschaften, die er zuvor ins Weibliche ausgelagert hat, komplettiert der Mann sich selbst im Sinne eines (Selbst-)Schöpfungsaktes; die Aufwertung des Mängelwesens ‘Mensch’ meint die des Mängelwesens ‘Mann’ durch die Appropriation all derjenigen ‘weiblichen’ Eigenschaften, die ihm zur Auto-Genese Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 291 eines quasi-hybriden Selbst dienen sollen� Im Bereich der modernen Poetik wird die Frau zum Rest männlicher Selbstvervollkommnungsarbeit� Wie nun aber, und diese Frage drängt sich angesichts der Analogisierbarkeit von Kunst- und Naturschöpfung auf, verfahren ihrerseits Zeugungstheorien? Wie stellen sie ihre Gegenstände her, welche Nebenprodukte tauchen dabei auf? Insofern es sich nicht wie im Kunstbereich um Ästhetiken handelt, die ihren Gegenstand im Modus der Theorie verdoppeln und auf diese Art legitimieren können (Wellbery 1994, 200), bedarf es anderer Verfahrensweisen, um den Gegenstand anschaulich zu machen und ihm zu theoretischen-habituellen ‘Würden’ zu verhelfen� Wo auf der einen Seite die neue philosophische Disziplin der Ästhetik es darauf abgesehen hatte, “Poesie und Rhetorik mit einer zweiten Schicht von Explikation zu verdoppeln, mit Erklärungen aus dem Reservoir der in Leibniz’ und Wolffs Nachfolge so genannten sinnlichen Wahrnehmung” (Campe 2009, 199), mussten Theorien der Zeugung auf der anderen Seite dem Vorgang der Virtualisierung nachkommen� Anders formuliert: Dort, wo die Ästhetik Phänomene sinnlicher Wahrnehmung in einem ihrem Gegenstand entsprechenden Modus dupliziert und zugleich legitimiert, muss moderne Zeugungstheorie - als Rückseite der Hervorbringungslehre - analog verfahren� Wo Poetiken in ihrem Verfahren weitaus mehr beschrieben haben als lediglich Kunstproduktion - nämlich, noch einmal, ‘natürliche’ Hervorbringung -, da betreiben Zeugungs- und Geschlechtertheorien um 1800, so die These, dasselbe, was moderne Ästhetiken nun für den Bereich der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung leisten, nur in vexierter Form: An dem Akt ihrer Hervorbringung, ihrer poiesis, werden dann auch ästhetische Produktionsweisen verhandelt, und zwar im Modus der Geschlechtlichkeit� Um die Differenz noch schärfer zu stellen: Im Reden über Kunstzeugung produzieren Ästhetiken zugleich den Gegenstand des Geschlechts durch dessen theoretische Verdopplung und auf der Ebene der Metapher (Wellbery 1994); dem Bereich ‘natürlicher’ Zeugung hingegen mangelt es an Techniken der Selbst-Legitimierung� Dort, wo Wahrnehmungstheorie sich selbst und ihren Gegenstand plausibilisiert, muss Zeugungstheorie als Teil sich konstituierender Naturwissenschaften zuerst ihr eigenes Vorgehen legitimieren, und zwar an sich selbst: Die poiesis von Zeugungstheorie wird zur Zeugungs- Theorie von poiesis� Es gilt also zu zeigen, wie Texte dieser Art über ihre Verfahrensweisen beide Gegenstände - Zeugung und Vorgehen - erzeugen und damit eine Praktik bereitstellen, wie über Natur und ihre Zeugung zu sprechen sei� Mit Wilhelm von Humboldts Über den Geschlechtsunterschied und dessen Einfluß auf die organische Natur und Ueber männliche und weibliche Formen (beide 1795) stehen zwei für Sprachphilosophie, Geschlechterunterschied, Natur- und Geschichtsverständnis - Humboldt wollte die Horen-Essays selbst als ‘naturhistorisch’ begriffen wissen (vgl� Müller-Sievers 1993, 28) - wie auch für die 292 Marius Reisener Ästhetik zentrale Texte im Vordergrund� Das sind sie deshalb, weil sie einerseits die aus der Biologie emanierende epigenetische Zeugungstheorie in den Bereich der Anthropologie importieren und sie diskursiv anschlussfähig machen: Wilhelms Bruder Alexander, aber auch Schiller, Goethe und Kant reagierten auf die Horen-Essays� Andererseits geben sich die Texte damit als Teil von etwas zu erkennen, was als Vereinheitlichungs-Dispositiv beschreibbar wäre: Sofern sich ab der Umschlagstelle 1800 ein Wandel der Verbindlichkeiten durch alle Seinsgebiete hindurch bemerkbar macht (Matala 1999, 176), ist die Konjunktur solcher Begriffe wie Lebenskraft, Bildungstrieb etc� damit zu erklären, dass ihnen das Vermögen zur diskursiven Einheitsstiftung beigemessen wurde� Humboldts Texte, das macht ihre Rezeptionsgeschichte deutlich, trafen den Nerv der Zeit� Der vermeintlich zufällig auftretenden Umstand, dass in den Zeugungstheorien im Modus der Zeugung gesprochen wird, muss folglich als analytischer Brennpunkt der Untersuchung ausgegeben werden� Als poeteologisches Programm gelesen ließe sich diese erste Beobachtung als Arbeitshypothese so formulieren, dass es sich um ein Dokument der selbstbezeugten Selbstzeugung handelt, und zwar von Männlichkeit� Seit den von der australischen Soziologin Raewyn W� Connell formulierten Beobachtungen zur hegemonialen Männlichkeit (2000) tendierten die Aufarbeitungsbemühungen ihrer Theorie in zwei Richtungen: So wurde hegemoniale Männlichkeit einerseits als generative Praxis zur Hervorbringung von Frauen und anderen Männlichkeiten betrachtet, das über ein doing masculinity verfährt (Meuser 2006; Scholz 2004); andererseits wurde das Modell als Aneignungspraktik konzipiert, das fluide Männlichkeiten (Bridges/ Pascoe 2018) produziert, die in der Lage sind, sich diejenigen Positionen innerhalb der Geschlechtermatrix anzueignen, die pragmatisch nützlich und dem Projekt der Unterdrückung der Frau dienlich sein könnten (Demetriou 2001)� Ich schlage vor, beide Ansätze zusammenzudenken� Hegemoniale Männlichkeit ist dann in der Zusammenschau nicht als Beschreibungskategorie eines Typs oder einer Art von Mann gemeint, sondern als generatives Prinzip von Strategien zur Dominanz über Frauen und von anderen Männern, die Ungleichheit legitimiert, durch Appropriationspraxen anpassungsfähig bleibt und Positionalitäten (re)produziert, von denen aus die Performanz von Geschlecht reguliert wird� Auf diese Weise möchte ich die poiesis von Zeugungstheorien als Praxis hegemonialer Männlichkeit beschreiben, da Praktiken des Hervorbringens sui generis einerseits darin bestehen, Subjekt, Objekt und damit deren Verhältnis zu generieren� Andererseits zeigt sich, dass die Verfahrensweise der zugrundeliegenden Texte analog zum kulturpoetischen Projekt männlicher Hegemonie das betreiben, wodurch sich Männlichkeit seit der diskursiven Konstruktion Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 293 von ‘Geschlecht’ auszeichnet: Es geht um die Aneignung der Objektposition vonseiten des Subjekts über den Vorgang des dialektischen Pragmatismus, einer Technik, durch die Männlichkeit sich dasjenige aneignet, “what appears to be pragmatically useful and constructive for the project of domination at a particular historic moment” (Demetriou 2001, 348)� Dieses Projekt wird mit Legitimationskraft versehen insofern es in seiner textuellen Verfertigung auf Geschlechterrelationen zur Erklärung und Stabilisierung des Zeugungsvorgangs zurückgreift� Zugleich wird damit verdeutlicht, dass Männlichkeit weder ein rein soziales, narratives oder symbolisches Konstrukt ist, noch ein Phantasma, das sich an Diskursrändern formiert, sondern als Zeugungs-Modus dazu in der Lage ist, die Positionalität des an der Hervorbringung beteiligten Subjekts und die des Objekts zu generieren (Meuser 2006; Scholz 2004) und sich durch die Anpassung (Bridges/ Pascoe 2018) zu reproduzieren und stabilisieren� Eine Wissenspoetologie des Untersuchungsgegenstandes kann dann eine der konstitutiven Strategien des Patriarchats offenlegen, durch die Vorstellungen neuzeitlicher Zeugung mit männlicher poiesis korreliert werden sollen� Mit Humboldts ‘Geschlechter-Texten’, hieße das dann zusammengefasst, sollte poiesis als männliche Autogamie modelliert werden� Zeugungstheorien erhalten ihre Legitimation durch Selbstbezeugung männlicher Potenz als poiesis� In seinen einschlägigen und für die deutsche Klassik richtungsweisenden ‘Geschlechter-Texten’ (Honegger-1991, 182) hat Wilhelm von Humboldt den Versuch unternommen, das Projekt kultureller Wechselseitigkeit der Geschlechter naturphilosophisch zu begründen� Diese Aufsätze können gleichsam als Basistexte für das postulierte Zusammenspiel des weiblichen und männlichen Prinzips gesehen werden, das in der organisch strukturierten Natur begründet liegt bzw� dieses stiftet (Helduser-2005, 208) und somit den Beginn einer genderisierten Schöpfungsästhetik markiert (Bennent 1985; Dahlke 2010, Frevert-1995, 29; Honegger-1991, 182 ff�; Hausen-1976, 374; Schabert/ Schaff 1994)� Die Arbeiten am ersten Aufsatz Über den Geschlechtsunterschied und dessen Einfluß auf die organische Natur wurden 1795 abgeschlossen, und in demselben Jahr konnte der Text in Schillers Horen abgedruckt werden, genau wie die als Fortsetzung konzipierte Abhandlung Über männliche und weibliche Formen� Beide anonym publizierten Texte stießen auf unterschiedliche Resonanz: Schiller, Körner und Jacobi begrüßten die Abhandlungen, wohingegen Kant, Friedrich Schlegel und die Rezensenten der Horen eine eher kritische Meinung vertraten (Flitner/ Giel 2010, 331-34)� Als Grundlage seiner Betrachtung setzt Humboldt ein Naturbild der Gespaltenheit und gegenseitiger Bedingtheiten voraus� Einerseits zeichne sich die Natur selbst durch das Vor- und Zurückwirken antagonistischer Kräfte aus; 294 Marius Reisener Humboldt konzipiert dieses System als selbsterhaltend und selbstreferenziell: Den “verborgenen Charakter der Natur zu erspähen”, der “in seiner ganzen Einheit aufgefasst werden muss” und der “das letzte Resultat aller vereinigten Kräfte ist, kann wieder nur mit vereinigten Kräften verstanden werden” (ÜdG 270)� 1 Andererseits erfordere die lebendige Kraft, die jedes organische Wesen beseelt, einen Körper; dieser Körper nun und die Natur-Kräfte wirken wiederum wechselseitig aufeinander ein: Denn, geht man auch, um denselben [den Geschlechtsbegriff, M�R�] so aufzufinden, wie er sich wirklich in der Natur zeigt, am besten von dem Begriff der Zeugung aus, so kann man ihn doch auch, ohne alle Rücksicht auf diese, in seiner völligen Allgemeinheit fassen; und alsdann bezeichnet er nichts anders, als eine so eigenthümliche Ungleichartigkeit verschiedener Kräfte, daß sie nur verbunden ein Ganzes ausmachen, und ein gegenseitiges Bedürfniß, dieß Ganze durch Wechselwirkung in der That herzustellen� (ÜdG-269) Wenig später konkretisiert Humboldt das Wesen der voneinander verschiedenen Kräfte in ihrer “Ungleichheit”, die konstitutiv für sie sei: Hier nun beginnt der Unterschied der Geschlechter� Die zeugende Kraft ist mehr zur Einwirkung, die empfangende mehr zur Rückgewinnung gestimmt� Was von der erstern belebt wird, nennen wir männlich, was die letztere belebt, weiblich� Alles Männliche zeigt mehr Selbstthätigkeit, alles Weibliche mehr leidende Empfänglichkeit� (ÜdG-277f�) Die Passivkonstruktion (“belebt wird”) kennzeichnet das Männliche als Element einer sinnhaften Effektfolge, die vom Prinzip der Einwirkung geleitet wird; das Weibliche - der semantische Bezug ist tendenziell unklar (“was die letztere belebt”), strukturell-syntagmatisch kommt dem Weiblichen aber die Position des genitivus objectivus zu - verkommt zum lediglich rezipierten und rezipierenden Objekt� Diese Rezeptivität ist dann auch Grundlage für die Annahme, dass Frauen leidender, beharrlicher, empfindsamer etc� seien� Humboldt wird nicht müde, den Unterschied der Geschlechter mehrfach auszumalen; dasselbe trifft im Übrigen auch auf die zugrundeliegende und zugleich daraus resultierende Wechselwirkung der gegensätzlichen Naturkräfte zu, wodurch Humboldt in dieser Zirkulärstruktur aus Deduktion und Induktion die Selbsterhaltung seiner Theorie gewährleisten kann� Überhaupt zeichnet die Texte eine verworrene Stilistik aus, die selbst von den Romantikern als unverständlich abgetan wurde und bei deren Entzifferung Kant erhebliche Probleme zu haben schien, “da er selbst den Geschlechtsunterschied immer als etwas Unerklärbares angesehen habe” (Honegger-1991, 185)� Stefan Willer vermutet dahinter eine “Rhetorik des Wissens”, sodass sich der Gegenstand kaum mehr “von dem rhapsodischen Stil Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 295 voller Parenthesen, Ellipsen und Anakoluthe” trennen lässt (Willer-2005, 131), sich all die Wendungen und Windungen um den Gegenstand wickeln, ihn semantisch verschleiern und das eigentliche Unwissen über ihn in ihm verbergen� Doch nicht nur sind Gegenstand und Stil untrennbar miteinander verzahnt, das wechselseitige Verhältnis von Wissensobjekt und Stil konstituiert diesen Gegenstand allererst� Das ist schließlich auch am zusammenfassenden Kommentar Humboldts zu seiner natur-anthropologischen Figur ablesbar� Darum beseelte die Natur ihre Söhne mit Kraft, Feuer und Lebhaftigkeit, und hauchte ihren Töchtern Haltung, Wärme und Innigkeit ein� Indeß nun die einen ihr Gebiet zu erweitern streben, bereichern es die andern mit sorgsamer Hand innerhalb seiner Gränzen� Denn der ganze Charakter des männlichen Geschlechts ist auf Energie gerichtet; dahin zielt seine Kraft, seine zerstörende Heftigkeit, sein Streben nach Aussenwirkung, seine Rastlosigkeit� Dagegen geht die Stimmung des weiblichen, seine ausdauernde Stärke, seine Neigung zur Verbindung, sein Hang die Einwirkung zu erwiedern und seine holde Stätigkeit, allein auf Erhaltung und Daseyn� Mit gemeinschaftlicher Sorgfalt verrichten sie daher die beiden grossen Operationen der Natur, die, ewig wiederkehrend, doch so oft in veränderter Gestalt erscheine, Erzeugung und Ausbildung des Erzeugten� (ÜdG-294) Progressives, kraftvolles Streben auf der einen Seite, stetiger Hang zur Verbindung auf der anderen: Die komplementären Qualitäten, die von der Natur in die beiden Geschlechter eingelagert worden sind, können (zunächst) nur im Zusammenspiel Fort-Bildung gewährleisten, ein Projekt, das als intrageschlechtlichautopoietisch beschrieben werden kann� Damit ist zugleich auch ein Schritt zur Einteilung der gesellschaftlichen Sphären unternommen, die nun diesen, aus der Natur kommenden und dadurch gleichsam naturalisierten Geschlechtern zugewiesen werden� Doch bleibt etwas dunkel: Was genau sind diese “Kräfte” und “Stärken” beider Geschlechter? Ist diese Verdunkelung nicht nur als Merkmal, sondern als Zentrum von Kunst- und Zeugungstheorien um 1800 zu begreifen? Und inwiefern liegt genau darin das Mittel zur Etablierung hegemonial-männlicher Zeugungspraxen? Vorbereitet durch den Umschwung innerhalb frühneuzeitlicher Erkenntnisweisen, die ‘das Natürliche’ und ‘das Weibliche’ als Objekte der Eroberung, Versklavung und also Aneignung konzipierten (Bordo 1986; Merchant 2008), stellt Humboldts Programm die nächste Entwicklungsstufe dieser Episteme dar, wenn darin poietisch und rhetorisch eine Geschlechtermechanik verankert wird, der die Prinzipien der Opposition, Abgrenzung und Wechselseitigkeit zugrunde liegen� Die notwendige Voraussetzung, um eine ‘naturhafte’ Gegensätzlichkeit, Wechselseitigkeit und Synthetisierung legitimieren zu können, wurde mit 296 Marius Reisener einem Paradigmenwechsel innerhalb der Embryonalwissenschaften geleistet� Dieser forderte dazu auf, über ein anderes Reden über Natur und Geschlecht nachzudenken, sodass dieser Umschwung der Episteme maßgeblich zur Entstehung des Sexualitätsdispositivs (Foucault) beitrug� Die Klärung der Frage nach dem biologischen Ursprung des Menschen, die eine Konjunktur im Rahmen der Anthropologisierung der Wissenschaften im 18� Jahrhunderts erfuhr, 2 drängte sich nicht nur aus einem wissenschaftlichen, sondern auch aus einem philosophischen und politischen Interesse auf� Die “epigenetische Neuformulierung des ‘natürlichen’ Verhältnisses der Geschlechter, aus der sich z� B� eine veränderte Auffassung der Ehe ergibt”, war dann auch eine der weitreichenden Konsequenzen dieser Diskursarbeit� Innerhalb der Philosophiegeschichte konnte dieses dualistische Ursprungsmodell als “regulative Idee in der Naturphilosophie” dienen - die Natur operiert nach dem Prinzip wechselseitiger Kräfteverhältnisse, das in der Synthese Fortschritt verheißt� Die Erweiterung naturphilosophischer Erkenntnisweisen um Begriffe wie “Kraft”, “Organismus”, “Zeugung” oder “geistiges Streben” konnte erst im epigenetischen Denken ihr volles Potenzial entfalten� Doch auch innerhalb der Sprachphilosophie kamen die begrifflichen Veränderungen, die mit der Epigentik in die naturphilosophischen Schriften Eingang hielten, zur Geltung� Der semantische Wandel, der damit eingesetzt hatte, dehnt sich bis in die Erkenntnisse und Verfahren der Sprachphilosophie selbst aus (Müller-Sievers-1993, 11)� 1781 veröffentlicht Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, ein Schüler Albrecht Hallers, die Schrift Über den Bildungstrieb und das Zeugungsgeschäft� Formuliert wird darin das Konzept der Epigenesis, deren Grundannahme zufolge “das Kind - auf weiter nicht erklärungsfähige, eben verschleierte Weise - aus unorganisiertem beiderseitigem ‘Zeugungsstoff’ unter Leitung einer bildenden Kraft zu seiner individuellen Gestalt geformt” wird (Müller-Sievers 1993, 10)� Der Begriff der ‘Bildung’ wird hier gegen die Annahmen der Präformationisten gestemmt, indem nun jedem Lebewesen der Drang zur Vervollkommnung und organischen Selbstorganisation zugeschrieben wird (Kanz 2009, 39)� Dieses Modell war wirksam auch auf molekularer, anthropologischer und natur-philosophischer Ebene� 3 Gegenüber der Präformationslehre hatte die Epigenesis daher den Vorteil, die Ähnlichkeit des Kindes mit beiden Elternteilen zu erklären, deren “Zeugungsmaterial” (Dippel 2011, 55) gleichwertig involviert ist; allerdings implizierte letztere damit auch die gleichwertige Beteiligung des Mannes und der Frau beim Zeugungsvorgang� 4 Um etwaigen anti-hegemonialen Tendenzen Herr zu werden, wurde diese Form der Gleichwertigkeit diskursiv in den Bereich der Komplementarität übersetzt: Dem Mann wurde das kreativ-bildende, der Frau hingegen das empfangend-hütende Prinzip zugesprochen, was mit einer Aufwertung des Männlichen zum Formprinzip und der Abwertung des Weiblichen Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 297 zur Trägermaterie (Müller-Sievers 1993, 31) gleichbedeutend war� Es handelt sich um eine für die Aufrechterhaltung männlicher Hegemonie typische Bewegung: Der diskursiven Differenzierung zwischen Männlichem und Weiblichem im ersten Schritt folgt eine Aneignung vermeintlich vorteilhafter Elemente des ‘Weiblichen’ im zweiten, wodurch das Projekt der Unterdrückung von Frauen (und anderen Männern) vorangetrieben werden soll� Hegemoniale Männlichkeit ist generativ und hybrid (Bridges/ Pascoe 2018) sowie appropriativ (Demetriou 2001)� In diesen Differenzierungsvorgang eingebettet findet sich schließlich die von Haller übernommene Annahme, dass es sich beim Geschlechtsakt um einen einseitig gelagerten Vorgang handle, im Zuge dessen die Gleichwertigkeit der Frau aus dem Fortpflanzungsprozess herausgeschrieben und damit eine Geschlechterphilosophie initiiert wurde, die die Aufspaltung in männliche Aktivität und weibliche Passivität massiv bedingte� Es handelt sich um einen Bruch mit tradierten Vorstellungskomplexen, der weitreichende Konsequenzen hatte und dessen Persistenz sich in der epigenetischen Physiologie einbrannte� Helmut Müller-Sievers’ Erörterungen gehen auf die Ausführungen des Pietisten und Präformationisten Haller zurück, der im zweiten Teil seiner Vorrede zur Allgemeinen Historie der Natur die Einseitigkeit des Zeugungsaktes betont, indem er den Sekreten der Sexualpartnerin die Potenz und somit der Frau die gleichwertige Beteiligung an der Entstehung neuen Lebens abspricht (Müller-Sievers 1993, 38 f�)� Kennzeichnend für die Prämissen eines epigenetischen Zeugungs- und Bildungstriebs ist zugleich, dass er nicht angeben kann (oder muss! ), wie genau der jeweilige Beitrag der beteiligten Geschlechtspartner aussieht� Allerdings ist diese Lücke nicht etwa als Makel epigenetischer Zeugungstheorie, sondern geradezu als ihr Zentrum anzusehen (Willer 2005, 128 f�)� Die Idee semantischer Unterbestimmtheit, die Interpretationsräume eröffnet, rhetorische Migrationsbewegungen und eine Verzeitlichung der Begriffe begünstigt, ist kommensurabel mit den begriffsgeschichtlichen Überlegungen zur Epochenschwelle um 1800 (Koselleck 2006, 77-85)� Der semantische Wandel fängt im letzten Drittel des 18� Jahrhunderts an sich durchzusetzen, bis er sich um 1800 voll entfaltet, und kann, so David Wellbery, “mit Blick auf die Embryologie als Ablösung der Präformationstheorie durch das Konzept der Epigenesis” gekennzeichnet werden (Wellbery 2002, 20)� In seinen literatur-, philosophie- und wissenschaftshistorischen Dimensionen ist die Ausprägung des semantischen Wandels auf dem gesamten Gebiet der Literatur um 1800 zu spüren (Kanz 2009, 34) und verändert merklich nicht nur die Themenwahl der Autorinnen, sondern auch ihr schriftstellerisches Selbstverständnis, wie an Begriffen der “Autonomie”, “Originalität” oder “Zeugung” ersichtlich wird (Schabert/ Schaff-1994, 11 f�)� Die 298 Marius Reisener Verhandlung solcher “Selbstzeugungsfiguren” - inklusive ihrer Vergeschlechtlichung - innerhalb poetologischer und philosophischer Texte beeinträchtigt maßgeblich Literatur und Wissenschaft� Mit dem Genie widmet sich Humboldt in dem ersten seiner ‘Geschlechter-Aufsätze’ einer der wohl prominentesten Figurationen der Vereinigung sich wiederstrebender und doch wechselseitig beeinflussender Naturkräfte: 5 Die geistige Zeugungskraft ist das Genie� Wo es sich zeigt, sey es in der Phantasie des Künstlers, oder in der Entdeckung des Forschers, oder in der Energie des handlenden [sic] Menschen, erweisst es sich schöpferisch� Was seiner Zeugung das Daseyn dankt, war vorher nicht vorhanden, und ist ebensowenig aus schon Vorhandenem oder schon Bekanntem bloss abgeleitet� […] Was hingegen das ächte Gepräge des Genies an der Stirn trägt, gleicht einem eigenen Wesen für sich mit eignem organischen Leben� […] Denn jedes Werk des Genies ist wiederum begeisternd für das Genie, und pflanzt so sein eigenes Geschlecht fort� (UdG-276f�) 6 Das Genie ist die Figur, an der das Prinzip natürlicher Vereinigung beispielhaft dargestellt wird, seine Genese dient Humboldt als Vorlage für eben jene Zeugungs- und Vereinigungsprozesse von Mann und Frau� Humboldt kehrt hier die Kausalverhältnisse um und positioniert das Genie an die zentrale Stelle neuzeitlicher Pro-Kreativität� Als sinnhafter Ausgang, auf den alle Vereinigungsprozesse abzielen und aus dem alle Zeugungsakte hervorgehen, kann lediglich das mann-menschliche Produkt des Genies gelten� So weit, so bekannt� Der zweite Horen-Aufsatz Über männliche und weibliche Formen ist weitaus aufschlussreicher in Bezug auf die poiesis seiner Zeugungs-Theorie� Hatte Humboldt noch im Geschlechts-unterschied die naturphilosophischen Zusammenhänge vom unendlichen Spiel der Kräfte mit dem Spiel der Geschlechter gleichgesetzt und umgekehrt die geschlechtlichen Dichotomien als Erklärungsstütze für dieses Naturbild bemüht, zielt er in dem nachfolgenden Horen-Aufsatz auf die ästhetischen Dimensionen, also auf die Formen des Geschlechterverhältnisses ab� Maßgeblich dafür ist die Idee menschlicher und ästhetischer Vollkommenheit, die in der Erfahrung nicht gegeben ist� Vollkommenheit wird als Desiderat gedacht, das in der Synthese seiner beiden Bestandteile, Stoff und Form, erreicht werden soll� In der Vereinigung dieser grundlegenden Prinzipien, die auf die polar organisierten Geschlechter verteilt wurden, scheint das angestrebte Ideal erreichbar� Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit finden ihre Entsprechungen in den ästhetischen Begriffen der “Form” und des “Stoffs”, jenes als Übergewicht rationaler Bestimmtheit in den schärferen Konturen des Mannes erkennbar, dieses als Betonung des Gefühlsbereichs an den weicheren Linien und sanfteren Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 299 Zügen der Frau ablesbar, wie sie unverkennbar aus den Überlegungen zu epigenetischen Zeugungsprozessen nachhallen� Eingangs lautet es bei Humboldt: Unverkennbar wird bei der Schönheit des Mannes mehr der Verstand durch die Oberherrschaft der Form (formositas) und durch die kunstmäßige Bestimmtheit der Züge, bei der Schönheit des Weibes mehr das Gefühl durch die freie Fülle des Stoffes und durch die liebliche Anmuth der Züge (venustas) befriedigt; obgleich keine von beiden auf den Nahmen der Schönheit Anspruch machen könnte, wenn sie nicht beyde Eigenschaften in sich vereinigte� Aber die höchste und vollendete Schönheit erfordert nicht bloß Vereinigung, sondern das genaueste Gleichgewicht der Form und des Stoffes, der Kunstmässigkeit und der Freiheit, der geistigen und sinnlichen Einheit, und dieses erhält man nur, wenn man das Charakteristische beider Geschlechter in Gedanken zusammenschmelzt, und aus dem innigsten Bunde der reinen Männlichkeit und der reinen Weiblichkeit die Menschlichkeit bildet� (mwF 296f�) Das Ideal vollkommener Schönheit ist in Humboldts Denken als eines konzipiert, das sich der Vereinigung beider Prinzipien - ästhetisch: Form und Stoff; geschlechtlich: Mann und Frau - unendlich annähert� Die Betrachtung der Idee im Geiste ist dabei insofern handlungsstiftend, als die Kluft zwischen Wirklichkeit und Ideal die Betrachterin dazu motivieren soll, auf die diesseitige Vereinigung hinzustreben, da es “das Gesetz der endlichen Natur ist, nur vermittels der Schranken zum Unendlichen aufzusteigen” (UdG-312)� Als empirisch realisierte Form der Idee absoluter Vollkommenheit ist geschlechtliche Schönheit als weltliche Entsprechung der ästhetischen Kategorien zu verstehen; Form und Stoff bzw� Mann und Frau müssen in vereinender Überwindung gedacht werden und gelten Humboldt als “Mittel zur Vollkommenheit” (mwF-372)� Die zunächst aus gleichgestellter Wechselwirkung hervorgehende Vollkommenheit, wie sie am Ende der Humboldtschen ästhetisch-anthropologischen Überlegungen aufzuscheinen scheint, mag auf die Überwindung geschlechtlicher Polaritäten hinauslaufen� Doch das Gegenteil ist der Fall� Im Formen-Aufsatz macht sich das zunächst dadurch bemerkbar, dass Form (Männlichkeit) gegenüber Stoff (Weiblichkeit) privilegiert wird� Das wird allein an Humboldts Überlegungen zum männlichen Körperbau - als Teil des Formen-Aufsatzes - evident: Schon von selbst stimmt der männliche Körperbau fast durchaus mit den Erwartungen überein, die man sich von dem menschlichen Körper überhaupt bildet […]� Auch der partheiloseste Betrachter muß gestehen, daß der letztere mehr den bestimmten, der männliche dagegen den allgemeinen Naturzweck alles Lebendigen ausdrückt, die Masse durch Form zu besiegen� (mwF 306 f�) 300 Marius Reisener Das “genaueste Gleichgewicht”, das Humboldt noch kurz zuvor zwischen Stoff und Form zur Einhaltung von vollendeter Schönheit monierte, wird auf ein Form-Primat umgestellt, das Masse - also Stoff - bändigen soll� Die Aufwertung des Männlichen zum Prinzip und damit die Aufwertung dieses Prinzips selbst ist kennzeichnend für den epigenetisch informierten Diskurs der Zeit, und so kann Humboldt das Männliche zum All-Menschlichen hypostasieren� Die Erhöhung der Form ist die Erhöhung des Männlichen� Diese Aufwertung liest sich widerstandslos entlang des epigenetischen Diskurses� Doch ist das Problem männlicher Kunstproduktion damit für Humboldt noch nicht gelöst� Für das Projekt männlicher Hegemonie, und das heißt für die Aneignung weiblich kodierter (biologischer) Zeugungsfähigkeit, ist es im Humboldtschen Verständnis vonnöten, Form und Stoff auf die Seite ästhetischer Kunstproduktion zu verlagern� Dazu vollzieht er - avant la lettre, aber freilich unter falschen Vorzeichen - eine Trennung von kulturellem und biologischem Geschlecht� Formgenese ist lediglich Männern vorbehalten, doch müssen sie zugleich den Stoff verwalten, sich ihm also annehmen� Aufschlussreich in dieser Hinsicht sind die Hinweise aus Humboldts erstem Horen-Aufsatz, der geistig-ästhetische mit biologischer Zeugungskraft analogisiert: “Auch in der geistigen Zeugung nehmen wir nicht bloss dieselbe Wechselwirkung, sondern auch denselben Unterschied zweier verschiedner Geschlechter wahr” (UdG- 279)� 7 Anders formuliert: Auch geistige Zeugung, per definitionem männliches Handlungsfeld, ist durch die Wechselwirkung der ihr inhärenten Geschlechtlichkeiten gekennzeichnet� Dichterisch-ästhetisches Ideal ist nur in der Einheit der polaren Eigenschaftsbereiche erreichbar, sodass diese Schrifterzeugnisse dann als Zeugnisse des “uneingeschränkten Gleichgewicht[s] der ‘Naturen’ der Menschen” einstehen� Realweltliche Figuration einer geglückten Vereinigung beider Aspekte ist das Genie� Und obschon aufgrund Humboldts Annahme wechselseitiger Kräfte auch hier (theoretisch) männliche und weibliche Genies existieren (müssten), ist diese Gebilde erstens von einem pro-maskulinen Desiderat unterlegt, das sich zweitens aus der Differenzierung von sex und gender herleiten lässt� 8 Kulturelle Geschlechtlichkeit - Phantasmen von Männlichkeit bzw� Weiblichkeit - kann sich in die poetischen Produktionsweisen von biologisch als männlich bzw� weiblich gekennzeichneten Akteuren einschreiben� Leitdifferenzen von Geschlechtlichkeit - Rationalität/ Intuition, Form/ Stoff, Vernunft/ Gefühl etc� -, wie sie Humboldt aus der Natur und deren Wechselseitigkeit ableitet, stehen ihm nunmehr als Begriffe zur Beschreibung ästhetischer Produktionsweisen zur Verfügung; die allerdings nur Männern als exklusiven Trägern von Produktionsautorität: Spontaneität (“Selbsttätigkeit”) und Rezeptivität (“Empfänglichkeit”) dienen ihm dazu, zwischen männlich-spontanen (etwa Vergil, Dante und Aris- Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 301 toteles) und weiblich-rezeptiven (etwa Homer, Ariost und Platon) zu differenzieren� Es geht um die Modifikation des künstlerischen Schaffensprozesses, der entweder in ein mann-männliches (d� i� intellektuales) oder mann-weibliches (d� i� unbewußtes) Prinzip sich ausdifferenziert (Dippel 1990, 99)� Als ästhetisches und idealisiertes Korrelat zum ‘ganzen Menschen’ (Schings 1992) sieht Humboldt in dem Genie eine Figur realisiert, deren künstlerische Schöpfungen denjenigen biologischer Zeugungsakte entsprechen� In Anlehnung an das von Kant und Moritz entworfene Konzept der Autonomieästhetik und die darin enthaltene Geniekonstruktion ist auch das Humboldtsche Genie als eines zu verstehen, das geistig von äußeren Zwecken und Normen frei agiert und dessen Hervorbringungen mit Schöpfungsprozessen der Natur vergleichbar ist� Das anthropologische Ganzheitsideal kann im Genie erfüllt werden, da nur das Genie Stoff und Form im Kunstwerk zu synthetisieren in der Lage ist� Anders ausgedrückt ist das biologisch männliche Genie dasjenige Wesen, das paradoxerweise Geschlechterdifferenz in sich vereinigt� Das autonome Genie wird männlich gedacht, und seine Produktionsweisen entsprechen organischen Schöpfungsprozessen� Als autogames Geschöpf bringt es Kunstwesen hervor, die ex nihilo aus dem Genie emergieren und sich selbst reproduzieren� Auf diese Form der intrageschlechtlichen Appropriation folgt schließlich eine zweite, und zwar die der Natur� Denn es sind die “Kräfte beider Geschlechter […], aus deren Händen die Natur ihre letzte Vollendung empfängt” (ÜdG 295)� Bereits John Locke verwieß auf den Zusammenhang Arbeit, Eigentum (“property”) und Aneignung (“appropriation”), sofern sich der direkte körperliche Kontakt als Spur im Eigentum abzeichnet (Breithaupt 2002, 43)� Vollendete Natur entsteht für Humboldt nur in ihrer Aneignung durch das hybrid-männliche Genie� Und das heißt auch: Ein Reden über Natur muss seither dem Verdacht unterstehen, Aneignungspraktiken zu betreiben� Die sozialgemeinschaftliche Wirkmacht, die für Humboldt von dem Schaffen des Genies ausgehen soll, wird evident, wenn Humboldt dem Genie erst dann Anerkennung zuspricht, sobald es sich in den Willen des Allgemeinen stellt, so dass es folglich “seine subjektive Vorstellungsart generalisieren müsse, um seinem Werk eine objektive Aussagekraft zu verleihen” (Dippel 1990, 101)� Da das Genie keinen starren Regeln gehorcht, sondern Gesetze vielmehr hervorbringt - “Durch seine Natur schreibt es Gesetze vor” (UdG-275) -, werden männlichen Kunstpraktiken maximale, normative Gestaltungskraft zugesprochen� Die Geschöpfe schaffen Wirklichkeit� Vermännlichte Genialität geht hier bereits als zentrale Steuerungskategorie von modernen Bildungs- und Schreibweisen in die ästhetischen Diskurse ab 1800 ein und reguliert Kunstproduktion� 9 302 Marius Reisener An dem Wissensobjekt des naturalisierten Geschlechts offenbart sich die wissenschaftshistorisch paradoxe Situation des ausgehenden 18� Jahrhunderts, wenn Humboldt von der zuvor erläuterten genialischen zum biologischen - bei Humboldt ‘natürlichen’ - Zeugungsakt zurückleitet: “Wie unbegreiflich nun auch das Geschäft der Zeugung ist, so wird doch soviel wenigsten klar, dass das Erzeugte aus einer Stimmung des Erzeugenden hervorgeht, und, wie vorzüglich die Producte des Genies auffallend zeigen, derselben ähnlich sind” (UdG- 277)� Das Erkenntnisobjekt verweist durch die Art und Weise seiner Hervorbringung auf ihren [sic] Erzeuger� Das Erzeugte - hier: die Erkenntnisweise selbst - konnte gezeugt werden nur durch die Feder und das Gesetz des Genies, Humboldt selbst� 10 An Humboldts Textverfahren lassen sich schließlich paradigmatisch diejenigen Bewegungen ablesen, an denen sich das Selbstverständnis der Autoren des 18� Jahrhunderts sowie ihre Geniekonzeptionen zeigen� Erstens ist hier die Idee einer quasi-göttlichen creatio ex nihilo eingelassen, die die Genieproduktionen als autarke Geschöpfe ohne Ursprung auszeichnet, die zweitens im Sinne autogamer Praxen sich selbst und ihresgleichen hervorbringen; und drittens ist dieser als rein homosozial-männliche verstandene, isolierte und autogame Zeugungsvorgang der gegenseitigen Befruchtung homosozial-inzestuös aufgeladen und somit als für Frauen unzugänglich markiert� 11 Damit ist der Beweis angetreten, dass es sich weder rein um Praktiken handelt, die von Positionen innerhalb der Geschlechtermatrix ausgeübt wird� Noch geht es lediglich um die diskursive Produktion dieser Positionen� Vielmehr lässt sich nun von der poietischen Produktionsweise dieser Positionen als weitere Faktoren männlicher Hegemonie sprechen� An der Figur des Genies kristallisiert sich dieses Erkenntnisvorgang, der zugleich als autogame Praxis beschrieben wird� “An diesem Charakter einer grösseren Anmuthigkeit, als man Sie von der bloss menschlichen Bildung erwartet, ist die Weiblichkeit überall ohne Mühe erkennbar” (mwF 304)� Frauen als Objekte 12 zu erkennen, zu definieren und sich anzueignen - bei dem, was Humboldt hier, als selbstinszeniertes Genie betreibt, handelt es sich um eine vermännlichte Appropriationspraxis die homosozial-intern verwaltet und zwischen-männlich tradiert werden soll� Humboldts Textpraxis markiert die Zäsur moderner Geschlechterpolitik, die einerseits als generatives Prinzip und andererseits im Modus der Aneignung funktioniert� Die Hervorbringung der Gegenstände als textuelle Praxis ist selbst Teil hegemonialer Männlichkeit und bleibt als exklusiv homosozialer Vorgang nun ausschließlich Männern vorbehalten� Poiesis als Form der Hervorbringung von Wissensformen ist Teil hegemonial-männlicher Praktiken und wird mit Humboldt zur mann-männlichen Selbstzeugung� Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 303 Das Neue (von) der Natur seit Humboldt ist dann das Reden an ihrer Statt, genauer, die Redeweise, ihre Hervorbringung als eine männliche: Die Aneignungsbewegung des zuvor als solche konstruierten und anschließend ausgelagerten Natur-Weiblichen als Produktionsweise auch des Männlichen macht die poiesis zum vermeintlichen Nachrichten-Agenten der Natur� Wollen sich die Humanities nicht komplizenhaft am Projekt der Aneignung von Natur zeigen, sollte es darum gehen, den Gegenstand nicht als anzueignenden zu verdoppeln, sondern eine andere, außertheoretische Verfahrensform zu finden, um über Natur (und damit auch Geschlecht) zu reden� Schreiben und berichten über Natur muss sich dessen bewusst sein; das gilt auch für neuere Formen des eco-criticism, für ein Reden vom Anthropozän (Crutzen) oder von Gaia (Latour) - auch sie wären auf ihre poiesis zu befragen� Ob diese Theorien oder etwa auch Donna Haraways Chthulucene, Elizabeth Povinellis Geontologies, Timothy Mortons mesh oder Lauren Berlants ambient citizenship dies einlösen können, bliebe zu zeigen� Notes 1 Die Einheit der dualistischen Naturkräfte kann wiederum nur durch die Einheit der dualistischen Geschlechterkräfte verstanden werden� 2 Diese Wissenschaften vom Menschen wurden umgekehrt maßgeblich von der Kategorie “Geschlecht” bestimmt, indem sie als Faktor der Ausdifferenzierung beansprucht wurde� Der darin angelegte Zirkelschluss ist mehr als offensichtlich (Honegger-1991, 3, 6)� 3 Humboldt war mit der Idee des Bildungstriebs (nisus formativus) als universellem Formprinzip spätestens seit der Begegnung mit Goethe, eventuell sogar bereits seit seiner Studienzeit vertraut (Dippel 2011, 23 ff�)� 4 Degradierte die Präformationslehre noch die Mutter zur bloßen “nichtverantwortlichen Trägerin der Generationen” aufgrund des Konzepts der Einschachtelung allen Lebens im Ei der Mutter, wonach die Generationen - eine auf die andere folgend - ähnlich organisiert sind wie die berühmten russischen Puppen, waren nun also die Erbmaterialen beider Eltern vonnöten (Müller-Sievers-1993, 33-52)� 5 Das Genie ist alleinschaffend, nur zur organischen Zeugung bedarf es des Weiblichen: “Die Erzeugung organischer Wesen erfordert daher eine doppelte, eine auf Wirkung und eine auf Rückwirkung gerichtete Stimmung, und diese ist in derselben Kraft und zu gleicher Zeit unmöglich” (UdG-277)� 6 Die latente Vermännlichung wird hier auch auf grammatikalischer Ebene durch das generische Maskulinum sowie auf figürlicher Ebene durch die vermeintliche Beweislast proto-maskuliner Gestalten angezeigt� 304 Marius Reisener 7 Die natürliche Zeugung ist deshalb hier eingelagert, weil Humboldt unnachgiebig die “Wechselwirkung” als Motor aller Naturvorgänge beschreibt und sie analog auf Geschlechter und Ästhetik überträgt, etwa: “Achtung für alles wirkliche Daseyn, und Streben, demselben eine bestimmte Gestalt nach eigner Willkühr zu geben, bezeichnen überall den weiblichen und männlichen Charakter, und so erfüllen sie beide dadurch gemeinschaftlich den grossen Endzweck der Natur, die unaufhörliche Wechselwirkung der Form und des Stoffes” (UdG-291)� 8 Diese Ausrichtung ist nicht als ‘männliche Teleologie’ zu verstehen, wie sie noch in der frühen Neuzeit maßgeblich für den Unterschied der Geschlechter war� In diesem “Ein-Geschlecht-Modell” (Laqueur) wurde zwar auch zwischen männlichen und weiblichen Eigenschaften differenziert, dennoch gab es keine festen Grenzen, wodurch ein offenerer, spielerischer Umgang mit den Geschlechtern möglich war� Um 1800 werden diese Unterschiede absolut gesetzt und sind manifest in einer polaren Ordnung, die Mann und Frau als Gegensätze denkt� Somit ist diese Bewegung nicht als Teleologie zu verstehen, da künstlerische Originalität und Zeugung für Frauen schlicht nicht möglich ist (Schabert/ Schaff-1994, 12)� 9 “Die Literatur um 1800 insgesamt zeugt davon, daß und wie gewandelte Vorstellungen von menschlicher Reproduktion mit tiefgreifenden Veränderungen ästhetischer Theoriekonzepte oder sogar Umkonzipierungen des gesamten Literatur- und Kultursystems zusammenhingen, die wiederum zu neuartigen Werkstrukturen und neuen Formen künstlerischer Kommunikation führten” (Kanz 2009, 34 f�)� 10 Im Zuge ihrer Erforschung werden Zeugende und ihr Gezeugtes also als Unerforschliches bekräftigt: “So gesehen ist die Rede von einer generativen Kraft oder einem generativen Vermögen (faculte) eine Strategie der Virtualisierung, die ganz gezielt eine Stelle der Unbestimmtheit in das Verständnis des Zeugungsakts einfügt” (Willer 2005, 129)� 11 Diese Techniken der Selbst-Komplettierung und Autarkie männlicher Poeten beschreibt Christian Begemann im Bild der Kopfgeburt: “Adaptiert der Poet im Paradigma der strikten Naturalisierung seines Tuns die mütterlichen Qualitäten eines Gebärenden und eines Aufziehenden [ ], so werden diese in der Vorstellung der paternalen Kopfgeburt männlich umkodiert� Der Einschluß genuin weiblicher Fähigkeiten trägt Züge einer Komplettierung des Männlichen um das, was diesem von ‘Natur’ aus fehlt, Züge aber auch einer Aneignung, die mit dem Ausschluß der Frau aus dem männlichen Schöpfungsakt einhergeht und der Autarkie des Mannes dient” (Begemann 1999, 237)� Auto(game)-Poiesis bei Wilhelm von Humboldt 305 12 Der menschliche Körper ist immer schon materieller Träger von Einschreibeprozessen, auch klar bei Humboldt: “Schon in dem bloss körperlichen Theil seines Wesens findet er [der Mensch] mit unverkennbarer Schrift dasjenige ausgedrückt, was er in seinem moralischen zum Daseyn zu bringen streben soll” (ÜdG 271)� Zu den textstrategischen Verfahren Humboldts, die an dieser Stelle von Interesse sind, sei allerdings noch eine Anmerkung erlaubt: Auch diese Körperzeugungsfigur, das Be-Zeichnen des menschlichen Körpers durch eine tendenziell maskulinistische Praxis, kann so als interne und selbstreferenzielle männliche Geburtsphantasie gelesen werden� Ist Schreiben als männliche Praxis gekennzeichnet, dann findet sich auch in diesem Bild eine 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Theorien und Metaphern ästhetischer Produktion in der Neuzeit� Ed� Christian Begemann and David E� Wellbery� Freiburg i� Br�: Rombach, 2002� 9-36� —� “Das Gesetz der Schönheit� Lessings Ästhetik der Repräsentation�” Was heißt ‘Darstellen’? Ed� Christiaan L� Hart Nibbrig� Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1994� 175-204� Willer, Stefan� “‘Eine sonderbare Generation’: Zur Poetik der Zeugung um 1800�” Generation. Zur Genealogie des Konzepts, Konzepte von Genealogie� Sigrid Weigel et al� Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2005� 125-56� Vogl, Joseph� “Poetologie des Wissens�” Grundthemen der Literaturwissenschaft: Poetik und Poetizität� Ed� Ralf Simon� Stuttgart: Metzler, 2018� 460-74� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm Paul Dobryden University of Virginia Abstract: This article examines a set of films from the Weimar period that thematize urban nature from a hygienic perspective� In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, solutions proposed by hygiene experts to make cities both more and less natural were implemented on a wide scale in Germany, resulting in transformations of urban infrastructure and municipal administration� Knowledge of hygiene, transmitted in part through film, also changed the way individual city dwellers perceived and inhabited their environment�- Im Strudel des Verkehrs- (1925), a traffic safety film, and- Die Stadt von Morgen-(1930), a film on urban planning, both portray the project of urban hygiene as replacing a ‘natural’ state of urban conflict with organic harmony; and both work to bolster their audiences’ confidence in the experts and agents of the state tasked with designing and regulating the urban organism� The leftist newsreel-Zeitprobleme. Wie der Arbeiter wohnt-provides an economic analysis missing from the other two films� Keywords: Weimar cinema, urban planning, traffic safety, educational film, public health “Unsere Vorfahren waren seit undenklichen Zeiten Waldmenschen; wir sind Häuserblockmenschen� Daraus allein schon erklärt sich der unwiderstehliche Naturtrieb des Großstadtbewohners hinaus ins Freie, aus der Staubmühle des Häusermeeres ins Grüne der freien Natur�” Camillo Sitte, Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen (1909) 310 Paul Dobryden “Die tiefsten Probleme des modernen Lebens quellen aus dem Anspruch des Individuums, die Selbständigkeit und Eigenart seines Daseins gegen die Übermächte der Gesellschaft, des geschichtlich Ererbten, der äußerlichen Kultur und Technik des Lebens zu bewahren - die letzterreichte Umgestaltung des Kampfes mit der Natur, den der primitive Mensch um seine leibliche Existenz zu führen hat�” Georg Simmel, “Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben” (1903) To some observers in the era of industrialization, cities were the antithesis of nature; to others, they were far too natural� Among the former, there were both enthusiasts and critics� The metropolis could represent culture’s triumph over nature, its capitalist abundance a liberation from the relative scarcity of the pre-industrial world� Critics, while sharing a view of the city as fundamentally artificial, lamented its lack of green spaces, the separation of country and city, and the decline of purportedly more natural forms of community� Just as often, however, critics of urbanization pointed to the city’s excessive naturalness� The mortality rate in cities was higher than elsewhere for much of the nineteenth century (see Labisch 143); migration to cities interrupted traditional networks of community-based care; unregulated factory work damaged lungs, skin, and bones; and diseases spread easily in crowded housing and poor sanitary conditions� While appearing superficially unnatural, the urban environment nonetheless exerted a powerful grip on the bodies of its inhabitants, and in this sense reproduced the impositions of nature� Social relations were no different� As a spatial expression of capitalist development, critics portrayed the city as the site of an animalistic Existenzkampf driven by greed and self-interest, and therefore as base and brutal as any found in (non-urban) nature� In this article, I will examine a set of films from the Weimar period that thematize urban nature from a hygienic perspective� In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, solutions proposed by hygiene experts to make cities both more and less natural were implemented on a wide scale in Germany, resulting in transformations of urban infrastructure and municipal administration� Knowledge of hygiene, transmitted in part by films such as the three I consider below, also changed the way individual city dwellers perceived and inhabited their environment� The first two films fall under the category of Kulturfilm, a specifically German genre of quasi-documentary educational film that encompassed a number of sub-genres such as “ethnographischer Film, Kolonialfilm, Reisefilm, Naturbeobachtungen, biologisch-medizinische Unterrichtsfilme sowie ‘Lehrfilme’ für nahezu alle Lebens- und Wissensbereiche” (Kreimeier 68)� Specifically, I discuss Im Strudel des Verkehrs (1925), a traffic safety film, and Die Stadt von Morgen (1930), a film on urban planning� Both portray the project of urban hygiene as replacing a ‘natural’ state of urban Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 311 conflict with organic harmony; and both do their part to bolster their audiences’ confidence in the experts and agents of the state tasked with designing and regulating the urban organism, though from different perspectives� The leftist newsreel Zeitprobleme. Wie der Arbeiter wohnt (1930), which I analyze in the final section of the essay, likewise deals with the environmental conditions of the modern metropolis, but provides an economic analysis missing from the other two films� But what is - or, rather, what was - hygiene? Today, the term evokes primarily the practice of individual cleanliness, the hygienic care of the self and the home� In the context of nineteenth-century responses to urban epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis, and other diseases, hygiene took on a public dimension that became essential to its meaning during the period I consider here� 1 Inspired in part by Edwin Chadwick’s Sanitary Movement in England and given further impetus by Robert Koch’s bacteriological discoveries, urban hygiene achieved its first important successes in Germany with sewer construction and municipal trash removal, which had demonstrable benefits for the cities that implemented them� As the threat of epidemics receded somewhat, hygienists extended their field of intervention and proposed guidelines for structuring everyday life as a whole� In 1911, the International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden offered extensive exhibits on “Air, Earth, Soil, Water,” “Settlements and Dwellings,” “Nutrition and Food-Stuffs,” “Clothing and Care of the Body,” “Professions and Trades,” “Traffic,” and other topics� As Friedrich Lenger writes, urban hygiene “covered all aspects of urban planning and development, it comprised infrastructural modernization as well as the equipment of apartments or specific settlement structures” (96)� While gradually reducing the urban mortality to a rate comparable to (or below) that in rural areas, hygiene experts achieved a crucial role in the administration of city government, such that, according to Beate Witzler, “die Erhaltung der Gesundheit in den großen Städten wurde zum Leitmotiv einer Diskussion über soziale Reform, die Hygiene zur Leitwissenschaft der kommunalpolitischen Praxis” (11)� As Witzler’s book demonstrates, hygiene’s influence on and position within city government took various forms, from informal cooperation between city leadership and planners with experts in medicine, chemistry, and bacteriology, to the appointment of official Gesundheitskommissionen, Stadtärzte, and Schulärzte� Cities were also the driving force behind the construction of new hospitals in the late nineteenth century, as well as the modernization of existing ones� Large cities also typically maintained their own offices for disinfection; building inspection and certification; and bacteriological, chemical, and food testing� During the Weimar Republic, many cities founded Gesundheitsämter that unified these various forms of municipal public 312 Paul Dobryden health intervention� Hygiene thus became a defining aspect of urban daily life in the early twentieth century, influencing both the practices of individuals as well as the construction and maintenance of the urban environment itself� Moreover, cities were crucial sites of knowledge production, where experts formed institutions, worked across disciplines, and tested theories� This broad understanding of hygiene accords with the notion of social engineering elaborated by historian Thomas Etzemüller, which he describes as a “transnationalen, Disziplinen übergreifenden Versuch, mit künstlichen Mitteln eine verlorene natürliche Ordnung der Gesellschaft wieder zu erschaffen, indem man eine alle gesellschaftlichen Bereiche durchdringende, vernünftige soziale Ordnung entwarf” (30)� Urban hygiene promised to give order to the city and make it manageable, and the order it envisioned would be as natural as it would be artificial� In response to the ambivalence of nature with regard to critiques of urbanization, important city planners, architects, engineers and others in the early twentieth century reconceived the city as an organism� On one hand, the biological model of the organism offered an answer to the city’s perceived separation from nature; while a city may lack green spaces, its interlocking systems of housing, production, traffic, waste removal, and so on, sustain life processes and could be said to possess a kind of natural organicity� At the same time, form was key to the biological notion of organism; calling the city an organism meant drawing attention to its social and spatial unity, (and thus) countering the image of a formless and purposeless struggle for existence between individuals� 2 More than merely describing the city, however, the organic model provided a basis for diagnosis and intervention� In his 1873 lectures “Über den Werth der Gesundheit für eine Stadt,” the chemist and pioneering hygienic thinker Max von Pettenkofer defined health in functional terms: “Gesundheit im Allgemeinen ist eine Summe von organischen Functionen unseres Körpers, deren harmonisches Verhältniss und schmerzloses Zusammenwirken es uns leicht macht, die Zwecke des Lebens zu verfolgen” (1)� This conception of health, based on an understanding of the individual body as an organism, provided a foundation for hygienic expertise across the natural and applied sciences, from chemistry and physics to architecture and engineering� 3 Sociology and statistical demographics also offered crucial resources for understanding the social dimensions of health (see Moser and Fleischhacker)� Projecting this organic-functional conception of health onto the city, urban hygienists saw cities not as unnatural but as organisms out of balance� Through a combination of technological, social, and political interventions, hygiene experts promised to restore a natural balance and organic cohesion to modern society that had been disturbed by industrialization� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 313 Taken together, all three films work with a visual idiom of ‘urban nature’ to register profound dissatisfaction with capitalist economic relations and their urban environmental effects� The first two films I discuss, Die Stadt von Morgen and Im Strudel des Verkehrs, illustrate how hygiene was envisioned and promoted through a narrative of nature disturbed and then restored: urban hygiene promised to return harmony both to social relations and relations between human beings and nature - relationships that modernization had thrown out of balance� At the same time, we see how hygiene appealed differently to lay and expert audiences� Targeted at a mass urban public, Im Strudel des Verkehrs offered viewers a smoothly functioning city in exchange for obedience to the rules of traffic; speaking more to urban planners and administrators, Die Stadt von Morgen promised the expert audience power over both the unruly masses and powerful economic actors whose pursuit of profit threatened the health of the urban organism� In both films, however, while promising order and social cohesion, the matter of capitalist economy largely remains subtext� In Zeitprobleme, the leftist filmmaker Slatan Dudow takes up the theme of public health grounded in a class analysis of the industrial city, thereby contesting the claim that hygiene, on its own, would be able to produce a harmonious urban organism without addressing economic relations under capital� The 1930 city-planning film Die Stadt von Morgen visualizes the city as organism� Directed by a pair of architects, Maximilian von Goldbeck and Erich Kotzer, and funded by a collection of state, regional, and municipal groups, the film introduces its audiences to modern concepts of regional and city planning� It is structured simply, with the first half dedicated to a critical summary of how urbanization had actually proceeded since the nineteenth century, while the second half envisions an ideal city as it could develop if planned properly� Film historian Thomas Elsaesser ascribes Die Stadt von Morgen to a loose sub-genre of Kulturfilme associated with modern architectural movements of the 1920s, in which “auf exemplarische Weise das Dokumentieren von sozialen Zuständen, das Zeigen von technischen Prozessen und das Propagieren von architektonischen Lösungen miteinander verknüpft sind” (388)� Though representations of urban space abound in Weimar cinema, most (including the second film I will discuss) view it from street level� Die Stadt von Morgen is exceptional in the extent to which it takes its viewer above the fray in order to grasp the city as a coherent whole embedded within the surrounding region� In so doing, we see how urban hygiene pictures an ideal of organic growth whose preconditions must be established through rational planning� The first sequence begins by showing how “unsere Städte und besonders die Großstädte [ ] zu dem wurden, was sie sind: Häusermeere, voll Lärm und 314 Paul Dobryden Qualm, ohne Sonne und Luft�” Die Stadt von Morgen initially frames its intervention within a narrative of modernity alienated from nature� The film’s first images are of a panorama of rolling farmland, a cattle-drawn hay wagon, and a picturesque village, along with the intertitle: “Ruhig und beschaulich lag das Städtchen�” The subsequent urbanization is depicted with a mix of animated aerial views of an exemplary city, population statistics, and illustrative documentary inserts, which serve as visual evidence of what has gone wrong� Typical of landscape preservation and urban reform discourse of the period, these images show crowded train platforms, landscapes despoiled by coal mining, smokestacks and Mietskasernen, children playing in streets and Hinterhöfe� The aerial animations, meanwhile, depict runaway development that crowds out urban green spaces and covers the city in a layer of soot� An intertitle proclaims: “Diese Großstadt macht gesundes Wohnen unmöglich! Nimmt den Menschen den Zusammenhang mit der Natur! Lässt Generationen an Leib und Seele verkümmern! ” Here, nature means green nature, “die freie Natur,” which the first generation of green urban planners saw as vital to the maintenance of human health and sought to restore to industrial cities in various ways (see Lachmund 20-26)� Alongside this depiction of the city’s artificiality in opposition to green nature, however, the film also depicts the process of urbanization as altogether too natural� The animations and intertitles suggest that the problem is not urban development as such - the film is subtitled “Ein Film vom Städtebau” after all - but development without a plan (“planloses Bauen” or “systemlose Entwicklung”)� In the animations, buildings pop up like weeds, colonizing whatever available space is most convenient in the moment� The wild, unchecked growth of the city is driven by unthinking self-interest: economic considerations lead industries to crowd around natural resources, workers to crowd around factories, developers to build on former green spaces, train tracks to be laid on the most direct paths, and so on� This critique of urbanization echoed that of a number of important regional and urban planners, such as Robert Schmidt, who helped pioneer regional planning in the Ruhr area� For such planners, writes Ariane Leendertz, nineteenth-century urbanization had led to cities that were characterized by “eine[m] Verlust an Form, die einzelnen Elemente im Raum hatten begonnen, einander zu ‘stören’, und es fehlte an ‘Ordnung’ und ‘Übereinstimmung’” (130-31)� One senses an implicit rejection of liberal economics in this critique, but couched in functional-biological language that avoids direct reference to political economy and maintains the scientific authority of the expert planner� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 315 Figure 1 City planners proposed to give cities form; in conceptualizing urban form, however, they turned to the model of biological organism� The city would be an organism whose plan would be laid out in advance, but whose subsequent growth would proceed naturally� The second half of the film depicts this process: “wie bewusster Gestaltungswille die Entwicklung der Stadt hätte leiten können�” We first see the overhead map of the small city whose development turned sour the last time around, returned to its original form� Then, however, an iris transitions to an even larger map of the entire surrounding area, including neighboring cities and the various waterways, railways, and roads that connect them� Before a plan can be made, the planner requires a holistic knowledge of the geographic, economic, and even geologic characteristics of the region� The planner’s exhaustive research is represented by a montage of maps revealing different aspects of the terrain, and statistical tables of economic and demographic data� Returning to the comprehensive map, a male hand enters the frame and draws the new urban plan, designating areas for industry, residential development, roads, railways, a freight depot, an airport, recreational green spaces, agriculture, and forestry� 316 Paul Dobryden Figure 2 Thus far, the film has worked to provide the viewer with a holistic view of urban development as well as a confidence in the experts who should be tasked with guiding it� According to Leendertz, producing order meant first that urban planners had to create an image of the whole; quoting Robert Schmidt, she writes, “Staat und Verwaltung hatten sich den neuen, modernen Zeiten anzupassen, mussten das ‘Zeitalter der Froschperspektive’ hinter sich lassen und dem ‘Zeitalter der Luftschiffahrt und der Vogelperspektive’ gerecht werden” (131)� In the spirit of social engineering’s desire for rational transparency, Die Stadt von Morgen translates the planner’s statistical and cartographic image of the city into cinematic terms� I am tempted to call the film’s use of large-scale animated maps an attempt to offer a literal Vogelperspektive, but they possess a stability, exemplarity, and legibility that aerial photography would not achieve� Instead of indexical authenticity, the animated maps reduce the city to an abstract image of the interlocking systems that determine its life and growth, like an anatomical illustration� The city is presented as knowable and therefore manageable, for those with the proper maps and statistics� At the same time, the film only shows each map or table partially, and cuts quickly from one to the next, suggesting that a detailed understanding of the urban organism is beyond the capacity of the average viewer� We are meant to leave planning to the planners, with an awareness that their work is based on extensive empirical data� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 317 Once the plan is drawn, “planvoll entwickelt sich jetzt die Stadt�” Housing and industry develop separately and within limits; recreational green spaces and surrounding nature preserves are easily accessible; public transportation connects homes with factories, while industrial and express traffic is routed to avoid passing through residential and business zones� Allotted its proper place within the whole, each of the urban organism’s sub-systems performs its work without interfering with the others� An intertitle declares: “Bewusste Gestaltung, nicht mehr ‘das freie Spiel der Kräfte’ schafft so ein organisches Stadtgebilde�” The urban planner’s design guarantees the orderliness of life in the city, as a now-absent God once guaranteed the order of nature� The “Stadtgebilde” is an artificial organism, ordered in its spatial form and growth in time� Die Stadt von Morgen’s vision of urban organicism stands in implicit opposition to a sense, shared across lines of political division, that industrial cities were profoundly disordered� This sense is crystallized in the film’s ironic invocation of ‘das freie Spiel der Kräfte,’ a phrase originally associated with critiques of liberal free market economics, but which by 1900 was also deployed to signal the purported meaninglessness and disorder implied by a Darwinian worldview� For the anti-liberal right, unregulated capital upset divinely ordained - and therefore natural - hierarchies within human society, while Darwin threatened to undo the very notion of a natural order planned by God� From this perspective, the “Stadtgebilde” proposed in Die Stadt von Morgen could appeal as a way to maintain social hierarchies within a pseudo-natural order modeled on the organism� From the left, some accused Darwin of projecting a liberal economic ideology onto nature in positing a universal “struggle for life” between individuals, providing scientific cover for structures of exploitation that were in no way natural� 4 In this light, the promise of urban hygiene lay in its call to subordinate profit to the biological necessities of those living in the city: their need for housing, sunlight, clean air and water, and green spaces for recreation� At the same time, the organic model offered an image of naturalness rooted, at least potentially, in cooperation and solidarity rather than competition� The way the film compresses time when demonstrating urban growth is crucial to Die Stadt von Morgen’s depiction of the city as an organism� In speeding up relatively slow processes to make them visible to the viewer, the film’s animations resemble time-lapse photography, which was popular in the Weimar Kulturfilm for showing processes of organic growth� In an article on slow-motion and time-lapse photography in an anthology of texts by Kulturfilm producers, K� Krüger noted that the effect provided “einen guten Gesamtüberblick über sehr langsam verlaufende Erscheinungen” and had been used to produce images “vom Entstehen der Kristalle, vom Aufblühen der Blumen [ ] neuerdings sogar von der Entwicklung der Lebewesen in Eiern, vom Wuchern der Krebszellen, von 318 Paul Dobryden chemischen Reaktionen, von der Wirksamkeit der weißen Blutkörperchen, dem Wachstum neuer Gewebe [ ]” (193)� Time-lapse images of plant growth were especially popular, such that the 1925 film Das Blumenwunder built a feature-length story around them (see Blankenship)� Analogous to the regional maps that allow the viewer to grasp the city as a coherent geographical whole, Die Stadt von Morgen’s time-compressed sequences of urbanization lend these processes a semblance of orderliness� By adapting a technique associated with organic growth, the film depicts planned urban development as both natural and controlled� Die Stadt von Morgen’s final minute shows the results of urban planning in human terms� We leave the animated map behind in favor of images of people in idealized urban surroundings: “Hier kann der Mensch in sonnigen und luftigen Wohnungen ein gesundes Leben führen, in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang mit der Natur�” In every shot, the built environment contains elements of (green) nature - people stroll along a tree-lined street, a couple tends to chickens being raised in a courtyard, families relax in gardens and grassy yards� Images of young children and babies recur insistently� The final five shots of the film consist of a toddler on a blanket, a baby playing in a large outdoor crib, two shots of a group of babies playing on a blanket in the grass, and a baby in a carriage in front of a row of flowering bushes� These images reveal the biopolitical thrust of urban hygiene, which sought to remake the city in service of improving the health - and ultimately the size - of the population� Given the previously unthinkable numbers of young men killed and injured in WWI, malnutrition due to rationing and food shortages, and deadly epidemics at home and on the front, health and population became central to discussions of Germany’s postwar recovery� If Germany’s economic (and, implicitly, military) power relied on the strength of its laboring population, urban hygiene proposed to strengthen the nation through rational planning� As with its notion of an “organisches Stadtgebilde,” however, it is important to stress the political multivalence of Die Stadt von Morgen’s concluding images of a healthy population� On one hand, the film heralds an industrial city in which everyone, regardless of class, might have access to living conditions adequate to their biological needs and enjoy the type of healthy life promoted in hygiene discourse� On the other hand, the period’s racial imaginary could have inflected how viewers understood who belonged to ‘the population,’ as well as who was most valued within that population� With its primary focus on living conditions rather than bodily degeneration, Die Stadt von Morgen shows its indebtedness to a pre-war tradition of social reform, but by 1930 this tradition was on the wane� “Compared to the first decade of the twentieth century, the discourse on social hygiene had changed by the early 1930s,” note Moser and Fleischacker� “The disconnection of social hygiene from progressive social reform was accompanied Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 319 by the rising influence of medical-biological thinking on social hygiene” (156)� Die Stadt von Morgen’s final shots of healthy, happy children thus also resonate in a context of post-WWI anxiety over birthrates, the demographic composition of the German population, and the racial ‘degeneration’ (Entartung) associated with urban modernity� Examining health as an effect of hereditary factors and constitution, racial hygienists imagined health in opposition to ‘sickliness,’ ‘frailty,’ and congenital physical and cognitive disabilities, whose incidence within the population they wished to reduce� Racial hygienists, too, advocated for the “introduction of favorable hygienic conditions for the industrial and urban population,” as Alfred Ploetz wrote in 1910, precisely because the city’s unfavorable conditions were thought to cause racial degeneration (qtd� in Weiss 208)� Die Stadt von Morgen does not explicitly deploy the language of racial hygiene, but its concluding emphasis on non-disabled, white children does not foreclose reading the film in these terms� One’s understanding of whom the city was for, and of who would or should benefit from its healthy functioning, depended on how one imagined its proper inhabitants and their place within a national Volkskörper� As Michael Cowan writes, Weimar-era filmmakers like Walther Ruttmann and Svend Noldan, who produced Die Stadt von Morgen, used “film itself as a medium of biopolitical intervention,” making films that sought to improve the health of the population by spreading hygienic knowledge (100). This goal is more readily apparent in films that offered viewers advice about how to conduct their everyday lives, with regard to household cleanliness, sexual health, or accident prevention (as in the film I discuss in the following section)� Die Stadt von Morgen does not provide hygiene advice of this kind, and, although the directors made overtures to a mass public, Jeanpaul Goergen notes that the film was mainly shown for audiences with a professional interest in urban planning (116)� From a hygienic perspective, it is more important that the average viewer wash their hands than conceive of themselves as part of an urban organism (though this might help them understand why handwashing is good); the intended audience is more plausibly the educated and political classes that would have the power, directly or indirectly, to help produce an organically functioning city if they viewed it as such� By contrast, the traffic safety film Im Strudel des Verkehrs aims to provide practical advice for a broad audience, as indicated by its subtitle: “Ein Film für Jedermann�” Framed as a pedagogical lecture addressed to its audience, the film consists of short scenes, by turns comic and tragic, which demonstrate both proper street conduct as well as the consequences of disregarding the rules of the road� Written by Willy Rath and directed by Leo Peukert for Ufa’s Kulturfilm division, Im Strudel des Verkehrs premiered in November 1925� While Die Stadt von Morgen depicts urbanization as an organic process that proceeds in 320 Paul Dobryden an orderly fashion once the planner has done his work, Im Strudel des Verkehrs shows how the urban organism must be kept in balance through myriad acts of individual self-discipline, and, failing that, police enforcement� Rather than cartographic abstraction, the film shows us how the city works at street level� Following a brief introduction by the film’s internal narrator, Im Strudel des Verkehrs begins with a comic depiction of motorization’s effect on the urban environment� “Welteroberer Motor schuf in kaum 25 Jahren das Zeitalter des Kraftverkehrs,” the narrator announces� We see a street from the year 1900, in which pedestrians wonder at the appearance of an automobile; the film then flashes forward to the present, where cars surround a bewildered old man like sharks circling prey in the water� This dystopian image, however comic, is reinforced by the image that follows� “Auf seinem Wege um den Erdball kam Moloch Verkehr,” an intertitle states, “auch zu uns�” A monstrous incarnation of traffic - a giant robotic figure apparently composed of automobiles and train cars, animated in stop-motion - invades a busy metropolitan square and collapses, halting the flow of vehicles and pedestrians� This introduces the film’s central concern: “Der nicht ganz gebändigte Riese zeigt uns dennoch täglich und stündlich seine Schreckensgestalt: den Unfall! ” Together, these introductory scenes contain the ambivalence with regard to nature that I described above: on one hand, motor traffic disturbs an earlier, more harmonious and thus more natural way of life; on the other, motorization is depicted as a terrifying Naturgewalt beyond human control� The latter image is what allows it, and hygiene discourse more generally, to describe the injury and death that occurs in city streets as accidental� By portraying traffic as an inevitable part of city life, death on the street is naturalized� The film’s concern with accidents places it in the realm of hygiene discourse, though this may not have been obvious to its contemporary viewers� While hygiene experts had successfully raised public awareness of epidemic diseases and how to prevent them from spreading, some warned that accidents had not received nearly enough attention� In an article arguing for the use of film to promote accident prevention, Curt Thomalla noted that “Governments, public utility organizations of every kind, technical and professional associations and the schools regard it as their duty to cooperate in safeguarding public health and in spreading the necessary doctrines throughout the length and breadth of the land� The same, however, does not apply to the prevention of accidents� The mass of the people are unfamiliar even with the use of the term; it has no exact meaning for them�” (954) This was the case despite the fact that “the totality of accidents claim [sic] more victims and result in a larger number of deaths than the gravest epidemics” (954)� Thomalla was a physician and an important figure in Ufa’s Kulturfilm division as founder of its Medical Film Archive (see Killen, Homo Cinematicus)� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 321 In the years after the war, Thomalla collaborated on numerous public hygiene films, on topics such as malnutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, infant care, and more� By the late 1920s, Thomalla understood accidents as part of the larger project of hygienic reform, and served as the organizational director of the 1928 Reichs-Unfallverhütungswoche in Hamburg, a weeklong event devoted to accident prevention� Thomalla gathered thirty films for the event that addressed the problem of accidents in the workplace, at home, and on the street (Thomalla 951-53)� In 1924, the psychologist Karl Tramm argued that film and other visual propaganda could prevent accidents and save lives if they answered the following questions “in auffälliger und allgemein verständlicher Weise”: “1) Wie ereignen sich Unfälle, 2) wodurch werden Unfälle verursacht, 3) wie können Unfälle durch überlegtes Denken und Handeln vermieden werden? ” (149)� Inspired by campaigns in the United States and England, Tramm suggested numerous strategies for raising and maintaining awareness of the dangers of accidents, from standardized warning symbols and simple Schlagworte (like “safety first”) to emotional appeals and comic exaggeration (particularly for youth)� Im Strudel des Verkehrs employs all of these, addressing the variety of ways one might put oneself or others at risk on the road, whether as a pedestrian, a driver, or a passenger� The film cautions children against playing in the street; urges pedestrians to use sidewalks and crosswalks; warns drivers not to speed or consume alcohol; and admonishes train and streetcar passengers for attempting to board or exit vehicles while they are still moving� The tone careens wildly from comic vignettes of distraction or carelessness - such as when someone discards a banana peel on the street, causing a man to slip and nearly be run over - to scenes of tragic recklessness, including a woman who commits vehicular manslaughter and subsequently kills herself� In the course of the film, we learn the standardized gestures used by the Schutzpolizei (Schupo) to direct traffic, as well as handy rhyming mnemonics for pedestrians� By imparting rules and techniques for preventing accidents in specific situations, Im Strudel des Verkehrs aims to provide knowledge that is directly useful to its viewers� Like Die Stadt von Morgen, however, the film labors to convince the audience of the efficacy of hygienic intervention guided by expert knowledge - in the first place, this means establishing the legitimacy of film itself as a pedagogical tool� Following the Moloch Verkehr sequence, an intertitle informs us that “Praktische Propaganda, der z� B� in New York [ ] das Zurückgehen der Verluste an Kindesleben von 30 auf 16 monatlich zu danken ist, belehrt jetzt auch die deutschen Schulkinder�” A “besonders beauftragte[r] Polizeioffizier” then presents a traffic safety film to a class of schoolchildren, providing commentary as it plays� 322 Paul Dobryden Figure 3 For educated German audiences, film was still of dubious pedagogical value, and, like Tramm in his plea for safety awareness campaigns, Im Strudel des Verkehrs highlights the apparent efficacy of such propaganda in the U�S� In pedagogical contexts, it was common for Kulturfilme to be accompanied by a lecturer, whose expertise could guide the audience’s understanding of the film� In this scene, the presence of the police officer assuages anxiety over the filmic medium’s dangerously suggestive influence, ensuring that the pupils will avoid rather than imitate the bad behavior they witness on screen� For those watching Im Strudel des Verkehrs, this function is served by the internal narrator, who declares at the beginning of the film “Ich habe vom Polizeipräsidium, Berlin, den ehrenvollen Auftrag, Ihnen einen Vortrag zu halten�” At the end of the classroom scene, the children rush to the podium to shake the police officer’s hand� In addition to promoting the use of film as a tool for urban hygiene pedagogy, the film assures us of the competency and goodwill of traffic police� Bolstering trust in experts and those responsible for producing and maintaining order was a central feature of urban hygiene projects, and the management of traffic was no different� 5 One of Im Strudel des Verkehrs’ longer sequences depicts the training and testing of prospective traffic police� We see one recruit at a tachistoscope as a training officer tests his speed at recognizing signals; another officer explaining one-way streets to a group of recruits in front of a massive scale model of the center of Berlin; recruits practicing gestures to Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 323 guide traffic; and finally training on a mock intersection with real pedestrians, carriages, and cars� These scenes aim to bolster confidence in the authority of the police and the rules of the road, which constitute a regulating superego with regard to the otherwise natural disorder of the street� The Dortmund police, which had edited their own copy of Im Strudel des Verkehrs for use in schools, saw traffic safety education as an opportunity to improve the image of police generally in the eyes of children� After an outdoor safety lesson near a police station, the class would be invited to tour the premises� “Das Motiv dieser Einladung,” the head of the Dortmund Schutzpolizei explained, “liegt darin, Polizei und Jugend einander näher zu bringen� Die Jugend soll einmal einen Einblick darin erhalten, was moderne Polizei bedeutet, sie soll zum andern erkennen, daß die Polizeiunterkunft nicht die Höhle des Löwen ist, sondern daß die dort wohnende uniformierte Polizei zu ihren besten Freunden rechnet” (Kade 594)� Im Strudel des Verkehrs likewise pursues the double strategy of offering lessons in traffic safety while also legitimizing the authority of those imparting it� After learning about how traffic police are trained, we see them in action, in two staged scenes that reveal another dimension to the film’s view of urban traffic as excessively natural� The film cuts from the police training field to shots of cats and dogs fighting: “[S]o lieben sie sich: Fußvolk und fahrend Volk�” This is followed by two scenes of traffic conflict resolved by police� In the first, presumably set in the nineteenth century, two women converse in the street and block the path of a horse-drawn carriage� The two parties argue until “Herr Wachtmeister” arrives to sort things out� We then witness an identical scene set in the present, in which the carriage is now a car and the Wachtmeister is a modern Schupo� By framing the sequence with fighting animals, traffic is portrayed as a site of natural aggression, in which the egoistic pursuit of self-interest leads to conflict� At the same time, as domestic animals, dogs and cats can potentially be tamed by an external authority� The traffic cop thus functions to ensure the smooth flow of traffic by taming the selfish, animalistic impulses of pedestrians and drivers� The policeman is an agent of culture that mediates between conflicting interests, enforcing lawfulness against the threat of descent into the Darwinian struggle for life� Seen at a distance, as in the film’s opening, traffic appears as a force of nature whose risks can only be managed, not eliminated� On the ground, as in this sequence, Im Strudel des Verkehrs portrays traffic accidents as the expression of a sometimes brutal war of all against all that characterizes urban life, but which can be tamed by the introduction of a cultural superego� In these two vignettes, at least, the dynamics of traffic regulation are gendered� Both depict women disturbing traffic by engaging in activities more suited to the domestic sphere: in the first, gossiping; in the second, applying makeup� Urban authority, by contrast, is embodied by male figures� The sequence offers 324 Paul Dobryden one example of the many ways that gender structured hygiene discourse, and how women were conceived as subjects in special need of hygienic education, particularly in matters of household labor, sexuality, and the care of children� While most of these concerns related to the role of women in the home, Im Strudel des Verkehrs shows how women’s exclusion from the public sphere put them under special hygienic scrutiny when they appeared there, as well - in this case, because they were presumed to be unfamiliar with navigating urban traffic, akin to children playing in the street� In this way, the film implies that the transition from nature to culture on the urban street involves internalizing a hygienic gaze that is coded as masculine� Ultimately the film wishes to inculcate such a superego in its viewer, first by modeling ways that pedestrians can (literally) watch out for others, and then by encouraging self-critique� In an early scene, a man catches a woman as she falls out of a passing streetcar, and teaches her a rhyme that explains the correct way to disembark� However, the man is infatuated to the point of distraction, and must in turn be rescued by a young boy, who teaches the man how to properly cross the street� This scene and others like it display ordinary pedestrians acting as traffic cops, watching out, helping in moments of need, and educating others� Furthermore, the man’s watchfulness in one moment and distraction in the next emphasize the need for constant self-monitoring and the repression of instinct� Later, an extended comic sequence depicts a man from the country unsuccessfully attempting to navigate Potsdamer Platz, engaging in one risky gambit after another� We are encouraged to laugh at this rube, whose knowledge of modern traffic is obviously inferior to ours� The sequence ends, however, with a clever reversal of the gaze, when the lecturer says: “Ja, meine Damen und Herren, Sie belächeln diesen unbeholfenen Provinzler� Hand aufs Herz - handeln Sie nicht manchmal ebenso kopflos? ” Andreas Killen’s summary of the Weimar-era response to the problem of workplace accidents applies equally to traffic, and this film in particular: “Accident safety meant internalizing a new gaze, one that was, first and foremost, directed inward” (“Accidents Happen” 84)� Through adopting such a gaze, the film implies, culture can replace nature both at the individual level and with regard to traffic as a whole� At the same time, the film implies that self-discipline and vigilance is what will integrate society into a balanced and harmonious whole - in other words, it will help produce the city as functioning organism, rather than a field of conflicting interests� As Fack writes, quoting traffic safety evangelist Wilhelm Vonolfen, “Der Gemeinschaftsgeist, das soziale Eingliederungsvermögen der Einzelpersönlichkeit galt allgemein als Grundvoraussetzung erfolgreicher Verkehrserziehung� Als Mittel zur Verwirklichung der Gemeininteressen in einer ‘organischen Plan- und Zweckmäßigkeit’ wurde die Bildung des Einzelnen gesehen [ ]” (272)� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 325 The film’s final image stresses the individual’s Eingliederung into society as a whole� As if to test our skills of visual apprehension like the traffic police undergoing psychotechnic training earlier in the film, the internal narrator asks: “Und nun zum Schluß - schenken Sie mir noch einmal Ihre gespannteste Aufmerksamkeit für die nun folgenden Worte�” We then see a composite shot� A traffic cop stands in the center, stretching the entire height of the frame, while smaller scenes of traffic are superimposed on each side of him; the superimposed scenes sometimes overlap, but no collision interrupts the smooth flow of pedestrians, cars, carts, streetcars, and trains� All the while, to the policeman’s right, as if looming behind him, the faint image of a skeleton plays a violin� Text fades in around the policeman, summarizing the film’s message: “Allein schaffen wir es trotzdem nicht! Helfe jeder durch Besonnenheit und Aufmerksamkeit - dann wird es keinen Unfall mehr geben�” These final words emphasize traffic safety as a collective endeavor, while the surrounding traffic montage offers an image of the city as a well-functioning (if complex) organism� The authority and expertise of the traffic police work together with the specter of death to mediate conflicting interests and ensure the orderliness of urban space� Figure 4 Urban hygiene’s organic rhetoric helped give it an apolitical facade� The idea that urbanization did not necessarily have to be in conflict with nature helped blunt criticisms of capitalism, and health appealed as an ideal across the political spec- 326 Paul Dobryden trum� Die Stadt von Morgen and Im Strudel des Verkehrs both maintain an apolitical front, proposing an apparently universal, technocratic vision of an organically functioning community� Of course, urban hygiene was political in its appeals and effects� It drew on a widespread dissatisfaction with unfettered capitalism and industrialization, whose urban environmental effects had become so tangible� Its benefits were material and could be broadly enjoyed, especially by those who bore the brunt of industrialization’s health impacts� Perhaps even more fundamentally, it helped expand the field of the political by articulating and publicizing what we now call questions of health and environmental justice� From a different angle, we might say urban hygiene contributed to the biopoliticization of society, whereby populational health became an object of surveillance and management by experts and the state� While producing modern hygienic subjects, urban hygiene also left the stratification of society along lines of class, gender, and race largely unquestioned� The notion of an urban organism naturalized social segmentation and hierarchy, but in a way that masked social antagonism, implying that particular groups were like organs with specific roles to fulfill in in the shared interest of the organism as a whole� As we have seen in Die Stadt von Morgen and Im Strudel des Verkehrs, urban hygiene films provided audiences images of this larger organism and helped them internalize the rules proper to their place within it� In this concluding section, I will examine an explicitly political film, Slatan Dudow’s Zeitprobleme: Wie der Arbeiter wohnt, which adapts themes and tropes of more mainstream hygiene rhetoric in order to contest them in key ways� Dudow’s 1930 short film was intended to be the first installment of a newsreel series for Weltfilm, a film production and distribution company founded by the Internationale Arbeiterhilfe. With Soviet assistance, the IAH and its director Willi Münzenberg worked to build a modern left public sphere, and film was a central part of those efforts (see Silberman)� Dudow’s Zeitprobleme offers an instructive contrast to the films discussed in the previous sections, by revealing the particularity of those films’ organic urbanism, as well as the broad circulation of hygiene discourse, which, as Corinne Treitel writes of biopolitics generally, was “immensely flexible in its goals and political alliances” (10)� Zeitprobleme aims to document the poor living conditions in working-class neighborhoods, opening with the intertitle: “In den Mietskasernen der Millionenstadt müssen sich mehrere Familien eine lichtlose, ungesunde Wohnung teilen� Feuchte Kellerwohnungen rauben dem Arbeiter die Gesundheit� Den Kindern vernichtet das Wohnungselend die Lebenskraft�” Before documenting unhygienic worker housing, the film offers an economic context, emphasizing the rampant unemployment and rent increases in the midst of the world economic crisis� A series of brief sequences follows - working-class and bourgeois neighborhoods in Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 327 Berlin juxtaposed through editing; unhealthy tenement courtyards and a crowded, shallow pool for children, which intertitles refer to ironically as “die Gartenanlagen für Proletarier” and “unsere Ostsee,” respectively; a comparison between the lives of a working-class family and their landlord; and, finally, an eviction enforced by the police� While containing many images of tenement housing and courtyards similar to those seen in Die Stadt von Morgen, Dudow’s film interprets these conditions as an expression of class exploitation� In Die Stadt von Morgen, the overcrowding and poor hygiene of working-class housing are portrayed as emerging naturally in the course of unplanned urbanization; in Zeitprobleme, they are part of a human story of exploitation, in which there are perpetrators and victims� Formally, Zeitprobleme’s use of editing distinguishes it from the other films I have discussed so far� In the spirit of Eisensteinian montage, editing is used to create conflict rather than smooth it over, which ultimately gives the film a fundamentally different temporality than Die Stadt von Morgen or Im Strudel des Verkehrs� Two sequences stand out in this regard� In the first, the film cuts between shots of long rows of tenement housing, framed on the right, and a pleasant “Villenviertel” of modern homes with grass and trees, framed on the left� Editing thus creates an imaginary space of confrontation, with hygienic urban design on the ‘left’ and the working-class neighborhoods on the ‘right’ - spaces that are actually segregated in the urban landscape but brought into conflict through filmic means� Figure 5 328 Paul Dobryden Figure 6 The second likewise joins two scenes separated in space, a working-class family sharing a meal in a dark basement apartment, while their landlord bathes and feeds his dog� The dog, ironically, is given more hygienic care than the family, implying that capitalist greed has turned the natural order on its head� In both sequences, the film points to actually existing contradictions, a stark contrast to how similar images are ordered in the more typical hygiene films� Die Stadt von Morgen, for example, arranges its images of ‘bad’ and ‘good’ environmental conditions into a historical progression - unplanned urbanization has led to an unhygienic present, but a hygienic future can be achieved through careful planning� There is no such narrative of hygienic progress in Zeitprobleme� The science of hygiene may reveal a particular dimension of how capitalist exploitation is expressed, but cannot alone provide the solution� This is reflected in the film’s attitude toward expertise and state authority as well� Unlike the other films, Zeitprobleme is unconcerned with bolstering confidence in hygienic expertise� Expert knowledge is useful to the extent that it can diagnose inequalities of health and their intersection with environmental conditions, but the film does not portray urban hygiene as a success story of modernization� At most, it has been a success only for some, not for the majority� Police, likewise, do not function to mediate conflicting interests, but to uphold class domination� At the end of the film, a family is evicted from their Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 329 apartment, and when a neighbor attempts to resist, police arrive to remove him and enforce the landlord’s property rights� Zeitprobleme foregrounds existing social tensions while refusing to imply that medical expertise or agents of the state could resolve them� Anticipating his work with Bertolt Brecht on the film Kuhle Wampe, Dudow argued in Die Weltbühne that a filmmaker “hat nicht mehr einfach die Fabel dramatisch zu steigern, er muß die für die weitere Entwicklung wichtigsten, in den Vorgängen enthaltenen Widersprüche aufzeigen” (956)� The film’s final intertitle: “Das ist keine Lösung! ” In this the film reveals its fundamentally different orientation toward urban conflict, which it figures in class terms� In the Darwinian Existenzkampf envisioned in Die Stadt von Morgen or Im Strudel des Verkehrs, conflict plays out between individual egos struggling to achieve personal advantage� The solution to such conflict involves, on the one hand, planning and regulation by mediating authorities, which present themselves as objective mediators external to the otherwise reigning war of all against all, and, on the other, the individual’s own self-discipline� Success would be measured in functional terms, according to the biological health and reproduction of the population of the whole� Conflicts internal to the healthy urban organism are immaterial, as long as they do not interfere with health and reproduction� From the perspective offered in Zeitprobleme, the organic urbanist utopia proposed in Die Stadt von Morgen would be incomplete, since the city would still be characterized by capitalist exploitation, no matter how healthy the working population might become� At best, planners and doctors and police serve to stabilize the city’s contradictory class interests, not solve them� Given its class-based view of urban conflict, nature functions differently within Zeitprobleme’s discourse on urban hygiene as well� The film contains images that, in isolation, would seem to invoke the urban Existenzkampf witnessed in other hygiene films� One sequence focuses on children, showing them at play in desolate tenement courtyards and busy streets, before the sequence’s climax depicts two children fighting in a sandy playground� While this resonates with the “cats and dogs” of Im Strudel des Verkehrs, Zeitprobleme’s economic framing of urban environmental problems ensures that we do not view this as the children’s “natural state�” Their seemingly animal aggression is thoroughly artificial, a result of the man-made conditions in which they have been forced to live� The film thus invokes nature as part of a dialectical critique of the urban environment under capitalism, or to draw attention to the working class’s lack of access to green space, as in the ironic references to “die Gartenanlagen der Proletarier” or “unsere Ostsee�” Furthermore, as an oppositional film, Zeitprobleme does not adopt the notion of an urban organism, as this would imply a false harmony between fundamentally opposed economic classes� 330 Paul Dobryden The film’s investment in health as an ideal indicates the extent to which hygiene discourse offered a language with which actors in varying social and political contexts could think through questions of collectivity, space, and the nature of the modern city� For urban planners, architects, traffic scientists, and other experts in urban space, the city’s nature was one of conflict and struggle, which was waiting to be given form through expertise and regulation - a form that would produce another kind of naturalness, that of a harmonious and balanced organism� For leftists like Dudow, hygiene could serve to articulate some of the material effects of capitalist exploitation, but images of urban nature, whether as Existenzkampf or as organism, were neither the starting point nor the goal� All three of the films discussed in this essay agree that the city should not be a site of Darwinian struggle� For the racial hygienists that would take a pivotal role in the administration of public health in Germany after 1933, urban modernity was simply not Darwinian enough� In their reasoning, the material abundance, technologies, and medical advances of modern civilization had rendered the principle of natural selection inoperative, leading to racial degeneration� The economic crisis initiated significant cuts to welfare and other public provisions, making expansive reform schemes like the one presented in Die Stadt von Morgen seem hopelessly out of reach; National Socialism, finally, foreclosed its inclusionary potential� Under the Nazis, “public health was reorganized on a racial basis” (Weindling 496)� German racial hygiene’s valorization of the ‘Nordic’ or ‘Aryan’ type as against Jewish and other European or non-European peoples, along with its devaluation of those with chronic illness or disabilities, became the principles for selective eugenic measures such as marriage bans, forced sterilization, and murder by the state� Health care, as Paul Weindling writes, was selectively applied “to promote a Nordic elite, which would lead a purged but a fitter and healthier nation to military victories� Physical capacity (Leistung) and mental vigour were the criteria for a hierarchical and functional reorganizing of society” (490)� Urban hygiene was biopolitics at one remove, which worked to reshape the material environment and the distribution of the population within it; racial hygiene operated on the population directly, striving to make race and population coincide by more or less violently removing “‘alien parasites’” and “‘cancerous growths’ in the German body politic” (ibid�)� Notes 1 On the history of hygiene discourse and its relationship to public health, see Labisch (1992) and Sarasin (2001)� Teaching Urban Hygiene in the Weimar Kulturfilm 331 2 This was common to social engineering projects: “‘Gemeinschaft’ wurde wie eine Pflanze oder ein Lebewesen als Organismus begriffen; und wenn die Zoologie den Beweis erbrachte, dass Tiere in Gemeinschaften lebten, dies also der Natur gemäß war, so konnte ‘Gemeinschaft’ als Norm auch für menschliche Verbände postuliert werden” (Etzemüller 23)� 3 On the history of the biological concept of organism as an interlocking system of organic functions in relation to its environment, see Nyhart (2009) and Toepfer (2011)� 4 In 1909, Czech biologist and historian of science Emanuel Rádl wrote of Darwin: “Im Sinne der nationalökonomischen Theorien hielt er die ganze lebendige Natur für eine Gesellschaft, für einen Staat, der aus nach eigenen Trieben handelnden Tieren und Pflanzen besteht” (129)� Friedrich Engels offers a similar account in Dialektik der Natur� 5 When carrying out housing inspections, for instance, Weyls Handbuch der Hygiene declared that inspectors “müssen als Freund und Berater, nicht als Vollziehungsbeamter zu den Leuten kommen,” and recommended that women be included as part of any municipal inspection force: “In der Wohnungsaufsicht macht sich ihre besondere Begabung, durch persönlichen Einfluß alles auf gütlichem Wege zu erzielen, [ ] die man nie von polizeilichen Organen, selten im vollen Umfange von männlichen Berufsorganen erwarten kann” (Rath 64)� Works Cited Blankenship, Janelle� “‘Film-Symphonie vom Leben und Sterben der Blumen’: Plant Rhythm and Time-Lapse Vision in Das Blumenwunder�” Intermédialités 16 (2010): 83-103� Cowan, Michael� Walter Ruttmann and the Cinema of Multiplicity: Avant-Garde - Advertising - Modernity� 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Vorträge und Aufsätze zur Städteausstellung� Ed� Theodor Petermann� Dresden: Zahn & Jaensch, 1903� 185-206� Sitte, Camillo� Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen� Vienna: Karl Graeser, 1909� Thomalla, Curt� “Film Propaganda in Favour of Protection against Accidents�” International Review of Educational Cinematography 2�7-8 (1930): 949-56� Toepfer, Georg� “Organismus�” Historisches Wörterbuch der Biologie: Geschichte und Theorie der biologischen Grundbegriffe� Vol� 2� Stuttgart: J�B� Metzler, 2011� 777-842� Tramm, Karl� “Die Verhütung der Unfälle durch Propaganda�” Industrielle Psychotechnik 1�5-6 (1924): 148-56� Treitel, Corinna� Eating Nature in Modern Germany: Food, Agriculture and Environment, c. 1870 to 2000� Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2017� Weindling, Paul� Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945� Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1989� Weiss, Sheila Faith� “The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany�” Osiris 3 (1987): 193-236� Witzler, Beate� Grossstadt und Hygiene: Kommunale Gesundheitspolitik in der Epoche der Urbanisierung� Stuttgart: F� Steiner, 1995� Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 335 Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Hunter College, CUNY Abstract: In Max Frisch’s- Homo Faber, the implicit narrator’s successful discrediting of the story’s explicit narrator leaves the reader grasping for a key to the novel’s interpretation� Walter Faber’s apparently triumphalist, strident value judgments are contradicted by his own story, but the opposing model offered by his ‘antagonist’ Hanna is ultimately not more convincing� Instead of adducing external mythological models to interpret the novel as the realization of a preordained model, this essay interprets-Homo Faber-on the basis of Faber’s dissertation topic: the (non-existent) Maxwell’s Demon� Faber must have been aware of the inevitability of entropy and thus death� His life’s work is a desperate attempt to postpone the inevitable, but he begins to realize the futility and insufficiency of this antagonism� He eventually discovers that the ‘codes’ he applies to interpreting life are insufficient and changes his outlook� In a similar way, the reader has to learn that the frequently suggested cultural ‘codes,’ most stridently the numerous allusions to classical mythology, are ultimately just as unreliable as Faber’s scientist screeds� The implicit narrator seduces the reader into a view which is almost as limited as Walter Faber’s� Keywords: Max Frisch, Homo Faber, Maxwell’s Demon, entropy, statistics, unreliable/ implicit/ explicit narrator, implied reader, semiotics, fate Max Frisch’s Homo faber 1 has become a school classic, rivaled in his oeuvre only by his parabolic Third-Reich-themed plays Biedermann und die Brandstifter and Andorra� With a print run of 4�3 million by 2004 (NZZ; also cf� Schmitz 1998, 261), Homo faber is one of the most widely read German novels of the 20th century� After over 60 years of continued reception, Homo faber has taken great strides towards passing the test of time� 2 This is partly due to the novel’s 336 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius themes as such, which are likely to remain salient in a society preoccupied with questions of identity, oscillating between consumerism and ecological despair, the promise of progress and freedom from the restrictions of nature vs� the fear and rejection of technological overreach and technological failure� The book’s unusually high standing is owed to the way in which Frisch treats these themes by bringing opposites down to individual decisions whose impact does not become palpable until it is too late to change things� The overarching theme is how humans deal with nature, by fighting it or succumbing to it as antagonists and as parts of nature� The novel as a whole does not take specific positions regarding these themes, but it permits the reader to examine them as if under a magnifying glass� In this essay I will take a closer look at a motif and theme of the book which has not found very much attention� This is the topic of Walter Faber’s dissertation, Maxwell’s demon, and the related notion of entropy� The novel succeeds by employing the notion of entropy in three ways: as an explicit theme of the narrative, as part of the diegesis of the story, and as a structuring principle of the novel as a whole� Examining this topic will lead to a clearer perspective on Faber’s personality and world view, elucidate the conflict between the explicit narrator and the implicit author and will show that the novel presents an entropic representation of an entropic world� I will first provide a brief summary of the plot of Homo faber, then describe the novel’s narrative set-up� This will be followed by an explanation of Maxwell’s demon and entropy and the role they play both for Walter Faber as a character and the structure and meaning of the novel� Homo faber is the story of a Swiss engineer and New York resident named Walter Faber, which begins a few weeks before his 50th birthday in 1957 and ends with his death a few weeks later (for the year, cf� HF 17)� During a business flight to Caracas, which is interrupted by an emergency landing in the Mexican desert, Faber finds out that the person sitting next to him is the brother of his best friend from 20 years ago, which brings up reminiscences of Faber’s earlier life� Faber learns that his friend, Joachim, had married Faber’s old love Hanna, whom he met in the context of a planned abortion after wedding plans between Faber and Hanna had gone awry� Faber decides to join Joachim’s brother, who is on his way to visit Joachim in the jungle of Guatemala� After a laborious trip through the hot and humid jungle, they find that Joachim has committed suicide� While the brother decides to stay in the jungle to finish Joachim’s project, Faber returns to New York� In an effort to escape the amorous attentions of his current lover, Ivy, Faber decides to take the boat for his next business trip to Paris� On the ship, he meets a young woman whom he calls Sabeth� The relationship eventually turns into a love affair while Faber chauffeurs Sabeth through Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 337 France and Italy so that she can return to her German mother, who lives in Athens� In the course of the affair, Faber finds out that Sabeth’s mother is Hanna, the woman he almost married some 20 years ago� Faber and Sabeth take the ferry to Greece for one last night on the beach before Sabeth is to return to her mother, but in the early morning Sabeth is bitten by a snake� With heroic effort, Faber transports Sabeth to an Athens hospital (he has no car in Greece)� While she is being treated, Faber encounters Hanna, who in the course of long talks reveals that Sabeth is his own daughter� Sabeth dies a day later, not from the snake bite, but an undiagnosed brain injury� Faber must leave Athens to finish the construction task in Caracas, which had been the cause for the journey that set the story in motion� He follows his previous itinerary visiting New York and the Guatemalan jungle� Stomach troubles make it impossible for him to work in Caracas� While sick, he writes a report to an unidentified recipient (perhaps himself) about the events of the last weeks� Then, via Cuba, Düsseldorf, and Zurich, he returns to Athens where he, partly attended to by Hanna, enters a hospital to be operated for what presumably is incurable stomach cancer� The novel ends with Faber expecting to be picked up for surgery� The first part of the book (“Erste Station,” the bulk of the novel, pages 7-160) is the report Walter Faber has written in Caracas� The narration in “Erste Station” begins in a deceptively simple way, but soon interweaves three distinct time levels: 1� the narrated time around Sabeth’s conception, told through flashbacks (up to 1936, HF 57); 2� Faber’s narrated travels from New York to the jungle, back to New York, then to France, Italy, and Greece (late March - May 28, 1957); 3� the writing/ narrating time, which is made explicit only at the conclusion of “Erste Station” via the date line, “Geschrieben in Caracas, 21� Juni bis 8� Juli” (160)� This time level intrudes repeatedly through Faber’s numerous opinionated comments and flash-forwards� Faber’s typed and handwritten notes and reflections from his hospital stay constitute the “Zweite Station,” the end of the novel (pages 161-203)� The entire novel is a peculiar type of frame narrative, with the miserable final days of Faber’s life serving as the ex-post-facto frame� The “Zweite Station” fleshes out details from preceding events and completes the story of Faber’s travels (cf� Geulen 49)� In “Zweite Station” the logical concatenation of the events leading to Sabeth’s death is replaced with the less tightly timed evolution in Faber’s world view� The frame as a metatext is weak since it provides neither addressee (170) nor an editorial note to provide a (fictional) point of leverage to evaluate the story� 3 The closest we come to an editorial note is Faber’s instructions that his papers (including his own story) be destroyed for being all wrong (199)� 338 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Throughout the book, Faber appears as a disingenuous narrator, whom the reader learns to mistrust� It is obvious that a fictional character like Walter Faber cannot truly tell his own story� There must be a hidden narrator behind him, who invented the story as well as the explicit narrator, who experiences, tells, and comments on the events of the story� The artful, educated implied author of Homo faber does his best to collude with the educated (implied) reader to undercut the explicit narrator� 4 But he only lets us know things through Walter Faber’s voice� The novel partly lives by the conflict between the explicit narrator Walter Faber and the book’s implied author, who does his best to make the explicit narrator appear unreliable in his intentions and evaluations� Max Frisch himself commented on the divergence between the two narrators: Der Witz des Buches, der Kniff […] ist ja der: Es ist fast die unwahrscheinlichste Geschichte, die man sich ersinnen kann […]� Da ist wirklich ein Zufall nach dem anderen: auf dem Schiff trifft er die Tochter; er trifft den Schwager seiner Frau [sic]� Gehen wir […] von der Kunst des Schreibens, also von der Literatur aus: Wenn ich das mit Schicksalsgläubigkeit erzählen würde, so würde jeder mit Recht nach fünfzehn Seiten auflachen und sagen: “Das auch noch! Hab’ ich’s mir doch gedacht! Und wen trifft er jetzt? ” Und da trifft er die da� - Und der Witz daran ist, daß ein Mensch, der in seinem Denken die Zufälligkeit postuliert, eine Schicksalsgeschichte erlebt� (quoted from Schmitz 1977, 17) Attentive readers might recognize already on the first pages how Faber is made to talk in incongruous absolutes (“einzig und allein,” HF 7)� They might also note Faber’s incantations of “das Übliche” which, again and again, is superseded by “das Plötzliche” (see Pütz), so that one might question how “üblich” things really can have been� The implied author makes us doubt Faber’s ingenuousness by making his commentary contradict his narration� Faber often announces what he usually does or plans to do right before doing the exact opposite� For example, he states that he does not care about dreams right before telling us one of them at length (15 f�)� He sits down to write a letter to his superior, but without further explanation writes a good-bye letter to his lover, Ivy (30)� After asserting twice that he is ready to return to Mexico City and take a plane instead of traveling with Joachim’s brother Herbert, he hangs around and goes to Palenque (34, 35)� Faber declares that he does not want to touch Sabeth during their visit to the ship’s engine room - and then he does (87)� He asks for a vacation (104) right after telling the reader that he has no idea why his boss would have recommended one (96 f�)� A variation of this approach is the direct contradiction between Faber’s words and the obvious events he describes� During his stay in the desert, Faber is winning in a chess game with Herbert when he finds out that his friend Joachim married his former lover Hanna� Faber states, “Ich ließ Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 339 mir nichts merken, glaube ich” (28)� He then proceeds to light a cigarette in close proximity to the damaged airplane and lose several chess pieces, ultimately forfeiting the game, so that Herbert asks him whether something is wrong with him� Incidents of this type multiply when Faber meets Sabeth� Faber is not sure whether the girl he sees playing ping pong is the one he had seen earlier and continues, “Jedenfalls war die andere nirgends zu finden” (71)� Without admitting it, he obviously had been looking for her everywhere� Similarly, Faber had only mentioned going to the Louvre once for an hour and not seeing a redhaired girl (99)� When Sabeth tells Faber that she observed him in the Louvre for three days in a row (100), he comments patronizingly, “Sie war wirklich ein Kind […], sie hielt es wirklich für Zufall, daß man sich in diesem Paris nochmals getroffen hatte” (100)� While in Rome, he suddenly remarks, “[Sabeths] Ähnlichkeit mit Hanna ist mir immer seltener in den Sinn gekommen” (115) - a similarity that he belittled before, when he claimed that probably any woman would remind him of Hanna (78)� The implied author undermines Faber’s credibility also by having Faber reveal his story piecemeal with flash-forwards and flashbacks� The effect is reminiscent of an analytical drama, but without the process of discovery� This leads the reader to second-guess why Faber tells the story at this point� Faber’s retelling of his almost-wedding to Hanna in three flashback installments (33, 45-48, 56 f�) makes the reader wonder if there might be details the narrator is hiding� The general distrust is enhanced when Faber announces his incestuous and ultimately fatal relationship with Sabeth in advance, in forward-looking reflections (22, 63 f�, 72 f�)� The reader observes Faber’s actions in a situation of dramatic irony because acting Faber does not realize what he does, while the information given by narrating Faber causes readers to watch him suspiciously every step of the way (Würker 55)� We cannot read about the Faber-Sabeth tryst in a romantic spirit, accepting Faber’s coy protestations about not being in love (72) and not pursuing Sabeth (73)� We expect Faber’s report to be colored by guilt feelings, justifications, rationalizations, and downplaying his active role� Faber’s sexual relationship with Sabeth (122, 125) and the events leading to her fatal accident (127-30, 150-52, 156-58) are also told in this time-lapse fashion, which is bound to arouse suspicion� We are primed to be cautious regarding anything Faber tells us� The implied author creates further distance to his explicit narrator by arranging a large web of references in the diegetic world of Walter Faber’s story for Faber to mention, but not to see� Faber lives in a “semiotic universe” (Schmitz 1998, 237) which is beyond his full comprehension and interest� A few examples must suffice: Faber never comments on the name of his “Baby Hermes” typewriter, or the “Romeo y Julieta” cigars, or the giving away of his “Omega” 340 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius watch, or the “Alfa Romeo” car whose senseless noise irritates him (all are established brand names)� Faber seems unaware what an “Erinnye” is and sees no symbolism in the observation that the sculpture seems more awake to Faber and Sabeth when their incestuous partner stands in front of the “Birth of Venus” (HF 111)� Faber is not reminded of Greek myths by his incestuous affair, his “return home” with wounded feet (132, 134 f�), his notion of being slain with an axe in the bathtub (136), or the idea of gouging out his eyes (191)� Faber does not know that the fat Tolstoy book which Sabeth reads (83) may well be War and Peace, which ends with copious ruminations on the forces that drive human destiny etc� The implied author, of course, knows all that, or at least that is what the educated reader assumes, given the wide range of themes and the large number of suggestive elements (cf� Latta’s extensive listing)� At the same time, Faber’s failure to notice these elements raises the suspicion that the failure results from denial and repression� But it is the opinionated nonnarrative intrusions which create even more distance� Faber’s disquisition on probability (22), which hints at the tragic ending, is the first utterance to interrupt the linear narrative flow, surprising the reader who does not yet know what Faber is talking about� Shortly thereafter, Faber presents a similar disquisition about not being impressed by the sight of the desert at night� He presents a highly romantic description by denying every descriptive term he uses� He simply says that he hates to be told what he should see; he knows what he sees and proceeds to undercut the images he presents (24 f�)� This denial of feelings gained via metaphor is a third element causing distance� Schmitz (1998, 225) explains this desert description as “reading practice” for the double perspective he recognizes as characteristic for the novel� For the educated reader, there is often more to events than Faber sees� When one tries to look for ‘truth’ in the pronouncements of the book’s protagonists, one will end up disappointed� All events in the book are narrated by the “Techniker” Walter Faber, who likes to state his pronouncedly rationalist opinions in binary oppositions, such as Masculine vs� Feminine; Rationality vs� Myth; Technology vs� Nature; Statistics vs� Fate; Orientation towards the Future vs� Past; USA vs� other parts of the world� Faber connects and valorizes masculinity with rationality, technology, statistics, progress, and the USA as opposed to the presumably other concepts, for which he has little use� Faber’s apodictic, masculinist (though not always consistent) views are often contradicted by the more sensitive, culturally richer Hanna, whose tendency towards a binary world view almost matches Faber’s, either by inclination or in response to his pronouncements� She provides a corrective counterpoint to Faber, but challenging Faber’s insufficient world view does not bestow correctness on her opinions� Falsification of one opinion does not verify an alternative one� As Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 341 Schmitz points out, “obwohl in Hannas Einwänden gegen das Technische ein wahrer Kern steckt, so ist doch auch Fabers Position keineswegs haltlos” (1977, 46 f�)� He summarizes, “[es] bleiben nur Standpunkte, die sich wechselseitig relativieren�” (82) In a later commentary on Homo faber, Schmitz warns against “den Mythos als Auslegungssystem, das noch immer verwendet wird, obschon es auf die Wirklichkeit der ‘Moderne’ nicht passt” (1998, 228)� Myths are no more than thought experiments which have to meet the test of a contingent reality (245)� Leber, who tries to do justice to Faber’s view, comments on the collapse of Faber’s world, “Dies geschieht mit einer Konsequenz, die sich mit der Wahrscheinlichkeitslehre und dem Wärmesatz nicht minder sinnfällig erklären läßt als mit dem Glauben an das unerbittliche Walten mißachteter Mächte” (Leber 124)� Faber’s sad fate would not be different if he adduced mythical explanatory models� There is no stringent causal link between Faber’s professed world view, his actions, and the sad turn of events, even if they can be seen as somehow “typical” (cf� Günther 14-19)� The implied author has diligently undermined the only source of information we have for the events without giving us a clear indication how Faber’s text should be understood� He has loaded Faber’s diegetic world with potential significance, but none of the subtexts are cogent enough to leave the reader satisfied� Any interpretation that tries to locate the work’s meaning within the confines of the polarities explicitly developed in Homo faber instead of transcending them is bound ultimately to fail� One popular way to find a meaning in the novel that transcends Faber’s dichotomies is to adduce additional stories and subsume the events and views in the novel under “master narratives,” be they psychological (e�g�, Horn), mythological (e�g�, Blair), or archetypical (Lubich 59- 81)� Such studies provide interesting insights into various motifs in the novel, but will always leave some unease if they claim to represent its sole meaning� 5 The topic of Faber’s dissertation, which (like so many things in his life) he did not complete, was “Über die Bedeutung des sogenannten Maxwell’schen Dämons” (33) and must have dealt with questions of energy preservation, energy loss and its statistical describability, stability of structures and machines, as well as their ultimate destruction through a process of increasing entropy� It is one of the few elements in his world which Faber does not subject to his binary polarities� “Maxwell’s demon” appears four times at pivotal points in the narration� The first mention occurs in Faber’s first explication of his past relationship with Hanna (first time level) and right before he decides to accompany Herbert to the jungle (33)� Faber then mentions Maxwell’s demon during his first longer conversation with Sabeth: “[…] sie […] gab’s nicht auf, bis sie mich zum Plaudern brachte, über […] Elektrizität, Entropie, wovon sie noch nie 342 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius gehört hat� Sie war alles andere als dumm� Nicht viele Leute, denen ich den sogenannten Maxwell’schen Dämon erläuterte, begreifen so flink wie dieses junge Mädchen […]” (74)� Faber’s choice of topic and his approving comment show his continued interest in the subject� During their last encounter, Faber's former teacher Professor O� expresses his regret about Faber’s unfinished dissertation on Maxwell’s demon (194) - a conversation Faber reports after he has already informed us in a handwritten note that Professor O� has died in the meantime (172)� In his report on his last set of flights to Athens (on the same day when he last encountered Professor O�), Faber mentions his fear that some demon could thwart the standard landing, but he brushes the thought off with a brief reference to the nonexistence of Maxwell’s demon (197)� “Maxwell’s demon” refers to a theoretical construct devised by James Clerk Maxwell in a thought experiment on the second law of thermodynamics� This law states that the entropy within a closed thermodynamic system increases and that, contrary to processes described in classical mechanics, this process is irreversible� Gases consist of molecules moving at different speeds, based on the gas’s overall temperature� 6 In the absence of lost or added energy from outside, gas molecules in a closed system will tend towards an even distribution of slowand fast-moving molecules, i�e�, a state of entropy� Now imagine two chambers filled with gas molecules� These two chambers are connected through a small opening� With equal temperatures in both chambers, the molecules would all move at the same average speed (some faster, some slower)� Imagine a mechanism, today known as Maxwell’s demon, at the small opening between the chambers that would permit fast-moving (high energy) molecules to enter the right chamber and permit slow-moving molecules into the left chamber (leading to cooler temperatures)� After a while, there would be a temperature differentiation between the two chambers caused by the mechanism; entropy would decrease� Or, to think of it in the opposite way, assume that one of our two chambers contains many fast-moving molecules, the other one many slow-moving ones� Under normal circumstances, fast-moving molecules would enter through the opening into the cold chamber, and slow-moving molecules would move into the hot chamber� Eventually, we would have an even, entropic distribution of molecules in both chambers� If there were a Maxwell’s demon between the two chambers, the leveling of energy would not take place� If the demon continually allowed only fast molecules into one chamber and slow ones into the other, one could somehow attach a heat motor and obtain a perpetual motion machine, a setup which would prevent disorder and ultimately death, which occurs when the orderly structures of life lose their energy differential with the environment� But Maxwell’s demon cannot exist in real life since it Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 343 would drain energy from the system to carry out its selecting tasks and thus would come to a standstill� Maxwell’s demon, if it existed, would identify and affect individual molecules individually� Scientists can only describe gas kinetic processes, including entropy, in a statistical manner� This necessity of a statistical approach for describing thermodynamic processes explains and corroborates (at least partially) the probabilistic world view Faber espouses repeatedly when he talks about issues of fate and probability, most pronouncedly in his excursus that interrupts the narrative flow of the story for the first time� Es war mehr als ein Zufall, dass alles so gekommen ist, es war eine ganze Kette von Zufällen� Aber wieso Fügung? Ich brauche, um das Unwahrscheinliche als Erfahrungstatsache gelten zu lassen, keinerlei Mystik […]� Es ist aber, wenn einmal das Unwahrscheinliche eintritt, nichts Höheres dabei […]� Indem wir vom Wahrscheinlichen sprechen, ist ja das Unwahrscheinliche immer schon inbegriffen und zwar als Grenzfall des Möglichen, und wenn es einmal eintritt, das Unwahrscheinliche, so besteht für unsereinen keinerlei Grund zur Verwunderung, zur Erschütterung, zur Mystifikation� (22) Faber’s position is not satisfying for the readers primed by the implied author because, as Frisch noted, Faber’s story is a “Schicksalsgeschichte” (quoted from Schmitz 1977, 17)� Statistics cannot offer explanations, only correlations, which are ‘true’ only with a sufficient sample size� Faber as a statistician can only acknowledge (“gelten […] lassen,” HF 22) the existence of the improbable, while a mythological view claims to explain it� In contrast to the commonly held interpretation that Faber considers the world as “berechenbar,” we should stress that a statistical world view does not make the world calculable for an individual; it just offers probabilities� The implied author drives the point home when he lets Faber fall back one last time on his assertive bluster: his impending surgery is 94�6 percent successful and will relieve him “von sämtlichen Beschwerden für immer” (164)� We are not amazed that Faber revises this optimistic prediction on page 198� The shortcoming of Faber’s personal statistical view of the world is well stated by Hanna who tells him that a low mortality rate from snake bite would indeed be a comforting thought if she had 100 daughters of whom only a few would die� But she has only one daughter who may be lost (136, 139)� Unfortunately, Hanna’s wise words echo Faber’s fake reasoning with Ivy when he looks for an excuse for taking the boat: “[…] was interessiert es mich, daß am gleichen Tag, wo ich ins Meer stürze, 999 Maschinen tadellos landen? ” (61; cf� Jurgensen 122, who takes this seriously)� What is worse, Hanna’s deeds belie her words� In not revealing to Sabeth the identity of her true father, Hanna fell victim to a Faber-type of statistical fallacy� It was statistically inconceivable that 344 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Sabeth would run into her own father, but it was not impossible� She simply assumed that Faber and Sabeth would never meet, as if they were in unrelated thermodynamic systems� Perhaps, an awareness of this flaw in her own thinking keeps Hanna from being more antagonistic towards Faber than she is (HF 192, especially 202)� Leber (107-26) and Horn seem to be the only two authors who deal at length with the role of Maxwell’s demon in Homo faber� They use Maxwell’s demon as an apt metaphor for the description of Faber’s blustery, faulty world view and thus follow, to a certain extent, the ground rules that the implied author has suggested� But both interpretations suffer from the assumption that Faber somehow believes that Maxwell’s demon would empower him to overcome the entropic tendencies of nature, to escape aging and to escape death� His death is a kind of punishment for this hubris� 7 But such interpretations appear questionable� It seems that “der Maxwellsche Dämon” plays a different, but no less important role in the novel than Horn and Leber have claimed� Faber’s dissertation research in the 1930s can only have led to the conclusion that Maxwell’s demon does not and cannot exist; entropy (and thus death) is inescapable� Faber’s life henceforth, in spite of his swagger, is a constant and desperate defense against entropy; it is characterized by repeated attempts to mitigate and postpone the unavoidable entropic events of disorder and death� Faber is irritated when things do not operate properly and energy is squandered in entropic processes� The very beginning of the novel describes an airplane takeoff in a blizzard with wildly (and entropically) swirling snowflakes: “[…] was mich nervös machte, war […] einzig und allein diese Vibration in der stehenden Maschine mit laufenden Motoren” (7)� Although Faber soon mentions other irritants, it is worth noting that the first one in the entire novel is a sign of entropic energy loss� Faber even looks at functioning technology in terms of entropy, when aboard the ship he muses about the vessel’s vibrations when the engines are running (79)� During his excursion to the engine room with Sabeth, Faber not only writes in easily interpretable sexual imagery (Lubich 49), but is unmetaphorically concerned with issues of energy loss, entropy, and material fatigue: “Torsion, Reibungskoeffizient, Ermüdung des Stahls durch Vibration” (HF 87)� We never watch Faber working as an engineer, but we do observe him fixing things that do not work right, attempting to slow entropy down� He usually cannot do much more than make entropy less visible, as in the many times he shaves or would like to do so (e�g�, 10, 27, 34, 41, 63, 70 f�, 104, 152, 172)� Shaving cannot stop the entropic growth of facial hair, but at least shaving can make it invisible� Faber keeps fastening the rattling jerry cans on their Land Rover (49), which he fixed before setting out into the jungle (45); he scrapes the carrion out Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 345 of the tread of their car’s tires after Herbert has driven over a dead animal to scare the vultures (50); he fixes his razor (63); he rebuilds the car engine in the jungle during his second visit to the plantation (167-69) after repairing Herbert’s glasses (166)� His wondering about the radio battery retaining its energy, when they find Joachim, belongs into this entropy-focused context (55), as does his incessant filming� We never see Faber at work creating orderly, clean electric energy because when the turbines are finally ready after many delays, Faber himself is sick from stomach cancer, an entropic, jungle-like growth inside of him which he cannot shave away, although he does not yet know that� Faber is annoyed by technical glitches such as the rattling jerry cans while they drive through the jungle: “Was mich nervös machte: das Scheppern unserer Kanister […]” (49)� He is annoyed by the malfunction of his razor (63 f�, 70 f�) or the senselessly revved-up engines of a car (Alfa Romeo) and motorcycles circling his hotel in stop-and-go fashion (123)� On the other hand, he regards functioning machines with joy since they reassure him� He claims “daß es immer Freude macht, Maschinen in Betrieb zu sehen” (86)� When he is in emotional turmoil after realizing that Hanna is Sabeth’s mother, Faber wants to operate his car to calm his nerves (121), just as he normally does after leaving a party (92)� His first urge had been to escape to the airport in Rome, whose starting and landing planes he watches from the distance in a reassuring display of functioning technology (118)� In Palenque he had noted with obvious displeasure, “Nie ein Flugzeug! ” (43)� Faber’s strident pronouncements on technology and culture must be seen in the context of his ongoing fight against energy loss� He feels underappreciated in his hopeless heroic, manly struggle against overwhelming odds� In spite of his blustering tone, his posture remains defensive� He declares the machine to be the functional equivalent of sculpture: “Die Primitiven versuchten[,] den Tod zu annullieren, indem sie den Menschenleib abbilden - wir, indem wir den Menschenleib ersetzen� Technik statt Mystik! ” (77)� In spite of his brazenness, Faber still classifies the replacement of the human body through machines as an attempt, grammatically and conceptually comparable to primitive art� He does not claim that this attempt has been or will be successful� But Faber would like to be recognized in his struggle against disorder: “[…] es ist nicht mein Ehrgeiz, ein Erfinder zu sein, aber so viel wie ein Baptist aus Ohio, der sich über die Ingenieure lustig macht, leiste ich auch, ich glaube, was unsereiner leistet, das ist nützlicher […]” (97)� Faber perceives most cultural issues in the same framework� He faults the Mayans for not having invented the wheel and for being wasteful, abandoning their cities instead of developing technology (43 f�)� He claims that the Roman aqueducts would not have been necessary if the Romans had understood the principle of communicating vessels which he has sketched 346 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius on his cigarette pack (119) - but this is a diversion after he has found out the identity of Sabeth’s mother� It takes Faber far too long to grasp the option of accepting and making the best of humanity’s limitations� A chief limitation is the human body, whose mortality is clearly suggested through Faber’s various descriptions of his mirror images (11, 98, 170 f�) and his descriptions of Professor O� (102 f�, 193)� In spite of Faber’s euphemisms, it is clear throughout the book that his body is aging, even if he is not as bad off as Professor O� Close to his end, Faber comes to the conclusion, “Überhaupt der ganze Mensch? - als Konstruktion möglich, aber das Material ist verfehlt: Fleisch ist kein Material, sondern ein Fluch” (171)� Faber’s stance towards women is a part of his fear of entropy� At best, women can be a distraction, at worst, they drag him into the life cycle, which he mostly seeks to avoid; it is too closely related to death� As the French-American Marcel remarks, “[…] la mort est femme! […] et […] la terre est femme! ” (69)� Faber’s relationship with Hanna deteriorated after she told him she was pregnant and he talked about “her child” (48)� We do not know details of Faber’s and Hanna’s love life, but after ruminations about the absurdity of human physical love, Faber comes to the conclusion, “Nur mit Hanna ist es nie absurd gewesen” (100, cf� 94)� In his relations with Ivy and Sabeth, Faber styles himself as rather passive: “Jedenfalls war es das Mädchen, das in jener Nacht […] in mein Zimmer kam -” (125, cf� 122)� Faber’s relationship with Ivy remains strangely undetermined concerning her marital and professional status (30, 64 f�, 67 f�)� We do know that Faber feels encroached upon after his assertion on the first page of the novel that he is not the marrying type (7)� Although Faber calls her “ein herzensguter Kerl” (65; cf� 68, 94 - note the masculine noun he uses to refer to her), he dislikes Ivy’s insistent sexuality after his first return to New York (57-68)� He mostly talks about Ivy in terms of a loss of control� “Es kam genau, wie ich’s nicht wollte� […] Ich haßte mich selbst - […] und es ekelte mich ihre Zärtlichkeit, ihre Hand auf meinem Knie […] es war unerträglich - […]” (62, cf� 66 f�)� Later, Faber explains that all women remind him of the clinging plant ivy, whose vines are reminiscent of jungle-like growth (91)� While any entropy upsets Faber, he reserves expressions of disgust for his description of the jungle� Even before he gets to the jungle, his excessive sweating (which controls body heat) makes him almost part of this environment (e�g�, HF 34-38)� There are the ubiquitous black vultures which tear apart all dead animals (first mention 34, last 182)� What Faber sees is not a green, miraculous wilderness, but a constant cycle of decay and (for Faber) senseless growth: “Was mir auf die Nerven ging: Die Molche in jedem Tümpel, in jeder Eintagspfütze ein Gewimmel von Molchen - überhaupt diese Fortpflanzerei überall, es stinkt nach Fruchtbarkeit, nach blühender Verwesung� Wo man hinspuckt, keimt es! ” (51 f�)� Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 347 There is no way that systems can stay in place when the overwhelming natural entropic processes in the jungle create permanent change� It is not very surprising that Faber’s friend Joachim killed himself here, and that later Joachim’s brother falls into an aimless existence, forgetting about “die Zukunft der deutschen Zigarre! ” (168; cf� 15, 42)� The brothers cannot escape from this entropic environment while Faber extricates himself as fast as he can� Ironically, when Faber returns for his second visit after his life has been turned upside down, he is pleased with the town’s apparent lack of entropy: “Das Wiedersehen mit Palenque machte mich geradezu froh, alles unverändert […]” (165)� But the apparent stability in town is countered by the changes in Herbert, who has succumbed to the temptation of jungle life (166)� While the heat of the jungle is the most obvious physical entropic attack on Faber’s corporality, Müller-Salget (103 f�) points to several instances of the opposite: shivering by Faber and Sabeth (“schlottern”), which he attributes not only to the cold, but also to a shudder in facing danger� The conflict between order and chaos, technology and the jungle informs the geographic program of Homo faber� While Faber detests the entropic chaotic growth in the jungle, it is not the only environment inimical to higher life� Faber originally sees energy loss as the chief antagonist of human existence, but he later learns that its opposite, a state of changeless order, is just as inimical to life� Life occurs where order and entropy intersect� The complete order of the two gas-filled chambers of Maxwell’s thought experiment are unsuitable to sustain human life, which is not a closed-off energetic system, but requires energetic interaction between organism and environment, the addition and dispersion of energy� New York stands as the epitome of entropy-free technology� In the early part of the story, Faber’s life in New York is somewhat ambivalent, torn between the relative impersonality of American social relations and the sexuality of Ivy� Faber is friends with Dick, his chess partner, admired and envied as “einer von denen, die uns das Leben retten könnten, ohne daß man deswegen je intimer wird -” (59)� But the distance of American-style friendship upsets Faber (like many German speakers with culture shock)� In his last night before embarking on the boat, a drunk Faber suggests that the American way of life in the 1950s may not be life-sustaining� “In eurer Gesellschaft könnte man sterben, ohne dass ihr es merkt, von Freundschaft keine Spur, […] wozu diese ganze Gesellschaft, wenn einer sterben könnte, ohne daß ihr es merkt -” (67)� The life-negating qualities of New York as seen by Faber become clearer after Faber has returned from Greece� Social life is disjointed with ritualized parties, professing friendship and sociability� The word “üblich,” which has had a reassuring quality throughout most of the book, now connotes insignificance and a stifling lack of 348 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius life for the individual (161-63): “Wenn man nicht mehr da ist, wird niemand es bemerken” (163)� The city’s skyscrapers stand like tombstones (162)� New York now is a place where Faber literally cannot find himself at home anywhere; the city remains unperturbed� His apartment is still there, but he doesn’t have a key (162)� His phone number exists, but Faber doesn’t know who the new owner is (163 f�)� His Studebaker is still in the garage, but not accessible� New York, as a “frozen” environment where nothing seems to change, prevails against entropy only as Faber’s shaving controls the growth of his beard or his filming preserves moments of life� They hide entropy or divert attention from it, and thus create only an illusion of stability; Marcel has voiced this early on, “The American Way of Life: Ein Versuch, das Leben zu kosmetisieren” (50)� Faber’s hefty tirades against “America” (and his own past: “Mein Zorn auf mich selbst! ” 176) mostly take aim at the fact that entropy is not overcome, but only glossed over� This motif crops up when Faber scrutinizes the women on board the ship while thinking of Hanna: “Amerikanerinnen, die Geschöpfe der Kosmetik� / Ich wußte bloß: So wird Hanna nie aussehen” (79)� After his last trip to Venezuela, Faber flies via Havana to avoid New York� His anger that people think he is an American (172) triggers awareness and expression of his anger at America (175), although he remains aware of his financial dependence on the US and of the fact that many Cubans dream of emigrating there (175, 179)� Faber comments negatively on American food, Americans’ pale looks, their personality, American conveniences, advertising that hides aging and death, their “obszöne Jugendlichkeit,” etc� (177; diatribe on 172-77)� Faber repeatedly refers to Americans’ vacuum between their loins, but his own attempt at intercourse ends in a “Blamage” (178), which might indicate that he has been more than superficially tainted by “America�” Faber’s stay in Cuba suggests the possibility of life between the two extremes of New York and the jungle, a humane existence in the face of entropy� 8 For the first time in the story, Faber is by himself and he has nothing to do, no project to complete, no party to attend, no friend to visit, no woman to pursue� It is not without irony that the implied author lets Faber develop this positive attitude towards life largely through interactions with pimps and prostitutes� Faber is happy just to be alive and watch things� Faber has ended his decades-long fight against entropy� It is noteworthy that he describes transitory, impressionistic scenes, often connected with light and wind (Geulen 80), unstable and somewhat entropic� Just seeing and experiencing makes him happy� “Ich hatte keinen besonderen Anlaß, glücklich zu sein, ich war es aber� Ich wußte, dass ich alles, was ich sehe, verlassen werde, aber nicht vergessen […]” (HF 180)� He even stops filming (182)� He engages in two expressive activities when he rocks and sings by and for himself (174, 181)� Singing seems to be something he picked up Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 349 from being with Sabeth, who expressed her joy of life that way (152, 191)� These activities do not fight entropy, but accept it� What may have caused Faber to abandon his technology-driven mindset? During his second visit to the jungle, he still felt the need to rebuild Herbert’s car to save him from the entropy of the jungle, although Herbert is disinterested and mocking: “Ohne Nash war Herbert verloren� Ich ließ mich nicht anstecken und arbeitete” (169)� All his work only leads to Herbert and Faber playing mock traffic jam with a propped-up car spinning its wheels, a waste of energy and labor born out of Faber’s desire to maintain order� This jungle episode is followed by Faber’s breakdown in Caracas, which forced him to abandon his work and gave him time to write the report of “Erste Station�” So Faber has just finished his reflections on his life and the events leading to Sabeth’s death (170)� We should notice that in the course of “Erste Station,” Faber’s protestations about the meaning or non-meaning of life have become less and less frequent (his last extended and strident reflection on progress and the need for birth control ends on page 107)� Faber’s monologic disquisitions are replaced by his increasingly dialogical interactions with Sabeth and later Hanna� It seems that completing his decreasingly assertive Bericht readies Faber for Cuba, where he finally sees how life could be lived� He understands that life is fleeting, an entropic process, fighting against which is futile� During his stay in Cuba, Faber for the first time openly mentions feeling sexual desire (173, 175, 177, 178, 181)� But he also mentions for the first time, and brushes off, the possibility of having a serious entropic disease: “Mein Hirngespinst: Magenkrebs” (178)� Entropy as desire and uncontrolled internal growth is catching up with Faber while he chastises Americans for denying it� Faber’s final return to Athens with stopovers in Düsseldorf and Zurich illustrates his development� After his declaration in Cuba that he has stopped filming events of his life (182), he experiences entropy because the film reels of his recent travels, with which he wants to document Joachim’s fate, are in disarray (187)� Faber blames customs inspectors, but also admits that he stopped marking the reels� After Faber-typical attempts to create order by previewing the beginning of each reel, he ultimately just watches a reel showing Sabeth during their travel through France� Faber notices how the mere filmic rendition does not do justice to the reality he experienced� Fighting against the transitoriness of life by filming it is insufficient as the film leaves out many elements of experience (e�g�, temperature, stench [187], but also all emotions)� Every now and then the old Faber comes to the fore, when in viewing the film, he mentions the model year of the car he is driving (the modernist classic Citroën 1957 [189]), or when he comments on the lighting and his camera technique� “Ich habe (endlich! ) die 350 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Kamera weniger hin und her bewegt, dadurch kommen die Bewegungen des Objekts viel stärker” (190)� Faber has learned that his attempts at fighting entropy are a failure� After hearing that Professor O� died, Faber describes his last encounter with him in Zurich a week earlier, when, speaking as someone close to death, the professor considered it a pity that Faber never completed his dissertation on (death-defying? ) Maxwell’s demon (194 f�)� During his last flight, Faber observes a bright, late sunlight on a mountain peak that a mountain climber could never see because at pain of death, he would have had to descend before such light ever became visible� Traveling on the plane enables Faber to see something in nature that would not be accessible otherwise� Faber’s use of technology no longer serves his obsessive fight against entropy, but becomes humanly enriching� Shortly before he lands in Rome, on the last leg of his flight and toward the very end of his typewritten notes, Faber remarks, “[I]ch bin in meinem Leben noch keinem Dämon begegnet, ausgenommen der sog� Maxwell’sche Dämon, der bekanntlich keiner ist” (197)� This may be read as the shortest possible epitaph on his fruitless fight against entropy� Apart from serving as an important motif in much of Faber’s development, the concept of entropy, in a different meaning, plays a role in the structure of the novel as a whole� The term “entropy” has entered communication theory because the statistical distribution of gas molecules at different speeds is similar to the information potential of complex messaging systems� If an information system only has one device (e�g�, a light bulb), which may be on or off, one can distinguish between positive message (bulb on) and negative message (bulb off)� But an apparently negative message (bulb off) could also be the result of a flaw in the system (perhaps the bulb burned out)� To distinguish between messages and failures of the device (so-called “noise”), one needs to create a system with more states� The number of binary steps necessary to define all possible constellations in a communicative system is described as the entropy of the system� The thermal and communicative concepts of entropy are mathematically similar, but communication cannot settle for a probabilistic statistical value telling us the number of equally possible states of a system� In order to create messages, one needs to know which message is intended� “A message selected from a very large number of symbols (among which an astronomical number of combinations may be possible) would consequently be very informative, but would be impossible to transmit because it would require too many binary choices” (Eco, Theory 44)� It becomes necessary to have a code, which reduces the number of possible messages to a manageable size� “The original information diminishes, the possibility of transmitting messages increases […]� The fewer the alterna- Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 351 tives, the easier the communication” (44)� For a simplified example, assume a system containing the letters “eimost” with permission to use e, m, and s twice� In this system, the messages “eeimmosst, itoeemms, iotemems, iotemmes, iotmems,” etc� are all possible, but it becomes quite difficult to remember them or to make sure that they have been transmitted correctly because they are not part of the code of English� In contrast, the message “sometimes” can be immediately recognized as an English word� The code of English does not permit the other combinations, although they are possible based on the information (in terms of information theory) of the system� As a human recipient, I could even make allowance for some misspellings, such as “soemtimes” or “somteimes” because they come close enough to English to be guessed from context� The code adds redundancy to messages by reducing the number of admissible letter combinations and thereby makes the message communicable� Codes in the shape of schemata can also be said to underlie our cognition� We do not perceive isolated sense impressions, but objects of experience which are culturally conditioned� We do not perceive disconnected events in life, but form narratives, which are largely conditioned by cultural codes, but also partly observational� Culturally conditioned codes thus help us organize our perception by accepting certain constellations of perceptions as meaningful while discarding others� The situation becomes more complicated in a text like Homo faber because there are culturally and individually coded connotations potentially evoked by every word as well as by what the words refer to� The difficult issue is describing and justifying the codes we apply to our cognition of life and literature because these codes can never be fully exhausted� Umberto Eco states […] it would then be necessary to admit that any subcode (for example a certain type of connotative association between two elements of two semiotic fields) is a comparatively transitory phenomenon which it would be impossible to establish and describe as a stable structure� […] Moreover the fact that every item of the game can simultaneously maintain relations with many other elements makes it difficult to draw explanatory but simplifying graphs such as a compositional tree� A compositional tree then can be viewed as a purely temporary device posited in order to explain a certain message, a working hypothesis that aims to control the immediate semantic environment of given semantic units� (Eco, Theory 126 f�) 9 Faber tries to encode his experiences in the statistical, probabilistic code of science and engineering and resists other cultural codes� In fact, he stoutly defends himself as an (entropy combating) engineer against the codes of art lovers and culture enthusiasts, stressing that he sees things as they are� The events that befall him are but entropic, i�e�, uncoded, accidental experiences, possible but meaningless� Early in his report he writes, “Ich brauche, um das 352 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Unwahrscheinliche als Erfahrungstatsache gelten zu lassen, keinerlei Mystik; Mathematik genügt mir” (22)� But before applying mathematics, one has to make sure that the variables one enters into a calculation are right� And these variables are strongly influenced by the cultural code one applies to the myriad facts of reality� Faber’s praise of the non-emotional calculations of the computer (75) neglects the necessary coding of events before the calculation can begin� Faber’s misapplication of variables is most striking when he calculates that he cannot be Sabeth’s father: “[…] ich legte mir die Daten zurecht, bis die Rechnung wirklich stimmte, die Rechnung als solche” (121)� Faber’s correct calculation based on insufficient input becomes deadly, when he tells doctors in Athens that Sabeth was bitten by a snake, but forgets to mention her fall from a small incline� Faber does the right thing by bringing Sabeth to the Athens hospital where she is treated for snake bite, but the overlooked condition of a head injury kills Sabeth� Faber’s heroic efforts to save his daughter were based on incomplete premises and thus had to fail� The treatment did not cover the entropy of the situation, as Sabeth’s symptoms fit both a snake bite and a skull fracture� The signals of reality and nature cannot be read when the wrong code is applied� The same lack of code application glaringly underlies the progress of Faber’s stomach cancer� In retrospect, the signs clearly point towards the disease, but Faber considers them as entropic signals, as noise dependent on situational circumstances, which does not congeal into a coded signal� The theme of encoding reality is made explicit in the novel in Faber and Sabeth’s game of images which they play during their last day together (150-52)� They compete playfully in finding different similes for what they perceive� For example, Sabeth likens the braying of a donkey to someone practicing the cello while Faber hears unlubricated brakes; Faber likens the surf on the shore to the foam of beer, while Sabeth compares it to a frill (“Rüsche,” 152)� Sabeth often prevails in this game: “Sabeth weiß fast immer etwas” (152)� Faber resurrects this game and plays it by himself during his final flight across the Alps, assigning various similes to the same observation (195 f�)� He learns to recode his experience in various ways and practices encoding the world from more than one perspective� Not only has Faber given up his futile fight against entropy, but he has augmented his outlook on life� This brings us back to the beginning of this essay� The failure of Faber’s technically encoded statistical world view, which is partly the result of a sleight of hand by the real author Max Frisch, is obvious and explicit� The collapse of Faber’s life after enduring an unbelievable number of coincidences cannot be read as a corroboration of his views� Instead, the implied author goads the reader into understanding events in terms of fate, no matter the declarations of the explicit narrator� The implied author’s liberally dropped hints, allusions Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 353 to classical and pop-cultural traditions, his evocations of “Super Constellation,” “Hermes Baby,” or the snake bite in a scene reminiscent of paradise gone bad - all these are never put to the test� The implied author tempts the reader into employing the same type of simplistic coding mechanisms that Faber uses, but from the opposite end, by dropping hints of congruence between notions of myth and fate with the modern story� Instead of falling into the trap of adducing our own images prematurely, we should understand informational entropy as a structuring principle of the book� The fragments of classical mythology or of technological details never congeal into a clear message� As readers, we are dealing with an entropic process which refuses to fall into a familiar coded pattern� The message is entropic, although the implied author plays with us, inviting us to be as myopic and self-righteous as Walter Faber is, but from a different point of view� If we are not careful, all we would do is create an insufficient image of Walter Faber and his world, just as he did� Art and Nature remain hard to read and nature is unforgiving� Notes 1 All quotations from Homo faber are identified by the initials “HF” and the page number in the text� Where the novel is obvious as a source, only page numbers are provided� 2 The novel has also found considerable scholarly attention� Lubich lists 37 scholarly publications that comment on or exclusively deal with Homo faber by 1990, while Walter Schmitz’s annotated edition of the work (1998) already lists over 60 such works� Homo faber has also occasioned the publication of various study guides and handbooks for high school students; the extensive Wikipedia entry on Homo faber (close to 10,000 words) lists eight such Lektürehilfen, and there is a plethora of internet resources� 3 We do not know for whom Faber writes the “Bericht�” The way in which he introduces Hanna and talks about her in the third person makes it impossible that she should have been its recipient� It is not an act of communication, but of self-exploration� In that sense, the book has an internal contradiction, which Frisch himself acknowledged: A writer assumes that most people have an urge “sich durch Sprache zu manifestieren,” but an engineer might not feel that the same way (quoted from Schmitz 1977, 16)� 4 In his essay “Öffentlichkeit als Partner” (1958), Frisch postulates that the first thing a writer has to invent is his/ her reader, a choice which determines what needs to be said in the text and what can be presumed to be agreed upon� “Der erste schöpferische Akt, den der Schriftsteller zu leisten hat, ist die Erfindung seines Lesers� […] Was der Schriftsteller sich unter sei- 354 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius nem Leser vorstellt, […] dies ist für den Schriftsteller eine Frage auf Gedeih und Verderb, eine Ehe-Frage mehr als eine Talent-Frage” (Frisch 1976, 251)� Conversely, the reader invents a narrator who shares his world knowledge and serves as a foil for his/ her understanding� The interplay of the implied author and the implied reader is mostly a reformulation of the old issue of the hermeneutic circle� 5 Frisch himself claimed that he had no intricate mythical knowledge, but he found Blair’s Demeter-Koré myth to be more convincing as a mythical motif than the Oedipus myth (Schmitz 1998, 269)� 6 The description of Maxwell’s demon is mostly based on general knowledge� Details can be found in the articles by Horn (from a more literary perspective), as well as Bennett and Norton� The latter authors have each published several articles on the topic, but any encyclopedia article on Maxwell’s demon may also serve as an introduction� 7 Leber posits Faber as almost having created a death-eliminating system which, in the jungle, is destroyed by an “attack” of entropy inside and outside of Faber’s body� Leber perceives “[…] das Bild einer Totalentropie […], in die der Techniker unversehens geraten ist […]� Einbezogen in diesen Prozeß gegenseitiger Durchdringung von Erde, Wasser, Luft und Wärme sind auch die entkleideten Körper von Faber und Marcel� Es ist, als ob sie in ihrem Schwitzen selbst danach strebten, in den allgemeinen Auflösungsprozeß einzugehen” (126)� Leber argues that Faber should have realized that the system of modern technology is no match for reality� Leber claims, “[…] daß dieselbe Technik ab einem bestimmten Punkt - auch dies analog dem göttlichen Dämon der griechischen Tragödie - die von ihr geweckten Erwartungen selbst wieder destruiert” (135)� According to him, Faber is too slow to understand the death orientation of a world where Maxwell’s demon does not exist� Horn, too, sees Faber indulging in a faulty faith in technology’s victory over entropy� Recognition of the inescapability of entropy is the primary development Faber undergoes� “[W]as Faber nicht wissen will, ist, daß alles Leben in den Tod geht” ( 62)� After a Freud-inspired interpretation of Faber’s and Sabeth’s behaviors, Horn summarizes: “[Faber] begreift endlich, daß weder physikalisch (Maxwellscher Dämon), noch mythisch (die Verjüngung durch die Liebe zur Tochter) die anthropologische Zeit umgekehrt werden kann […]� Der Traum von der Umkehrung der Entropie ist ausgeträumt” (67 f�)� 8 It should be noted that Faber is clearly beholden to sexist, cultural and racial stereotypes of the 1950s which are beyond the scope of this paper� The happy life of prerevolutionary Cubans (or other inhabitants of the Caribbean) is Daemon Absconditus: Entropy in Max Frisch’s Homo Faber 355 purely a projection of European and White American dreams, wishes, and stereotypes on cultural and racial ‘others’ and historically goes back at least to the notion of the ‘noble savage’ of the 18th century� 9 The description of semiotic processes presented here is based on general reading, but mostly on Umberto Eco’s magisterial Einführung in die Semiotik� The German book is a translation and further development of ideas originally published in Italian� The English version of this book is yet another rewrite after Eco was unhappy with various translation attempts� I present the German version here because I think it makes the point more clearly� “[…] daß der Code vermutlich weder eine natürliche Bedingung des Globalen Semantischen Universums ist, noch eine Struktur, die fest und unverrückbar dem Komplex von Bindungen und Verzweigungen zugrundeliegt, der das Funktionieren jeder Zeichenassoziierung begründet� […] Es muß also ein methodologisches Prinzip der semiotischen Forschung sein, daß das Entwerfen von semantischen Feldern und Achsen und die Beschreibung von Codes als gegenwärtig funktionierend fast immer nur bei Gelegenheit der Kommunikationsumstände einer bestimmten Botschaft durchgeführt werden können� […] Sobald man die Möglichkeit eines Codes behauptet, erkennt man deren ständige Partialität und Revidierbarkeit an; und man muß zugeben, daß sich diese Semiotik nur dann konstituieren kann, wenn die Existenz einer Botschaft sie als ihre Erklärungsbedingung postuliert�” (Eco, Einführung 131 f�; italics from the original are not indicated) The temporary nature of secondary codes is yet another reformulation of the issue of the hermeneutic circle� Cf� note 3 above� In the absence of any clear point of reference beyond Faber’s diligently undermined descriptions, the possible codes for Homo faber are especially entropic� Works Cited Bennett, Charles H� “Demons, Engines and the Second Law�” Scientific American 257�5 (1987): 108-16� Blair, Rhonda L� “Homo Faber, Homo Ludens, and the Demeter-Kore Motif�” Germanic Review 51 (1981): 140-50� Eco, Umberto� Einführung in die Semiotik. Trans� Jürgen Trabant� Munich: Fink, 1972� —� A Theory of Semiotics� Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1976� “Frisch aus der Asche�” NZZ 12 Dec� 2004� Web� 6� Jan 2020� Frisch, Max� Homo faber: Ein Bericht. Gesammelte Werke in zeitlicher Folge 1957-1963� Ed� Hans Mayer and Walter Schmitz� Vol� IV, 1� Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1976� —� “Öffentlichkeit als Partner�” Gesammelte Werke in zeitlicher Folge 1957-1963� Ed� Hans Mayer and Walter Schmitz� Vol� IV, 1� Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1976� 244-52� 356 K� Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Geulen, Hans� Max Frischs “Homo Faber”: Studien und Interpretationen� Berlin: De Gruyter, 1965� Günther, Klaus� “Poetische Gerechtigkeit in Recht und Literatur - Max Frischs Homo Faber�” Zeitschrift für Internationale Strafrechtsdogmatik 1 (2010): 8-19� Horn, Peter� “Der Maxwell’sche Dämon und die Entropie der Liebe� Zu Max Frischs ‘Homo Faber’�” Zwischen den Wissenschaften. Beiträge zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte� Festschrift für Bernhard Gajek zum 65� Geburtstag� Ed� Gerhard Hahn and Ernst Weber� Regensburg: Pustet, 1994� 49-69� Jurgensen, Manfred� Max Frisch, die Romane: Interpretationen� Bern: Francke, 1972� Latta, Alan D� “The Nature and Variety of Signifying Elements in Max Frisch’s Novel Homo faber: An Approach�” Germanic Review 64�4 (1989): 146-57� Leber, Manfred� Vom modernen Roman zur antiken Tragödie: Interpretationen von Max Frischs “Homo Faber.” Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 1990� Lubich, Frederik A� Max Frisch: “Stiller”, “Homo faber” und “Mein Name sei Gantenbein.” Munich: Fink, 1990� Müller-Salget, Klaus� “Max Frisch: Homo faber. Ein Bericht�” Interpretationen: Romane des 20. Jahrhunderts. Vol� 2� Stuttgart: Reclam, 1993� 95-119� Norton, John D� “Maxwell's Demon Does Not Compute�” Physical Perspectives on Computation, Computational Perspectives on Physics. Ed� Michael E� Cuffaro and Samuel C� Fletcher� Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP� 2018� 240-56� Pütz, Peter� “Das Übliche und das Plötzliche� Über Technik und Zufall im Homo Faber�” Frischs Homo faber: Materialien� Ed� Walter Schmitz� Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1983� 133-41� Schmitz, Walter� “Kommentar�” Max Frisch. Homo faber: Ein Bericht� Mit einem Kommentar von Walter Schmitz. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp� 1998� 223-301� —. Max Frisch. Homo faber: Materialien, Kommentar� Reihe Hanser� Literatur-Kommentare� Vol� 5� Munich: Hanser, 1977� Würker, Achim� Technik als Abwehr. Die unbewußten Lebensentwürfe in Max Frischs Homo faber. Frankfurt am Main: Nexus, 1991� 69-77� The Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Franz Hohler’s “Die Rückeroberung” Brian McInnis Christopher Newport University Abstract: This article examines how Hohler uses satire to shape his environmental argument� The reverse colonization of plants and animals invading the city of Zurich implies that nature responds to human abuses and exertion of power, and each wave of new inhabitants reveals societal weaknesses� I read the narrator’s disquietude over societal solutions to the imposition of the natural world as a conscience of societal environmental policy� Wendy Wheeler’s writing on biosemiotics provides an appropriate frame to view Hohler’s biological system in Zurich as an interdependent and relational information system� I infer Hohler’s environmental politics from the interactions within the story and a digression on the problematic governmental reception of the published volume Die Rückeroberung as it further illuminates Hohler’s environmental vision. Next, this essay explores the historical discourse on migration in Switzerland as an implied bioregional context of the lightly veiled allegory of ‘animal’ colonization in the story� The final section analyzes how the divisive politics of environment and migration potentially place human society at risk� Keywords: Zurich, migration, history, foreigner, Überfremdung, satire, environment, biosemiotics Cabaret artist and author Franz Hohler is known for his incisive critique of politics, society, and the environment� In the popular and anthologized poem “Der Weltuntergang” (1973), the disappearance of a pesty beetle on an island in the South Pacific prompts a string of events that leads to a worldwide environmental apocalypse and underscores the interconnectedness of all life� The rhythmic sound painting argues that human-caused pollution poisoned the beetle with 358 Brian McInnis oil, soot, and sulfur� Destruction of the natural world also harms people (Hohler, “Weltuntergang” 185)� The performance poem prompts a nagging fear that such a self-centered abuse could be done, then ends with the proclamation that the apocalypse has begun (186)� This ballad drives rhythmically to the political conclusion that human negligence threatens the survival of humans and the earth� In addition to print distribution, Hohler read the poem publicly, for example in 1975 wearing a gas mask and hockey mitts during an anti-nuclear demonstration at the activist-occupied construction site for nuclear reactor Kaiseraugst east of Basel (Schilling n� pag�)� This 1975 performance united his opposition to industrial climate degradation with his opposition to nuclear power� In a 2017 interview with the Swiss tabloid Blick, Hohler recalled that the Swiss environmental movement was not taken seriously when the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in April 1986 (Odermatt and Marti n� pag�)� At the time, Hohler was filming Dünki-Schott about a quixotic knight fighting against nuclear reactors� In the 2017 interview, Hohler expressed his hope that the next day’s plebiscite for a Swiss exit from nuclear power would succeed� It did (Schultz n� pag�)� Hohler returns to the entwinement of organisms with their ecosystem in the short story “Die Rückeroberung” (1982)� Animals and plants take over Zurich despite human efforts to maintain control of the city� In this essay, I argue the natural world’s reverse colonization satirizes Zurich citizens’ blindness toward their interrelationship with the ecosystem as well as official Zurich policies and popular attitudes toward human migration� The people counter the intruders with force, but also react with folly and ultimately fail to assert human control of the city� The discourses of migration and human environmental isolationism amplify each other in their critique of human attempts to control other people and the environment� In his dystopic vision of Zurich, Hohler suggests a sustained interaction, embrace, and partnering with the environment will be necessary for human survival� This reading complements existing readings of Hohler’s environmental positions by linking them to his assessment of Swiss attitudes toward migration� Hohler’s political engagement with his community shaped the writing and reception of this text� Existing readings of “Die Rückeroberung” emphasize, for example, the text as a model of fantastical literature (Spielmann) or disaster literature (Utz)� Certainly, the story does capture readers through its projection of a future dystopia and its representation of a disaster in full motion, but not narrated to its conclusion� The reading offered here foregrounds the satirical narration in an attempt to illuminate the pervasive abuse of power in environmental and migration policies� Hohler’s story creates a satirical mode that eschews the antique verse forms of Horace and Juvenal� Helmut Arntzen notes that Enlightenment poetics such as Johann Andreas Grosch’s Die Regeln der Satyre aus ihren Gründen herge- Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 359 leitet (1750), Johann Bernhard Basedow’s Lehrbuch prosaischer und poetischer Wohlredenheit (1756), and Friedrich Schiller’s Über naive und sentimentalische Dichtung (1795/ 1796) removed the verse requirement for satire in favor of a concentration on the overall effect of the critique (Arntzen 352-55)� Schiller categorized satirical literature among sentimental (modern) forms and required that satirical texts present their moral reflection as a representation, i�e�, in play as an expression of freedom (355)� This is one of the schools that continues to define contemporary theory of satire� More generally, Arntzen avers, satirical literature stems primarily not from the imagination, but an indignation about preposterousness, retrograde circumstances, or negativity (347)� A satirical text replaces a representation of the real world or one’s consciousness with a preposterous other� In “Die Rückeroberung,” this involves indignation about ineffective political and social leadership� The narrative is situated not in the foibles of city council minutiae, but in the governmental and societal misdirection in response to an improbable animal and plant invasion� In its methods and its topics, satirical writing forms an oppositional system (Arntzen 346)� In Hohler’s Zurich dystopia, this critical perspective begins with the unnamed first-person narrator who models critique and guides reader discovery of the “news from nature�” Finally, satirical writing makes empirical, historical, and metaphysical contradictions visible through literary representation (Arntzen 363)� One way the satirical tone of “Die Rückeroberung” functions to reveal contradictions is by prompting reconsideration of official and popular Zurich responses to migration� A more in-depth investigation of satire in the story follows, but first a note on the relation of humans to the ecosystem� One focus of the satire in “Die Rückeroberung” is the human self-separation from the environment� Throughout this essay, I refer to Wendy Wheeler’s conception of biosemiotics to underscore Hohler’s assertion that human and nonhuman lives intimately interconnect� Drawing on Jesper Hoffmeyer’s argument in Signs of Meaning in the Universe (1996), Wheeler avers that from its smallest cellular level, all life is involved in signification, for example the differentiation between self and other that drives cell division, actions of the immune system, or interactions between cells or multicellular beings (Wheeler, Whole Creature 123)� Biosemiotics acknowledges explicit interactions that shape individuals internally as well as the intersubjectivity that characterizes the individual/ environment relationship (120-21)� Humans in Hohler’s story do not generally acknowledge these connections, but the satirical narrative makes them accessible to the reader with the implication that Zurich society must be changed� Wheeler also references the semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) to argue that biosemiotics views biological systems as relational information systems (Wheeler, “Biosemiotic Turn” 271)� The ecosystem is no longer viewed as 360 Brian McInnis mechanical or fixed, as many Zurich administrators and citizens in “Die Rückeroberung” do, but as intersubjective and dynamic (272)� This new interpretive paradigm re-establishes connections between individual and place and enables renewed ethical reflection� Individual wellness no longer means solely economic flourishing, but includes emotional wellness and the wellness of the ecosystem (Whole Creature 34, 156)� Hohler’s satirical call to action envisions such greater wellness within the ecosystem� In the following, I examine how the satirical narrative mode presents Hohler’s environmental argument� The reverse colonization implies that nature responds to human abuses and exertion of power, and each wave of new inhabitants reveals societal weaknesses� I read the narrator’s disquietude over societal solutions to the imposition of the natural world as a conscience of societal environmental policy� In the following section, I infer Hohler’s environmental politics from the interactions within the story and a digression on the problematic reception of the published volume Die Rückeroberung as it further illuminates Hohler’s environmental vision. Next, this essay explores the historical discourse on migration in Switzerland as an implied bioregional context of the lightly veiled allegory of ‘animal’ colonization in the story� The final section analyzes how the divisive politics of environment and migration potentially place human society at risk� In surveys and interviews collected in Franz Hohler: Texte, Daten, Bilder (1993), Hohler describes his take on inspiring readers and deploying satire� Storytelling and reading serve as an impulse to think� He thus enjoys engaging an audience in collective storytelling in order to reveal to them the possibilities of the imagination and their capacity for problem solving: “um zu zeigen, dass Phantasie kein Privileg zu sein braucht und dass die Leute auch selbst imstande sein können auf eine Herausforderung eine Antwort zu finden” (Bauer and Siblewski 53)� The author aims to engage individuals in reflection and to drive changes in thought from individual responses to his work (51)� Hohler writes to be understood by a broad audience, but refuses to be limited by naive readers who fail to understand concepts such as irony (60)� He deploys satire as one of a multiplicity of communicative modes to promote thinking (57)� Satire enables readers to engage painful truths and problems: “Satire macht es möglich, über das, worüber wir eigentlich weinen und brüllen müssten, auch lachen zu können� Sie eröffnet die Möglichkeit, zu einem Problem einen neuen Zugang zu finden� Satire ist daher Verführung zum Nachdenken” (60)� A mocking tone can make difficult discussions and new approaches possible� However, many people refuse to engage satire and it is not as popular as other narrative modes (60)� Satire occupies a kind of outsider position appropriate for its goal to teach: “Satire hat ihren Platz nicht auf den Frontseiten, sie kommt nicht zu den besten Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 361 Sendezeiten im Fernsehen, vielleicht ist das auch nicht der angemessene Platz� Satire nimmt den Klappsitz ein im großen Welttheater” (61)� The critique in “Die Rückeroberung” features the indirectness and gentleness characteristic of Horatian satire� The text evokes more indignation than laughter� In particular, the story mocks human ignorance of systems theory and biocultural interdependence� It calls into question citizens’ domination of the city space and architecture and disregard for the animal immigrants� The story illustrates willful ignorance of possible damage to the animals/ humans through the practices of exclusion� Though the overall tone is one of indignation, the story also features episodes of irony and humor� The satirical narrative in Hohler’s story “Die Rückeroberung” expresses indignation over knowledge about the human-nonhuman relationship, general environmental policy, the hegemonic human attempts to maintain control of human domains, and the sublimation of intuition in dealing with these challenges� The story implies that nearly all humans in the story-demonstrate insufficient knowledge about the environment and human-nonhuman interaction� The police force exhibits a certain ineptitude when it consults the zoo director instead of a wildlife manager for advice on how to corral and remove the large deer herd (8)� The police force also proves unable to corral the deer in the lakefront park (8), anticipate their movement within the city (9), or eradicate them when they are corralled in the parking garage (10-11)� The authorities wrongly attribute the slaughter of one of the deer to a pack of dogs, until a veterinarian and wildlife biologist team determines it was killed by a pack of wolves (12-13)� Similarly, the people of Zurich generally operate on the prejudicial misconception that they must maintain control of their ecosystem� From the beginning of the story, humans display a limited capacity to interpret and understand their nonhuman neighbors� The story displays annoyance over the larger societal response to the imposition by the eagles and the general human detachment from the ecosystem� Human beings in the story rely on scientific and pragmatic epistemologies that imagine the animals as objects in the human space, instead of as coinhabitants of a shared place� The ornithology clubs create a running list of eagle nest locations, generating basic data about the infusion of birds into the ecosystem� The biologists investigate the new nesting habits of the eagles and identify no reason (i�e�, no precedent) for eagles to seek permanent habitat in the cities� The city government votes to tolerate the eagles with the quixotic hope that they reduce the city’s rat population, and thereby address a human problem� City officials encourage citizens to protect their pets which the eagles may otherwise target (6-7)� This data gathering and self-preservation represents common statistical, behavioral, and administrative models of knowing� None of the responses con- 362 Brian McInnis sider potential human causes to the perceived raptor invasion or aim to provide a systemic approach to the coexistence and survival of humans and other species� Yet as early ecocritic William Rueckert noted, the first law of ecology states that everything is related to everything else (108)� The broad populace is not attuned to its place in the web of life� The narrator proves more engaged with the environment and more open to exploring and acknowledging the human need for their fellow inhabitants than other Zurich residents� The narrator represents a rare Zurich citizen who is curious and reflective enough to identify and analyze the contexts and connections of the eagles’ appearance� He identifies the eagles as new on the scene; he knows that they have not been regular inhabitants of the city� His views out the window include an openness and inquisitiveness� Upon seeing the first eagle on his neighbor’s roof, he attempts to rationalize why it might be there� He initially considers that it may have escaped a zoo or an aviary, but then acknowledges that such human-oriented, objectifying displays would normally feature birds with clipped wings to prevent their escape� By contrast, the first eagle has not only flown to the top of a house, but departs to ride the currents, gliding high above the city (Hohler, “Rückeroberung” 5-6)� The narrator is clearly observant, curious, knowledgeable about his space, enworlded� He serves as a model which invites the reader to adopt his ecological viewpoint� In narrating the reintroduction of several of the animals to Zurich, the story projects indignation over human sublimation of intuition� This restricts the human ability to adapt, despite the fact that the larger ecosystem requires it� The first-person narrator’s neighbors wait to respond to the eagles perched on their roof because they do not know what to do (6)� While the homeowners contemplate how to proceed, the first-seen eagle brings a mate and they build a nest and settle in� By contrast, the narrator contemplates what might have led the eagle to the neighbor’s house, intuits that it neither escaped an aviary or got lost, and tries to make sense of its presence on the neighbor’s roof and gliding above the city (5-6)� When deer antlers appear on the Bellevue, one of the busiest squares in Zurich, many residents rationalize this unique occurrence as a prank (7)� No one in the city bothers to investigate how recently they were shed or whether the animal that left them might be nearby, in part because game wardens have not recently seen an animal that large� Similarly, officials initially fail to sufficiently analyze what has disemboweled a deer, and attribute the kill to dogs (13)� However, the canton veterinarian views this pronouncement skeptically, consults with wildlife biologists, and infers that a wolf pack made the kill� Thus the narrator and scientists who seek to understand the wildlife draw on instinct to help interpret the visitors’ behavior, while the police officers and larger populace are often satisfied by a simpler answer� The narrator, canton Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 363 veterinarian, wildlife biologists, and the forest ranger pay closer attention and reflect more meaningfully on the wild animal behavior and the interdependence of humans and nonhumans� The satirical narrative displays indignation over the outmoded environmental policy that works to maintain human control of the ecosystem� Though the city authorities choose to tolerate the eagles, they vow to remove subsequent invaders, including deer, wolves, bears, snakes, and plants� The governmental and civilian attempts to re-exert control over the mammals involves machine guns, sharpshooters, knives, and maroon shell fireworks� The humans rely on force to overcome and remove the animals and plants� The townspeople fight to maintain the status quo separation of human and nonhuman actors� The story guides the reader to infer Hohler’s environmental politics� One outtake is that humans repress messages from the environment, as noted above with the appearance of the eagles on the narrator’s house, or the large antler rack left at a major traffic center� The Zurich citizens also do not want to hear the nonhuman world’s general message that the human and nonhuman lives clash because of an imbalance in the occupation of space and interaction with the other� As each new wave of species arrives in Zurich, the humans react with force� In the case of animals noted above, this means guns� In the case of the invasive oversized plants, city leaders apply herbicides� Both strategies fail to re-establish human control of the city� Instead of bullets and chemicals, which Hohler might deem dangerous for organisms beyond the intended targets, he would likely advocate for a more system-based solution� A further point of criticism lies in the exploitation of the environment to gain energy resources, specifically oil� During the police force’s special operations mission to trap and exterminate the deer herd in the Urania parking garage, shooters hit a deer and a gas pump, so that blood and oil flow together into a pool on the garage floor: “Eine einzige Hirschkuh verirrte sich in den unteren Ausgang und wurde von einer zornigen Garbe erfaßt, zugleich mit der Tanksäule, so daß sich das Blut des erlegten Tieres mit dem auslaufenden Öl zu einer rotbraunen Lache vereinigte” (11)� This metaphorical representation of the human violence enacted against the deer to remove it from the city and against the earth to extract oil for energy and petroleum products calls humans to account for their abusive exercise of power� Hohler’s environmental activism shaped not only the pro-environmental message of the story, but also its reception� The author published the story “Die Rückeroberung” in an eponymous collection in 1982� In November of that year, when the Zurich Arts Council’s (Kulturförderkommission) Working Group on Literature recommended Die Rückeroberung for the canton Zurich’s annual literature prize, a Zurich government official refused to sanction the selection� 364 Brian McInnis The official cited Hohler’s critique of the cantonal government, especially its support of nuclear energy, as the reason to diverge from the Arts Council’s suggestion (Bauer and Siblewski 161)� Hohler had continued to protest the construction of the Kaiseraugst nuclear plant, including at a performance before a large audience at the facility on 1 August 1982� The Zurich government thus effectively censored Hohler’s free speech and the book for his public critique of government energy policy� The author became an intensified focal point of politics when the members of the Working Group on Literature unanimously resigned and awarded him an alternative prize� Other recipients of the cantonal awards donated a portion of their prizes to fund a monetary award for Hohler from cantonal funds (Bauer and Siblewski 19)� In this way, Hohler achieved recognition from colleagues for his book� At the alternative awards ceremony, the author donated his prize money to create a fund for older artists and modeled aiding community members in need (21)� He demonstrated membership in that community and compassion for other members� This extended the intersubjective vision of living with the community that he had foregrounded in “Die Rückeroberung�” An additional chapter of this text’s political message proceeds from the discourse of the animal and plant reverse colonization that forms a thinly veiled critique of the canton Zurich’s divisive politics of migration� The story’s allegory represents migrants to Zurich as eagles, deer, wolves, bears, and snakes and therefore as animals, as distinctly other� Switzerland welcomed significant numbers of migrants throughout the 20th century in order to have a sufficiently large workforce to support the country’s industries� The fictional migrants appear in groups like the national groups of foreign workers who traveled to Switzerland� The story illustrates fears that the migrants will stay indefinitely since the animals and plants appear and then settle in� There is no sense that they will leave� Hohler’s strategy of representation takes the risk of critiquing the homogeneous definition of Swiss identity and exclusive policies against migrants precisely because this is satire� There are multiple possible readings of the story, and the entertaining yarn and the possible critiques attract a variety of readers with potentially different interests� Readers may be entranced by the creative design of animals establishing control of a major world city and the thriller-like complication of humans battling ensuing waves of immigrant animals and plants� The narrative initially drives the reader to seek an answer to the question of whether Zurich citizens will retain control� Later in the story, the intensification of the conflict propels the reader to learn whether the citizens will even survive� The deployment of satire means that this text can be enjoyed for its imitation of a cinematic thriller or as an homage to the spaces and quirks Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 365 of the author’s home city and its residents� The tale extends beyond a parody because it reveals faults in the Zurich governmental responses to the crisis and implies that they should be corrected� The text performs a complicated combination of the ecosystem’s justified revenge on human abuses and highlights Swiss xenophobia toward migrants in the dramatization of colonization� Satire enables readers to consider this paradox and related critiques or focus their reading on the drama’s entertainment� The first-person narrator plays a significant role in activating reader reflection� In the introduction, the narrator connects readers to the action through a personal address that establishes a basis for empathetic participation in solving human dissociation with and abuse of the environment� From the beginning, he models judgment and the application of reason, for example in the critical practice of reading the ecosystem to identify the golden eagles� The narrator guides the reader in a similar kind of critical reflection through his critique of Zurich officials’ failure to corral the deer with fences or lasso-swinging police officers and of citizen disregard for children’s deaths in traffic� By the end of the story, the narrator describes how the city administration’s initiative to eradicate the invading plants shifts from extensive applications of herbicide to clear-cutting� The ivy, petasites, and giant ferns block some roads and railways as well as hotels, construction sites, and homes, thereby restricting transport, commerce, and daily life� These developments underscore nature’s potential threat to people� After guiding the reader to reflect critically, the narrator leaves the denouement unresolved� This narrative strategy presents readers the opportunity to shape the outcome of the conflict between nature and humans� The appeal through fiction is likely more broad and effective than an essay or governmental report� The story implies links between the effects invading organisms and human immigrants exert on Zurich citizens� The eagles ride the updrafts swirling around the Hotel International, symbolically linking themselves to a central city district and to an international identity (Hohler, “Rückeroberung” 6)� The deer are personified in their “Stadtbesichtigung” of the Bellevue, Limmatquai, and Central (9-10)� When the herd spreads through the Paradeplatz, the bankers, furriers, and jewelers lock their doors and exterior roller blinds out of fear of the “brown bodies,” the other that unceasingly pass their shops: “Am Paradeplatz verriegelten die Großbanken ihre Portale, die Bijoutiers und Pelzhändler ließen ihre Rollläden über ihre Türen rasseln und blickten angstvoll aus den Schaufenstern auf die braunen Leiber, die sich unaufhaltsam vorbeidrängten und die Straße in ihrer ganzen Breite ausfüllten” (10)� At the showdown between deer and police at the Parkhaus Urania, the mixing of blood and oil represents the interwoven fates of the Swiss citizens and the animal migrants (11)� When they disperse, they are again personified as moving in small groups “wie nach einem 366 Brian McInnis Plan” (11)� The migrants exhibit group behaviors that stand out to the Swiss like those of human immigrants� They socialize within their group of eagles (6), deer (8-11), and wolves (13); gather food in group-specific ways (deer 8; wolves 13, 15; bears 16); and elicit unusual screams of fear (cats hunted by eagles), produce mating calls (bucks), and spar with their knife-like antlers in the street (12)� A bear is anthropomorphized as serving himself at a deli (16)� Families view children as endangered, disenroll them from the schools, and move to other communities like white city dwellers who move when their neighborhood becomes more ethnically diverse (17)� Businesses hire new employees to ensure that their profit forecasts are not reduced by the encroachment of the invading plants (18)� The eagles, deer, wolves, ivy, and other immigrants hold their ground and become members of the local community (19-20)� Most actions by the waves of animal immigrants reveal their persistence and echo the survival instincts characteristic of successful human migrants� The allegory of the immigrant invasion suggests that migrants also threaten the safety of Swiss residents� Swiss commuters huddle in streetcars and drivers shelter in closed-windowed cars or building entryways amid waves of deer� The humans recede from the flow of animals: Die Verwirrung war groß� Die Tramwagen stauten sich, ohne daß sich die Passagiere getrauten, auszusteigen, die Automobilisten versuchten ihre Wagen auf das Trottoir zu steuern, einige ließen angesichts der nahenden Herde ihr Auto mitten auf der Straße stehen und flüchteten in einen Hauseingang, andere kurbelten ihre Scheiben hoch und blieben sitzen, sie verschwanden in den Tieren wie ein Stein in den Fluten� (9) The narrative deploys the simile of a flood washing over a stone in a river to describe the envelopment of Zurich citizens by “deer�” When “wolves” appear later to hunt the deer, they also attack and kill a Swiss resident of Yugoslav descent, thus “immigrants” attack other “immigrants” (13)� “Snakes” attack citizens who go about their daily life and reach into a newspaper vending machine, retrieve luggage from train station luggage storage, and cook at home (16-17)� The allegory projects how immigrants change school enrollments and prompt housing shortages in adjoining districts (17)� The influx of new migrants further necessitates that the city assign employees to control and clean up after them (12, 18)� This story is about humans changing and fighting to retain mastery of the environment, but also of migration� The imposition of the plants and animals represents the environment demanding human acknowledgment and equality in the ecosystem� It also represents migrants who largely coexist with Zurich residents without incident� The human violence directed toward the environment and the migrants unites the two readings� Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 367 The allegory accentuates the joint discourses of the environment and migration with the preposterous police responses to the migrant “deer” population� The city creates a special forces unit to fight the “deer” because they do not leave the city: “Man schickte deshalb einige Männer nach Amerika, wo sie von Cowboys im Lassowerfen ausgebildet wurden” (12)� Once trained, the police officers deploy this outdated migrant “deer” containment measure, but remain ineffective in removing migrants from the city� The narrator dryly quips that though the lasso-throwing police officers add flair to city life, the “animal” migrants and additional dangers persist: Aber auch ihnen gelang es nicht, die Hirsche aus der Stadt zu vertreiben� Man gewöhnte sich einfach an das Bild eines durch eine Einbahnstraße preschenden Hirsches, der zu Pferd von einem lassoschwingenden Polizisten verfolgt wurde� Das hat auch etwas Schönes, gewiß, und auf eine Art ist es eine Bereicherung des Stadtlebens, aber irgendwie ist mit diesen Tieren auch der Schrecken wieder eingezogen� (12) Zurich city officials are out of touch in their attempts to manage the imbalance in the ecosystem and the influx of “brown bodies” into Swiss society� The story’s humor turns on the ineptitude of administrative and individual decisions� The cowboy-trained, horseback-riding deer hunters are grotesque� The author’s euphemistic description of this as a “Bereicherung” of city culture with country touches expresses his ironic disgust at its ineffectiveness� The narrator also responds in a grotesque fashion to the city leaders’ obsessive response to the wolves’ slaughter of one boy but their disregard for the annual loss of multiple children to traffic: “Daß jedes Jahr ein paar Kinder unter den Autos starben, daran hatte man sich gewöhnt, das war eben ein möglicher Tod in der Stadt, aber daß Kinder von Wölfen zerrissen werden, das sollte nicht vorkommen, nicht in einer Stadt wie Zürich” (14)� The pre-emptive celebration of the forester’s elimination of thirty-three wolves could be viewed sardonically when the wolf kills continue (15)� The narrator may be mocking the woman who gets bitten when trying to kill a snake with a spatula (17)� Overall, outrage supersedes laughter� The story presents indignation over the very real situation of crippling environmental change and morally dubious human responses� This narrative suggests that Zurich officials and residents pursue exclusionary practices to keep the migrants (non-Swiss persons allegorized as animals) at bay� Wendy Wheeler argues that humans exist as co-dependent and co-evolving in their ecosystem, and that they and their co-citizens of the ecosystem communicate and evolve in tandem (Whole Creature 135-36)� The confrontations in “Die Rückeroberung” suggest a similarly intersubjective and semiotic relationship characterizes hu- 368 Brian McInnis man interactions with their ecosystem� Particularly perilous is the allusion that “brown bodies” are less than other Swiss bodies, that they are subhuman� The story calls out the allegorical demotion of non-Swiss bodies as unconscionable, unethical, and unsustainable, since the Swiss ultimately also face a tenuous chance of survival when they oppose the other� A complicated history of economic, political, and cultural struggle between conservative and left-leaning interests shape Hohler’s discourse on migration� Beginning in the 1950s, Swiss industry grew rapidly and workers increasingly left the agricultural sector to enter the expanding industrial and service sectors (Church and Head 229; Maissen 287)� Workers achieved wage growth that at times eclipsed GDP growth and enjoyed significant public investments in transportation infrastructure, education, and unemployment insurance (Church and Head 230-31)� Postwar Swiss economic growth necessitated increased immigrant labor and drove societal conflict� Non-native workers frequently took low-wage jobs (230)� The largest contingent came from Italy and worked in industry, construction, and tourism (Maissen 291)� Workers also came from Germany, France, Austria, and Spain, with smaller numbers from Yugoslavia, Portugal, and Turkey (D’Amato 180)� They included 10,000 Hungarians welcomed after the 1956 uprising and Tamils fleeing the Sri Lankan civil war in 1979 (Church and Head 235, 245)� Between 1950 and 1970, the non-Swiss minority increased to rates significantly higher than in other European industrialized countries, from 6�1 percent to 17�2 percent (Maissen 291)� The influx of new wildlife populations in Hohler’s story prompts governmental and societal actions to control and significantly limit the animals, much like Swiss groups argued against increased immigration in post-WWII Switzerland� Swiss antagonism toward non-Swiss workers began with semantics� Popular labels for international workers included Fremdarbeiter and implied a greater distance to them than the German term, Gastarbeiter� Swiss trade unionists argued for more restricted immigration in the 1950s (Church and Head 239)� Beginning in the mid-1960s, as the Swiss government shifted its immigration policy from approving short-term visas for rotating groups of workers to integrating the international workers, these workers solicited greater support� They promoted their needs in unions, lobbied for family unification in Switzerland, and argued for integration of international children into regular Swiss school classrooms (D’Amato 180)� Such requests and the perceived growth in the numbers of international workers prompted renewed opposition to Überfremdung� Hohler criticizes politicians in “Die Rückeroberung” because they take some of the most exclusionary actions toward migrants� In Swiss politics, the 1960s saw some conservative parties oppose immigration� Initially, industrialist James Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 369 Schwarzenbach, a Zurich representative in the National Assembly, led the party Nationale Aktion gegen die Überfremdung von Volk und Heimat (NA) with proposals to reduce the number of foreigners to 10 percent of the population (by ca� 400,000) and to place a permanent quota on non-citizen residents (Church and Head 239; Maissen 292)� This proposal was narrowly defeated in 1970� Schwarzenbach left the party, founded the more centrist Republikanische Bewegung, and again proposed two anti-foreigner initiatives, but in 1971, these also failed (Church and Head 240)� Right-leaning politicians regrouped and in 1981 defeated the left’s Être Solidaire initiative to better treat foreign workers (245)� Numerous print publications produced overtones that colored social perception of the immigration debate, and two books are particularly relevant in the context of Hohler’s “Die Rückeroberung�” Albert Bachmann, an editor of the Swiss soldier’s field manual Das Soldatenbuch (1958), cast his 1969 book Zivilverteidigung as the civilian complement to the field manual. It promotes civilian capabilities to defend the independence of Switzerland amid perceived danger (Bachman, Zivilverteidigung 5)� It argues that every people (Volk) competes with others for preeminence and can be threatened internally and externally (13)� It defines Swiss identity through freedom and Christianity, through attachment to place, family, community, and belonging (14, 163)� At the same time, it warns readers to recognize the imposition of foreign propaganda, especially totalitarian ideologies, and to counter those ideologies with Swiss freedom of the spirit, judgment, and personal responsibility (163)� The text plays through defensive scenarios for nuclear, biological, chemical, and psychological warfare, and guides reader actions and perceptions� It even promotes surveillance of the adversary by federal officials and individual citizens, which implies citizens spying on other citizens (185)� It projects a particularly conservative Swiss posture that could have led some immigrants to feel unwelcome� The Eidgenössisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement (EJPD) sent a copy to every Swiss household in October 1969, ca� 2�1 million copies in German, French, and Italian (Löffler 174)� The text was widely available and present in public discourse� In the context of “Die Rückeroberung,” Zivilverteidigung mandated increased militarization of civil society and underscored Swiss identity formation through practices of inclusion and exclusion� Alfred Häsler’s Das Boot ist voll: Die Schweiz und die Flüchtlinge, 1933-1945 (1967) also significantly shapes the debate about who belongs to the Swiss community� The book memorializes Swiss stories describing the removal and interception of foreign refugees during the Nazi dictatorship� The volume incorporates material from the EJPD; private archives of Jewish organizations, churches, and individuals; and Carl Ludwig’s report Die Flüchtlingspolitik der Schweiz in den Jahren 1933 bis 1955. It provides an important record of Swiss 370 Brian McInnis governmental and civilian actions during the Nazi period, but limited analysis� Ludwig and Häsler historicize Swiss use of the term Überfremdung that characterizes the debate about migrant workers in post-WWII Switzerland� In a 1914 report from the Department of Political Affairs to the Bundesrat that evaluated perceived Überfremdung, foreigners comprised 14�7 percent of the population in 1910� Yet this varied regionally, and some cities had larger foreign populations, in Basel 37�6 percent, in Geneva 42 percent, and in Lugano 50�5 percent� The migrants were largely neighbors: Germans and Italians, with fewer French and Austrians� In response to the perceived substantial migrant cohort, the report only recommended an intensified naturalization process (Ludwig 56-57)� The texts by Häsler and Ludwig provide weighty evidence of efforts to maintain perceived notions of Swiss identity from 1933 to 1945� On 31 March 1933, the director of the EJPD, Bundesrat Heinrich Häberlin ordered that refugees should only be granted temporary residency in order to prevent permanent settlement of “wesensfremde Elemente” (Häsler 15, 327)� In an address before the Neue Helvetische Gesellschaft on 3 April 1937 in Zurich, Häberlin’s successor, Dr� Heinrich Rothmund, warned of the need to restrict increasing Überfremdung of Swiss society� He identified the sources of the Überfremdung as a misguided liberal worldview and irresponsible indifference (Häsler 15-16)� Häberlin’s and Rothmund’s policies aimed primarily to prevent immigration of European Jews, who, with the threat of expanding Nazi Germany, found Switzerland’s history of freedom, democracy, and neutrality, and the engagement of Swiss refugee organizations promised a better hope for safety and survival than their home countries� Überfremdung became a politicized term deployed to preserve homogeneous ideals of Swiss society� From at least 1937, it functioned as an anti-Semitic word that sought to emotionally justify measures to prevent Jewish immigration� After World War II, the term was reactivated to describe non-native workers that helped drive Swiss prosperity� In 1970, the foreign population reached 17�2 percent (Church and Head 230)� This was similar to the 1910 number of 14�7 percent, but Überfremdung shaped public debate to a greater degree in 1970� Überfremdung threatens the imagined communities in Hohler’s story� The publication of Häsler’s book in 1967 at a peak of migrant labor points to another phenomenon as well� At the time, Überfremdung shaped public discourse, but Das Boot ist voll attests to the fact that Swiss society may not have fully processed the outcome of its immigration policies in the lead up to and during World War II� Thousands of Jews and political refugees were turned away at the Swiss border, or for those who made it into the country, they were returned to the border, where many fell victim to Nazi detainment� Many did not survive� The Swiss bureaucrats who enacted and enforced wartime refugee Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 371 policy and the Swiss people who did not effect changes to political leadership or to the policy contributed to the deaths of thousands of refugees� Other factors, such as Swiss officials’ concern over the possibility of a Nazi invasion, complicate this history� Nonetheless, the conservative principles that sought to preserve Swiss identity in the 1930s - a judgment that non-Swiss Jews were foreign to Swiss nature - and the principles that sought to preserve Swiss identity in Bachmann’s view of Swiss identity in the 1960s - Switzerland as a Christian nation shaped by democratic freedom and attachment to place, family, community, and belonging - shared an impetus to preserve a perceived notion of Swiss identity� Häsler’s book participated in a Swiss version of Vergangenheitsbewältigung. The book continued to have resonance into the 1980s, when director Markus Imhoof released a dramatized version as an award-winning film in 1981� Hohler’s representation of the police force and politicians as militarized and predisposed against migrants echoes the complicated history shaped by Überfremdung, the EJPD, post-WWII Fremdarbeiter and immigrants, political discourse, and Bachman’s molding of Swiss identity� In “Die Rückeroberung,” Zurich governmental responses to the immigration of fauna and flora evolve from toleration to elimination� The city initially endures the population of migrant eagles because they hunt indigenous rats (Hohler, “Rückeroberung” 7)� In a similar fashion, city officials at first try to manage and relocate the deer herd from the park (8, 12)� Those goals are shortlived, however, as the deer exit the hastily erected electric park fencing and snarl motorized and foot traffic (8-10)� Any disruption of pedestrians, street cars, automobiles, and trucks eventually means a disruption of commerce� The migrant deer’s tangling of traffic and business combined with popular alarm at the concentration, movement, and uncontrollability of “brown bodies” prompts the city to escalate its position and shoot the hungry but passive migrants (10)� Once the wolves arrive and kill a child in addition to deer, the city approves licensed hunters to kill the migrant wolves, eagles, and deer (14)� Civilian responses to the migrant animal populations also turn savage� At the beginning of the story, city dwellers observe eagles and fear the deer� With the wolf attack on the child at school, numerous parents escort their children to school with their government-issued assault rifle, modeling violence as the appropriate response to migrants (14)� This opposition to the animals is accentuated when a forester successfully lures thirty-three wolves to their death, and the city celebrates the achievement by allowing pubs and restaurants to remain open all night with some offering free beer (15)� Gun violence and a successful attack on the migrant animals earn the ambush organizer fame and all citizens a celebration� City and civilian responses to the migrant animals escalate to militarization� 372 Brian McInnis Both groups prove eager to maintain control over the migrants as opposed to living with them� The dystopian narrative questions the goal of human control of the biological ecosystem� While the new species invade human spaces and clash with people, occasionally causing a death, the animals do not at first endanger the citizens� The narrator’s initial investigations of the events hint at the idea of cohabitation, at humans needing to take the chip off their shoulder regarding their supremacy and to share Zurich with the migrant eagles, deer, wolves, snakes, and bears in their environment� The broader Zurich population gradually exhibits increasing hostility toward the animal migrants� An additional menace of fast-growing ivy and other plants threatens humans to a greater degree� The plants limit human mobility, access to homes and workplaces, and safety by providing cover to predators� In combination with the animals, the ivy and plants pose a threat that many people cannot endure (17-18)� This is a worst-case imaginative representation of Überfremdung that questions the viability of forceful opposition to new city residents, whether person, animal, or plant� The ecosystem’s opposition to humans is mythically prefigured in the parking garage deer hunt� According to the myth of Uranus, he is the first-born child of Gaia and represents the addition of a masculine element to the world� Uranus produces many children with his mother Gaia and bans them to the depths of the earth in Tartarus� Gaia becomes angry at this imprisonment, equips her children with a sickle, and encourages the male progeny to attack their father� Chronos leads the revolt by castrating Uranus, and the children supersede their father in importance (Stapleton 207)� In Hohler’s story, the humans assume the role of Uranus and isolate the deer in the “Parkhaus Urania�” The environment (Gaia) resists by leading the deer in an escape from their detention in the parking garage (11)� The deer and other members of the ecosystem, including the wolves, bears, snakes, ivy and petasites (Gaia’s children) figuratively castrate humans and severely restrict their efforts to maintain control of the ecosystem� The city’s human inhabitants rely on past experience to plan their reassertion of control over the invasive plants and animals� They fail to reconsider the relationship between human beings and the environment� When the ivy threatens to overrun the city, cut off access to other communities, and even overrun the roads, the city workers resort to applying heavy doses of herbicide (Hohler, “Rückeroberung” 20)� But this has no effect on the plants and is potentially hazardous to the human residents� It illustrates the divide between the community’s habituated ineffective interactions with the environment and the necessity for new ideas and policies� The narrator doubts that a planned clearing of plants during the winter will be successful (20)� Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 373 The colonization of the city by the animals and plants provokes sociological changes among the city’s residents� A number of these changes have already been noted� There are additional police officers aimed at keeping the animals at bay and eliminating them� The city and companies train new corps of gardeners to battle the ivy that daily grows from the garden to the street and threatens to stop all transport and commerce (18)� The citizens -including the eight-yearolds - embrace carrying weapons as a means for self-protection, and thus embrace a personal militarization that mirrors the militarization of governmental agencies� Human losses to wolves and snakes prompt trauma, and many citizens lack the resiliency to psychologically cope with these changes (14)� Zurich citizens take reactive positions to the impositions by other nonhuman members of the ecosystem and become increasingly violent and psychologically scarred� Additional changes to ways of life indicate a regression of cultural systems in Zurich that represent a greater threat to humanity than cohabitation with other plants and animals� The residents restrict their movements out of fear that the ivy will provide cover for the wolves, snakes, bears, and deer that could endanger human safety� As the police force and city agencies become embroiled in responding to colonization, they protect citizens less� Robberies and vigilante justice increase� In this context, emigration exceeds immigration� The ivy is only removed from the exit ramps leaving the city and not from those coming into the city (19)� The hotel, early in the story marked as a symbol of civilization, is overgrown by ivy, and the construction cranes on the new supermarket are abandoned (20-21)� Thus the economic engines of travel and commerce, of construction and food sales, are brought to a standstill, and the network of culture appears to lack a means of survival, let alone development� This is a strong warning that human society as Swiss citizens know it is at risk� In conclusion, the satire “Die Rückeroberung” critiques Zurich environmental and migration policies as ineffective, with Zurich representing broader Swiss society� The story suggests that environmental policies need to be more holistic� Humans must read and interact with the signs by other members of the ecosystem in a manner that acknowledges their right to peacefully coexist� The text argues for the necessity of intersubjectivity between human and nonhuman actors in order for both to share the earth as a common home� The narrative also hints that migrants in Swiss society endure a problematic existence because of governmental and societal conceptions of Swiss identity and foreigners� A reading of the story in tandem with the history of migrants in Switzerland suggests that Swiss policies of exclusion toward migrants are culturally determined by unprocessed historical prejudices� Hohler uses the oppositional system of satire to call for a reckoning among Swiss government officials and citizens for more inclusive policies toward the environment and human migrants� The “news 374 Brian McInnis from nature” suggests that human interactions with nonhuman residents of the ecosystem must be intersubjective and further the wellness of all� Works Cited Arntzen, Helmut� “Satire�” Ästhetische Grundbegriffe� Ed� Karlheinz Barck� Vol� 5� Stuttgart: Metzler, 2003� 345-64� Bachmann, Albert, and Georges Grosjean� Défense civile. Aarau: Miles, 1969� —� Zivilverteidigung. Aarau: Miles, 1969� Bauer, Michael, and Klaus Siblewski, eds� Franz Hohler: Texte, Daten, Bilder. Hamburg: Luchterhand, 1993� Church, Clive H�, and Randolph Conrad Head� A Concise History of Switzerland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2013� D’Amato, Gianni� “Historische und soziologische Übersicht über die Migration in der Schweiz�” Schweizerisches Jahrbuch für Entwicklungspolitik 27�2 (2008): 177-95� Häsler, Alfred A� Das Boot ist voll: Die Schweiz und die Flüchtlinge 1933-1945. Zurich/ Stuttgart: Fretz & Wasmuth, 1967� Hoffmeyer, Jesper� Signs of Meaning in the Universe� Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1996� Hohler, Franz� “Die Rückeroberung�” Die Rückeroberung: Erzählungen. Hamburg: Luchterhand, 1983� —� “Der Weltuntergang�” Mitlesen Mitteilen: Literarische Texte zum Lesen, Sprechen, Schreiben und Hören� Ed� Larry D� Wells and Rosmarie T� Morewedge� Boston: Thomson Heinle, 2008� 182-86� Löffler, Rolf� “‘Zivilverteidigung’ - die Entstehungsgeschichte des ‘roten Büchleins’�” Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 54�2 (2004): 173-87� Ludwig, Carl� Die Flüchtlingspolitik der Schweiz seit 1933 bis zur Gegenwart (1957). Bern: Lang, 1966� Maissen, Thomas� Geschichte der Schweiz. Zurich: Hier und Jetzt, 2010� Odermatt, Marcel, and Simon Marti� “Franz Hohler über seinen Kampf gegen AKW: ‘Wir wurden nicht ernst genommen�’” Blick 20 May 2017� Web� 2 June 2019� Rueckert, William� “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism�” The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology� Ed� Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm� Athens: U of Georgia P, 1996� 105-23� Schilling, Christoph� “Atomkraft� Der Mythos Kaiseraugst�” Beobachter 29 Feb� 2008� Web� 2 June 2019�- Schultz, Stefan� “Langsame Energiewende� Atomausstieg auf Schweizer Art�” Spiegel 22 May 2017� Web� 2 June 2019� Spielmann, Hans R� “Die Natur schlägt zurück oder wider die Verdrängung: die Erzählung ‘Die Rückeroberung’ von Franz Hohler; eine Lektüre für die Sekundarstufe II�”-Diskussion Deutsch 132 (1993): 351-53� Stapleton, Michael� “Uranus�” The Illustrated Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology. New York: Bedrick, 1986� 207� Environment as Colonizer, Migration as “Überfremdung,” and Satire in Hohler 375 Utz, Peter� Kultivierung der Katastrophe: Literarische Untergangsszenarien aus der Schweiz. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2013� Wheeler, Wendy� “The Biosemiotic Turn: Abduction, or, the Nature of Creative Reason in Nature and Culture�” Ecocritical Theory: New European Approaches� Ed� Axel Goodbody and Kate Rigby� Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2011� 270-82� —� The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2006� Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You: An Animal Act by Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec3 7 7 Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You: An Animal Act by Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec Thomas O� Beebee Pennsylvania State University and Sichuan University Abstract: This article explicates Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec’s thought experiment-Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Eine Abhandlung samt Befund des Institut Scientifique de Recherche Para-naturaliste-(1987) in the context of zoosemiotics, ethology, and Flusser’s broader philosophical inquiries into culture, nature, and art�-Flusser chooses to mind-read and ventriloquize the vampire squid, a cephalopod who inhabits an aphotic world of complete darkness and isolation from humans� Flusser makes the squid an actant in his complex fable that plays against an environmental literature that attributes emotions and consciousness to animals, but only rarely to invertebrates who disgust humans due to their distance in evolutionary branching� Why, Flusser asks implicitly, do we exclude from such theory-of-mind considerations those aspects of human consciousness responsible for amoral, ahuman phenomena such as Auschwitz and nuclear weaponry? What corresponding phenomena for these can we posit in the animal mind? The result is a reconsideration of the function of art, culture, and communication� Keywords: art, zoosemiotics, ahumanism, fable The exchange had to do with four key elements: a sardine can, its placement in nearby water (more generally in a spatiotemporal physical locality), a flicker of sunlight reflecting off its metallic surface, and a comment uttered by the (should we say valiant) representative of the working class: ‘You see that can? Do you see it? Well, it doesn’t see you! ’ (Lacan 95) The lesson of this anecdote, for Guatam Thakur and Jonathan Dickstein in their book on Lacan - who gladly accepted the label “ahuman” for his brand of psychoanalysis - and the nonhuman, is that “much like the sardine can, 378 Thomas O� Beebee the nonhuman (e�g�, ecology, things, animals) proves to exist in a problematic nonrelation with the witness - the so-called human” (Thakur and Dickstein 5)� This essay explores an “animal act” by the Austrian philosopher and media theorist Vilém Flusser (in words) and the paraphysical researcher Louis Bec (in sketches)� Flusser and Bec perform this problematic non-relationship using the most unseen of animal species, the Vampire Squid, and related imaginary species� Flusser will label his and Bec’s performance in their 1987 Vampyroteuthis infernalis: Eine Abhandlung samt Befund des Institut Scientifique De Recherche Paranaturaliste a “fable,” but several of its features cause it to contradict or exceed that genre� The “Ab-” should be removed from the text’s subtitle to reveal it as Handlung that conforms perfectly to the genre of zooësis, which Una Chaudhuri has defined as “the discourse of species in art, media, and culture” (Chaudhuri, Stage Lives 5)� The emphasis is on action, on “the ways the animal is put into discourse” (ibid�)� Animal acts are never just about the animals, but also about those humans who get them to perform, emphasizing “the coupling of the human to some other order of being” (Clarke 3)� Of course, environmentalism can and does proceed from other foundational beliefs not based on the direct relationality of human to nonhuman� One example would be the cybernetic approach to environment alluded to above: human abuses of the natural world create imbalances that result in positive feedback (e�g�, global warming) that put humans in peril� Self-interest alone should prompt humans to be wary of the consequences of their interventions in the natural world� As Heather Sullivan writes, human agency in the Anthropocene is taking on newly paradoxical aspects: on the one hand, the human species has achieved the scaled-up status of a geological force […]; on the other, our individual choices for change diminish down proportionately in contrast to the vastness of our species-wide planetary impact� This development radically shifts the meaning of human activity in terms of individual subjectivity and agency and the relationship to the non-human� (Sullivan 27) This “scaled-up status” would be another way that the ahuman reveals itself� Yet, a perceived empathy or human-animal “theory of mind” remains a strong subset of human self-contemplation, as expressed in the title of Pascal Eitler’s “Weil sie fühlen, was wir fühlen,” where the “sie” refers to animals� The book’s subtitle is Menschen, Tiere und die Genealogie der Emotionen im 19. Jahrhundert� The book reveals a gradual increase in the attribution of emotions and feelings to an ever-greater range of nonhuman animals over the course of that century� Recent books such as Baboon Metaphysics go even further, into the realm of protorationality (cf� Cheney and Seyfarth)� Why, Flusser and Bec’s zooësis asks implicitly, do we exclude from such theory-of-mind considerations those Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 379 aspects of human consciousness responsible for amoral, ahuman phenomena such as Auschwitz and nuclear weaponry? What corresponding phenomena for these can we posit in the animal mind? Flusser chooses to ventriloquize a creature whom we cannot see and who cannot see us, who inhabits an aphotic world of complete darkness and isolation from humans 600 to 1,000 meters deep in the ocean� We don’t see it, and it doesn’t see us - except in Flusser and Bec’s animal act, as we shall discover� Only in 2002, long after the publication of Flusser’s writing, was Bruce Robison able to provide moving images of the creature through deployment of an advanced photographic apparatus and computer animation� 1 What he and other scientists have found out about this football-size creature differs substantially from the image that Flusser gives� Either deliberately or through confusion with other species, Flusser depicts the squid as a carnivore and cannibal� In fact, Vampyroteuthis infernalis (hereinafter VI) is the only known detritivore squid, who does not actively seek out prey but floats and absorbs nutrients as these flow into its arms and beak� Flusser makes much of the semiotics of inking and photophorescence as protowriting, but VI does not ink, and its photophorescent skin cells are poorly developed� Unlike other squid, VI is able to essentially turn itself inside out, covering itself with its dark inner layer that camouflages it in the eternal night of the ocean depths� The fanciful “vampire” designation comes from the capelike appearance of its arms and from its eyes that are proportionally larger than any others in the animal kingdom� 2 Flusser deliberately chose an animal far apart from humans on the evolutionary tree in order to up the ante of his performance� Flusser’s intent, according to Cristina Trivellin, is to “proporre un’antropologia non antropocentrata, uno studio attento sull’ esser-ci umano assai meno esposto al rischio di contaminazione da parte della nostra stessa cultura” / “propose a non-anthropocentric anthropology, a study that is attentive to human Dasein as little exposed as possible to contamination from our own culture” (7; emphasis in the original)� The lack of actual interspecies semiosis is countered by the seemingly endless philosophical speculation enabled by our lack of scientific knowledge and shared experience� Zoosemiotics serves as an umbrella concept for eco-art, posthumanism, and scientific parody� The confounding of genres and intermedial presentation - Bec’s contributions are drawings of imagined Octopoda with descriptions in an invented language combining French, Greek, and neologistic sememes - grounds the reversal of perspective, inasmuch as Flusser ventriloquizes the vampire squid so that it contemplates humans� Under the squid’s withering gaze, fragile human cultural memory pales before the robustness of molluscan genetic memory, while both become mere footnotes in the larger theme of 380 Thomas O� Beebee anti-entropic ecoinformatics� Before reviewing the details of this contribution, let us set the background for zoosemiotics� In an article whose main purpose is a reading of Goethe’s poem “Metamorphose der Pflanzen,” Kate Rigby has provided a sketch of “Biosemiotics in Brief” that moves backwards from Thomas Sebeok to Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944), for whom the inheritance of German Romantic/ Idealist philosophy was a bulwark against the relentlessly utilitarian and mechanistic Darwinist currents of the time (Rigby 26)� Biosemiotics proceeds from the basic conviction that biological processes are semiotic processes, with the eventual discovery of DNA coding as its trump card� Uexküll is credited with giving the German word “Umwelt” its modern meaning of environment, as in the title of one of his bestknown works, Streifzüge durch die Umwelt von Tieren und Menschen (1934)� The book contains numerous illustrations to visualize the difference between Umwelt and Umgebung� For example, a bee’s Umgebung may consist of flowers of various sizes and colors� Its Umwelt, on the other hand consists of geometric shapes such as stars, circles, and Xs, which are the signs that bees use in order to decide where the best pollen is (Uexküll 59)� The idea of Umwelt was taken up by but also questioned by philosophical anthropologists such as Helmuth Plessner, who sought to map the overall structure of consciousness, a Lebensplan that would unify and give purpose to the various stimulus-response mechanisms of higher organisms� One can hear echoes of Uexküll, for example, in Flusser’s description of the squid’s apprehension of its world through touch rather than sight, a decentralized and at the same time sexualized mode of cognition� One can hear echoes of Plessner, on the other hand, in the discussion of the squid’s “philosophy,” discussed below� In addition, one hears echoes of Fichtean Idealism and Heideggerian phenomenology in the following quote from the Vampyroteuthis infernalis that discusses precisely the situation of organisms within their Umwelt: Konkret ist weder der Organismus noch die Umwelt, weder Subjekt noch Objekt, weder Ich noch Nicht-Ich, sondern das Zusammentreffen beider� Es ist absurd, sich ein objektloses Subjekt oder ein subjektloses Objekt vorstellen zu wollen, eine Welt ohne mich und mich ohne Welt� “Da-sein” heißt in der Welt sein� Wenn es also Veränderungen gibt, dann nicht, weil ich mich verändere oder weil die Welt sich verändert, sondern im Gegenteil: weil sich die konkrete Beziehung “Ich-Welt” verändert, und das zeigt sich phänomenal in Veränderungen meiner selbst und der Welt dort draußen� Das muss man im Auge behalten, will man sich dem vampyroteuthischen Dasein nähern� (Flusser and Bec 34) 3 Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 381 The section continues (34-35) with a discussion of Martin Heidegger’s differentiation between “vorhanden sein” and “zuhanden sein,” followed by brief discussions of seeing by Gaston Bachelard and Maurice Merleau-Ponty� “Zoosemiotics,” as the term implies, marks out a subfield that concerns animal communication� As Thomas Sebeok explains, “this word has been coined to emphasize the necessary dependency of this emerging field on a science which involves, broadly, the coding of information in cybernetic control processes and the consequences that are imposed by this categorization where living animals function as input/ output linking devices in a biological version of the traditional information-theory circuit” (200)� The information-theory vocabulary here can be considered a translation of Flusser’s sublation of the supposedly distinct subject and object into a “Zusammentreffen” or circuit� As an “input/ output linking device,” an animal is both subject and object, part of a circuit that can also be called the “Ich-Welt-Beziehung�” A clear example of the linking device using birds comes from Flusser’s treatise Natural: Mind� Birds have evolved not in and of themselves, but for humans “[f]rom being the link between animal and angel [ ] have become objects for the study of group behavior� [ ] [S]uch a modification of our attitude in relation to birds and to flight (provoked by aviation and astronautics) has a significant effect on our view of the world� We have lost one of the dimensions of the traditional ideal of ‘freedom,’ and we have lost the concrete aspect of the traditional vision of the ‘sublime’” (21)� In Chaudhuri’s terms, the rules and norms of zooësis for birds have changed� The “Ich-Welt-Beziehung” can also be seen in the Abhandlung’s epigraph: “nihil humani mihi alienum puto” / “Nothing human is foreign to me�” The quote comes originally from a comedy by the Roman playwright Terentius, but it may be more familiar to modern readers through Fyodor Dostoevsky’s citation of it in Crime and Punishment� It is, in any case, a rather provocative, and certainly highly ambiguous and contradictory opening to a text which, by its title, may be supposed to concern itself with an animal� Looking back on this utterance from the (literal) depths of Flusser’s exploration, we are not sure whether a human is the subject of the enunciation, or a squid - thus making the utterance a perfect example of the subject-object circuit discussed above� In either case, however, the epigraph directly contradicts the purport of the performance, which is to use alienation effects to render humans barely recognizable� Yet at the same time, the subsequent performance also follows a straightforward reading of the epigraph, as Flusser predicts human evolution into “hive mind” mentality as the Information Age progresses� Knowledge of the world today is through media, meaning that communication is a web of circulated, mediated discourse and images, a constative statement amply illustrated by the experience most of us 382 Thomas O� Beebee have had of crowds of people standing or sitting at close quarters and ignoring each other as they stare at their cell phones� The epigraph follows a declaration of the disruptive purpose of the text, a kind of manifesto that precedes the title page and has not found its way into the English translation: “Die Kulturkritik hat von der darwinistischen Revolution so gut wie keine Kenntnis genommen� Deshalb ist sie unehrlich geworden: Sie betrachtet den Menschen und seine Kultur außerhalb des Kontexts der biologischen Entwicklung� Vilém Flusser und Louis Bec versuchen, diesen Zustand zu beenden” (Flusser and Bec n� pag�)� Notice that the first word here is “Kulturkritik,” which is criticized in the terms that have since become familiar in posthumanist and Anthropocene criticism: the problem with Kulturkritik is that the culture worthy of being critiqued is always human culture, precisely because “Culture is the injection of ‘values’ into a set of elements that is exempt of values called ‘nature�’ Things are natural (the technocrats say) when they cannot be judged ‘bad’ or ‘good’ (Natural: Mind 31)� This divide in values leads to the purpose of critique becoming the amelioration of human suffering so that humanity can maintain its position at the center of the planet� A “more honest” approach, with plenty of adherents among environmentalists, would decenter humans rather than preserve their position as the only creatures capable of culture� We will see shortly how Flusser hypothesizes a squid culture laden with countervalues� This “Unehrlichkeit” is unmasked at various points in the text, perhaps most strikingly when Flusser states that “[Die] Absicht [des Textes] ist […] die Tendenz des Lebens zur Sozialisation aus der optimistischen Perspektive des Fortschrittsdenkens in die etwas ernüchternde Perspektive der Nach- Auschwitz-Zeit und der thermonuklearen Ära zu heben” (Flusser and Bec 47)� Nothing human should seem foreign to us; progress and genocide are equally valid outcomes of socialization� These events of mass death cause Flusser to argue, against the more widespread view that the grouping of organisms into collective societies enables a more complex and adequate response to environment than can be achieved by individuals, that socialization is a form of the death-drive� The individual cell or organism surrenders its individuality to the “Überorganismus,” for example to the beehive or termite swarm� Superorganisms are biologically rather than politically organized� Similarly, VI are born out of clusters of eggs, and their social organization - such as it is - is based on the distinction sibling/ not-sibling: “Er ist biologisch bedingt, den Bruder in seiner hierarchischen Stellung anzuerkennen, und er wird frei, wenn er sich dieses Anerkennenmüssens entledigt hat� Freiheit ist für ihn Kannibalismus: den Bruder auffressen können” (Flusser and Bec 51)� Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 383 In Section III, “Die Welt des Vampyroteuthis,” Flusser uses Wilhelm Reich’s idea of repression as the creation of “Panzer” or armor as a way of discussing what memory looks like for animals� Flusser does not cite titles (as is typical for him), but the Reich book Charakteranalyse (1933; Character Analysis) contains several of the ideas that Flusser extends to mollusks� Whereas Freud had concentrated on the unconscious or “Es” as a repository of repressed narratives and symbols, Reich thought of it on a much more physiological plane, as a collection of instincts, most of which are repressed most of the time: The character armor is formed as a chronic result of the clash between instinctual demands and an outer world which frustrates those demands� Its strength and continued raison d’etre are derived from the current conflicts between instinct and outer world� The expression and sum total of those impingements of the outer world on instinctual life, through accumulation and qualitative homogeneity, constitute a historical whole� […] It is around the ego that this armoring is formed, around precisely that part of the personality which lies at the boundary between biophysiological instinctive life and the outer world� (Reich 156)� Flusser takes Reichian physiology several steps further� In Reich, character armor is a stiffening of the body, a holding of the head backwards, away from the groin, in a kind of S shape� For Flusser, an organism is a stratified memory constructed of superimposed repressions, the layers of memory forming its character armor� Here the idea of ecoinformatics becomes prominent, as information reaching back millions of years in the evolution of the species is stored in the skeleton and posture, and then read out again as “personality”: “Der Organismus wird dann als phänotypische Manifestation dieser genotypischen Verdrängung angesehen, d� h� als eine von latenter Energie geladene Bombe, in welcher die Summe der im Laufe des Lebens und der gesamten Lebensentwicklung erlittenen Pressionen aufgehoben wurde” (Flusser and Bec 27-28)� Moving the mouth backwards, away from the anus, creates aggressive personalities, most relevant here being the insects; when mouth and anus remain close to each other, as in the mollusks, the personality is generally soft and pliable� VI is an exception, a death machine that “makes love in order to make war” (28; English in original)� This includes aggression towards his own species, towards his “brothers�” But this phenomenon as well can be explained as the return of the repressed� As mentioned above, Flusser makes much of the fact that squid lay eggs in clumps, guaranteeing that there will be twins, triplets, and so forth, who then will face life together� According to Flusser, a kind of genetic memory is active that constantly reminds VI of its relative evolutionary closeness to ants, termites, bees, and other creatures in which the family, determined genetically by descent from a single female, has robbed all individuals of their freedom in 384 Thomas O� Beebee favor of the totalizing collective� VI struggles for freedom by cannibalizing as much of his family as possible� The reference to Auschwitz has a personal dimension for Flusser, and so at this point it is worth giving a bit of background on the author� Many readers will be familiar with Flusser as a philosopher of media� His theory of photography, Für eine Philosophie der Fotografie (1983), is perhaps his best-known work, followed by his phenomenological essays collected in Gesten (1991)� But his writing in four languages is diverse, and includes his own family history� Flusser was born into a Jewish intellectual family in Prague in 1920� The Anschluss of 1939 caused him and his wife to emigrate to London, and eventually to Brazil� His entire family perished in the concentration camps� When the military dictatorship of Brazil dismissed all philosophy professors from university teaching in 1970, he returned to Europe, first to North Italy, and then to southern France, where he became a close friend of the co-author, Louis Bec� 4 The text of Vampyroteuthis infernalis consists of five chapters, followed by an appendix of Louis Bec’s drawings� The chapters are: Octopoda; Genealogy; The Vampyroteuthic World; Vampyroteuthic Culture; and Its Emergence [Sein Auftauchen]� The first chapter places Homo sapiens and Vampyroteuthis infernalis in their respective orders� They are both bilateral and eucoelomatic, i�e�, they have a body cavity with organs separate from the endoderm� On the other hand, humans belong to a branch that refined the endoderm, VI to a branch that evolved the ectoderm� At this point Flusser plunges into a discussion of vampryoteuthic Dasein� While doing so, he provides clues for the reader about how to interpret his text: In dieser Grundstruktur nämlich werden einige Züge des menschlichen Daseins ersichtlich� Andere wieder erscheinen darin völlig verwandelt� Somit kann ein Spiel mit verzerrenden Spiegeln aufgebaut werden, dank dem wir die Grundstruktur unseres eigenen Daseins aus weiter Entfernung und verzerrt wiedererkennen können� Ein derart “reflektierendes” Spiel soll erlauben, eine zwar sehr distanzierte, aber nicht “transzendente” Sicht auf uns selbst zu gewinnen� Die Sicht ist nicht transzendent, weil sie nicht, wie etwa die wissenschaftliche, von einem über der Welt schwebenden Standpunkt aus, zum Beispiel vom “objektiven”, auf den Menschen hinunterschaut� […] Der Mensch in seinem Wirbeltierdasein soll vom Standpunkt eines Weichtieres kritisiert werden� Wie die meisten Fabeln handelt auch diese scheinbar von Tieren� De te fabula narratur� (Flusser and Bec 12-13) The story is being told of you, says the Latin, reminding us of the text’s epigraph� “Fabula” in Latin means simply “story,” but its German (and English) derivatives have come to be restricted to a certain kind of allegorical story, in which animals are the characters that serve as vehicles for discussing human virtues and vices� Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 385 The dictum tells us that the traditional rule of the fable genre has the animal characters representing character types or behaviors and attitudes of people� Hence, the genre already fulfills aspects of the game of mirrors that Flusser intends: animals have human emotions and values, but are also unlike them enough that they can serve as a vehicle of analogy� Flusser instead introduces extensive details about this squid and about mollusks in general “because [the squid] is, in the end, nothing but our other as other” (Finger et al� 124)� Flusser later (Flusser and Bec 36) differentiates fable both from theory and from real life� The latter lacks any form of reflexivity, while the reflexivity of the former takes us outside of life altogether� In an interview, Flusser pointed to this motivation for his text as well: “Wie kann ich die gegenwärtige Kultursituation kritisieren, ohne in einen transzendenten theoretischen Raum auszuweichen� Und so habe ich mir vorgestellt: Was, wenn ich mir einen Gegenmenschen vorstelle? Was, wenn ich mir das Gegenteil vom Menschen vorstelle? ” (Zwiegespräche 91)� The images from Bec remind readers of emblemata, images with accompanying short texts, many of which could be called “flash fables�” But we recognize immediately aspects of this text that distance it from the fable genre� Most prominently, Flusser’s section provides details on the animal that are meant to be factual, adding an expository dimension not present in fables� Bec’s drawings belong unambiguously to another genre altogether: the bestiary, which is free to range between actually existing and imaginary creatures so long as they are described in detail, and which shares with the fable a moralizing tendency� “Vorstellen” in the quote above means “to imagine,” but also “to perform�” Taken together, the two parts of VI perform a set of mollusks� The VI may thus best be described as an “animal act,” in the recuperative sense given the term by Una Chaudhuri� One sure way of determining that a piece belongs to the category we are defining here - interspecies performance, the new kind of “animal act” - is that, whatever else animals may come to mean in the piece (and they will undoubtedly mean many things), we will be reminded - or we will want to remind ourselves - of their real existence, their actual being as members of a biological species with a specific morphology, geography, and history� And this will be so, I want to assert paradoxically, even when the animal being discussed belongs to an imaginary species� (“Animal Acts” 5) In an email to Rainer Guldin later published in Flusser Studies (“Vampyroteuthis infernalis� Postscriptum”), Flusser’s co-author, Louis Bec continued with the story of publication: one day, Flusser gave him the French text of Vampyroteuthis infernalis, as a kind of private textual discussion between the two� When Andreas Müller-Pohle then expressed interest in publishing the text, Flusser insisted that it belonged to Bec� Eventually, it was worked out that the text 386 Thomas O� Beebee would be co-authored between the two, with Bec using Flusser’s language as inspiration for his “artistic research” into future and possible molluscan lifeforms� Bec concludes his Postscript by reproducing a number of the drawings� Unlike in the published text, he provides a caption for each one, meant to demonstrate the role that Flusser’s language played in the production of Bec’s art� The first example explicitly mentions zoosemiotics: “Planche 1: le discours fascinatoire de Vilém (profondeur, bioluminescence, attributs morphologiques et zoosémiotiques)” / “Plate 1: Vilém’s fascinating language (depth, bioluminescence, morphological and zoosemiotic characteristics)�” But zoosemiosis in its various subcategories and media is present in all the images, for example: “Planche 9: Une vivacité épistémologique et sémaphorique des connaissances” / “Plate 9: an epistemological and semaphoric liveliness of knowledge�” The plate depicts a creature whose name is “Lalokame Semaphoroïde�” End effect: zoosemiotics on steroids� 5 Fiction writers have long turned the fable on its head, disrupting the allegorical transfer of moral characteristics in favor of a “Spiel” of puzzled mutual observation� Anke Finger, Rainer Guldin, and Gustavo Bernardo have compared Flusser’s text with the 1956 short story “Axolotl” by Julio Cortázar, and with the 1936 novel War of the Newts by the Czech writer Karel Čapek (Finger et al� 127-29)� In the former, a person is obsessed with observing a type of salamander (Ambystoma mexicanum) native to Mexico and known by its Nahuatl name “axolotl�” His obsession reaches the point that, at the end of the story, we see his consciousness being transferred inside the amphibian’s body, who now is obsessed with observing the man who comes to visit him in the aquarium from time to time� Intertextually, the story recalls the metamorphoses of Ovid and the animal writings of Franz Kafka� On the metaliterary level, it is a disruption of the analogic of fabular narrative� Čapek narrates human exploitation of newts as objects of experimentation and also of culinary delectation, despite their high degree of intelligence� The newts take their revenge and eliminate humans, but then destroy themselves in a civil war� The next section of Vampyroteuthis infernalis is devoted to a genealogy of mollusks and cephalopods� Flusser puts forward the idea that human’s relative disgust with other animals results from their genealogical distance and their relative difference from humans� By the same token, however, cephalopods are far more interesting to humans than is the distant universe, due to a subjective overlap in both species’ swimming in the stream of life: Cephalopoda sind interessant, insoweit wir uns in ihnen wiedererkennen, insoweit sie ein Teil jenes Lebensstromes sind, der uns selbst mitreißt� Und die Wissenschaft als Ganzes ist interessant, insoweit sie ein Versuch ist, uns selbst in der Welt zu orien- Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 387 tieren� […] Insofern sie “objektiv” wird, wird sie unmenschlich� Nicht “rein” wird sie, sondern ein Wahnsinn� Die Gegenwart fordert uns heraus, die wissenschaftliche Objektivität zugunsten neuer Forschungsmethoden aufzugeben, ohne dabei notwendigerweise auf die vorher gewonnenen “objektiven” Erkenntnisse verzichten zu müssen� Eine dieser neuen Forschungsmethoden wird von der Phänomenologie vorgeschlagen� Es wird versucht, sie hier anzuwenden� (Flusser and Bec 19) An apology for cephalopods becomes, simultaneously, a cultural critique of science, whose abstract communications and basis in matheses are inhuman and thus alienating� The disgust that humans feel towards animals without skeletons, a result of our distance in the branchings of the evolutionary tree, nevertheless is a form of interest that binds us to them more than to abstract science� A few pages later, the commonality between Octopoda and humans is made even more explicit� Both are capable of Geist, which is simply a particular item among thousands in the agenda of life that has been shaped by contingency: “Der Geist steht im Programm des Lebens, er verdeutlicht sich seit den Protozoa, und zwar in Mensch und Vampyroteuthis auf konvergierende Weise, analogisch� […] Wenn wir also im Vampyroteuthis - in Analogie zu uns selbst - ein geistiges Wesen erkennen, dann anerkennen wir die blinde Sturheit des Würfelspiels ‘Leben�’” (Flusser and Bec 25) The characterization of programming as a roll of the dice may seem paradoxical, but it finds its pedigree in other writing by Flusser� For example, we can connect this passage with the essay “Unser Programm,” which is part of the collection Nachgeschichte that is comprised of chapters that begin with the possessive pronoun “Unser�” After “Unser Programm,” which is the first, we find “Unsere Arbeit,” “Unser Wissen,” “Unser Schrumpfen,” and “Unser Rausch,” among others� Flusser argues that there have been to date only three ways of viewing human existence: teleological, which sees humans as the culmination of evolution; causal, which places them in a sequence of inevitable evolutionary moves; and programmatic, which sees humankind - along with everything else - as products of contingency� This last results from the positing of an infinite universe, in which an infinite number of possibilities can be played out an infinite number of times - an incessantly repeated throwing of the dice� In some of these scenarios, consciousness emerges, while in others, it does not� It would be an interesting game to estimate the number of times the dice have been rolled, from the first coming together of organic material to create a life form, all the way to present-day humans� Flusser instead asks us to consider the music of Mozart not as inevitable, but as the product of a string of contingencies: So wunderbare Werke wie Figaros Hochzeit waren in einem gegebenen Stadium der westlichen Welt unumgänglich, obwohl es absurd wäre, sie in ihrer Anlage, zum 388 Thomas O� Beebee Beispiel in der Musik des Cro-Magnon, zu suchen� Programme sind Spiele, die, wenn genügend lang gespielt, notwendigerweise alle, auch die unwahrscheinlichsten ihrer Kombinationsmöglichkeiten zufällig verwirklichen müssen” (Flusser, “Unser Programm” 24)� The roll of the dice becomes wonderfully transparent through Flusser’s juxtaposition of Cro-Magnon music with Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro� Both count as music, both are made by humans, and we assume that European classical music has a long prehistory, rather than being a sudden, recent invention ab ovo� Yet the sequencing of the latter work’s genealogical relation to its distant starting point seems futile, due to the number of rolls of the dice that have occurred� The emergence of consciousness is another such event� Analogous are the various contingencies that led to evolutionary branchings that made Homo sapiens seem to have so little to do with VI, despite a common ancestry - and, Flusser argues, a shared propensity for reflective thinking and for art, though these are of wildly different qualities� The recognition of consciousness in animals is a hallmark of deep ecology and of posthumanism; it is worth noting in this context that the octopus is the only invertebrate to be included in the 2012 Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, in the following formulation: “the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness� Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates” (Low et al� n� pag�)� The special plea for Octopoda in the statement, bypassing fish, for example, seems to speak to Flusser’s claim that invertebrates generally evoke disgust in humans, causing us to overlook the possibility of such animals thinking and feeling� Greater context is given by the philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith in his book Other Minds: Octopuses, the Sea, and the Origins of Consciousness� Like Flusser, Godfrey-Smith spends much time explaining the evolutionary branching that created two different kinds of consciousness� Like Flusser, Godfrey-Smith relates octopodal thinking to its lack of a skeleton, resulting in a distributed brain and embodied consciousness� Like Flusser, Godfrey-Smith speculates intensely on the question of animal communication, be this through tactile or semiotic signaling� And while the latter author does not use the word “culture” to describe the relationship between animals, he does hint at the possibility of a color-based semiotics: The [octopuses] often go through unexplained sequences of colors even when, as far as I can tell, no other octopuses are nearby� Perhaps the camera is their intended audience in these cases� That’s possible� But another possibility is one that takes things more at face value� I think these animals have a sophisticated system designed for Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 389 camouflage and signaling, but one that is connected to the brain in a way that leads of all sorts of strange expressive quirks - to a kind of ongoing chromatic chatter� (Godfrey-Smith 128) What name should we give to these “expressive quirks” in chromatic display, for which we can detect no Zweckmäßigkeit? The octopus producing the colors without a receiver seems to resemble a garret-dwelling poet pouring out the sufferings of his soul into verse� As a scientist, Godfrey-Smith tries not to cross the boundary of what he has actually observed� The above passage is perhaps the most speculative in his book, and he is careful not to anthropomorphize his octopod: is consciousness required for one to have “expressive quirks”? Flusser feels free to hypothesize more deliberate purposes for the complex chromatic and ink displays of his squid� The first and most primary is deception: Die vampyroteuthischen Codes sind von der Art der Spionagecodes: Sie sollen nicht entschlüsselt werden bzw� sie verleiten zu irreführenden Schlüssen� Die Absicht hinter der vampyroteuthischen Kommunikation, hinter seiner Kultur, ist, den anderen in die Irre zu führen, um ihn verschlingen zu können� Es handelt sich um eine Kultur des Trugs, des Als-ob, des Falschen� Man könnte sie auch eine Kultur der Kunst im weitesten Sinn dieses Wortes nennen� (Flusser and Bec 46) The view of art as primarily a form of deception goes all the way back to Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen,” and emerges repeatedly in Western intellectual history, for example in Augustine, Sir Philip Sydney, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Theodor Adorno� Flusser, however, mentions of these only Arthur Schopenhauer’s concept of the world as will and representation (Vorstellung), while using Friedrich Nietzsche’s elaboration of the concept in his actual explanation: “Die vampyroteuthische Kultur ist ein Licht- und Farbenspiel, ist eine Vorstellung, in welcher sich der Wille zur Macht dieses rasenden Raubtiers maskiert” (Flusser and Bec 46)� In a later passage, however, Flusser puts forth a rather different explanation for the “Farbcodes”: art� Bypassing the centuries-long volume of criticism that ascribes an aesthetic function to art, Flusser considers it merely artificial memory, a way that humans have of preserving information by impressing it into material� Animals, on the other hand, have apparently not used this method, and it is completely impossible for deep-sea creatures whose watery environment carries everything away� 6 For them, memory can only be preserved and transmitted intersubjectively, not through materials� Flusser interprets the color displays that puzzle Godfrey-Smith as “schöpferische Tätigkeit�” The octopus has had a thought, learned something new, and is working it out through chro- 390 Thomas O� Beebee matic displays, like an accountant works the beads on an abacus� The next step, however, is the need to transmit this new information, which otherwise would remain with the individual and eventually be lost: Der schöpferische Prozess der vampyroteuthischen Kunst besteht demnach aus zwei Phasen� Erstens, die Datenverarbeitung durch den Künstler selbst: Das bisher Unsägliche und Unerhörte wird artikuliert, und zwar als Ejakulation im Orgasmus� Zweitens, das Verführen des Partners: Ein Kunstgriff bringt den anderen zum Orgasmus, um es ihm zu ermöglichen, das Artikulierte in seinem Gedächtnis zu lagern� Künstlerisches Schaffen ist daher Ausdruck aus sich hinaus und Eindruck auf den anderen� Es ist Vergewaltigung des anderen, um im anderen unsterblich zu werden� (Flusser and Bec 55) In this passage, Flusser brings into conjunction his three ideas of art: as memory, as deception; and as rape� In order to make information collective rather than individual, but lacking the ability to inform materials into repositories for cultural memory, a squid seduces another squid and injects its genetic material in order to be remembered through that creature� This account of squid art is unrepentantly Lamarckian; indeed, even Jean-Baptiste Lamarck did not go so far as to suppose that a single mental state will become part of evolutionary inheritance, but rather only repeated behaviors� The account is, as well, a performative act of pure speculation, of zooëtic imagination� It can neither be proved nor disproved� Traditionally, at the top of the pyramid of productions of Geist as source of willed semiotic complexity has been art, which then joins emotion and consciousness as a litmus test for the difference between human and machine, human and animal� Thomas Sebeok, the next generation after Uexküll, made the question of animal art a key part of his semiotic investigations� Flusser bypasses this line of inquiry, going directly to a Platonic-flavored characterization of Vampyro-art as deception� But there is a second function of art that, in Flusser’s performative imagination, unites squid with human: memory� Not expression, but memory - albeit memory of the unique experience or vision that the artist wishes to express, is the purpose of art, and humans have inscribed such memories in various materials that will ultimately perish, whereas the squid has them written directly into the brains of its “public�” Again, art as intersubjective rather than material, and as a kind of rape: Eine Kunst also, die nicht künstliche Gedächtnisse herstellt (Kunstwerke), sondern die ihre Informationen unmittelbar an die Gehirne der Artgenossen weitergibt, damit sie dort gespeichert werden� […] Es ist Vergewaltigung des anderen, um im anderen unsterblich zu werden: Kunst als Strategie der Vergewaltigung, des Hasses; Kunst als Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 391 Täuschung, als Fiktion, als Lüge; Kunst als trügerischer Schein, also als “Schönheit” - und dies alles in der Stimmung des Orgasmus (Flusser and Bec 63)� But here is where human culture continues to approach that of the vampire squid: having entered the Information Age, most of us no longer manipulate objects, but rather codes, and in which we commit to memory not what we have directly seen, felt, and experienced, but what various media have informed us about� Art becomes ever less material, and hence ever more “liquid,” in digital and other technical forms of copying� For example, digital art - which Flusser predicted but did not experience - allows for the first time texts to consume or reconstitute themselves upon being opened and read� The ephemerality is achieved through the material substrate necessary to programming, but which remains mostly invisible to the viewer or reader� Thus, a performance that began on the ground of zoosemiotics and evolutionary theory, so as supposedly to understand a mysterious sea creature, concludes as a prophecy of the future of art and media� In Does Writing Have a Future? , Flusser posits that the increased availability of writing due to print culture finally pushed pictogram codes out of their central position and into “such corners as museums and the unconscious” (147)� In Flusser’s view, digital codes are now replacing alphabetic codes, human thought is moving from ideological to extracranial, ahuman thinking, though alphabetic writing - including Flusser’s - is putting up resistance� He and Bec redeploy the fable genre to create an intermedial animal act that situates itself on the frontlines of a seismic shift in the semiotics of human culture� Notes 1 See Robison, “The Vampire from the Abyss�” 2 For these and other facts, and an image of the squid, see “Vampire Squid�” 3 It is perhaps worth mentioning the consonance of Flusser’s statement with the organisms-in-environment approach of the American philosopher John Dewey, who argued, for example, that “The idea of environment is a necessity to the idea of organism, and with the conception of environment comes the impossibility of considering psychical life as an individual, isolated thing developing in a vacuum” (56-57)� 4 In a 2007 email to Rainer Guldin, Bec described it as a friendship of 17-18 years� 5 The drawings may be viewed by going to Bec’s online “Postscriptum�” 6 The film Arrival (2016) depicts squid-like aliens who have developed a form of writing using their ink� 392 Thomas O� Beebee Works Cited Bec, Louis� “Vampyroteuthis infernalis� Postscriptum�” Flusser Studies 4 (2007): n� pag� Web� 15 Jan� 2019� Čapek, Karel� War with the Newts� Highland Park, NJ: Catbird P, 1985� Chaudhuri, Una� “Introduction: Animal Acts for Changing Times, 2�0: A Field Guide to Interspecies Performance�” Animal Acts: Performing Species Today� Ed� Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes� Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2014� 1-12� —�The Stage Lives of Animals: Zooësis and Performance� New York: Routledge, 2017� Cheney, Dorothy L�, and Robert M� Seyfarth� Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind� Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2007� Clark, Bruce� Posthuman Metamorphosis: Narrative and Systems� New York: Fordham UP, 2008� Dewey, John� “The New Psychology�” The Early Works, 1882-1898� Ed� Jo Ann Boydston� Vol� 1� Evanston: Southern Illinois UP, 1967� 48-60� Eitler, Pascal� “Weil sie fühlen, was wir fühlen”. Menschen, Tiere und die Genealogie der Emotionen im 19. Jahrhundert� Cologne: Böhlau, 2011� Finger, Anke, Rainer Guldin, and Gustavo Bernardo� Vilém Flusser: An Introduction� Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2011� Flusser, Vilém� Does Writing Have a Future? Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2011� —� Für eine Philosophie der Fotografie. Göttingen: European Photography, 1983� —� Gesten. Versuch einer Phänomenologie� Düsseldorf/ Bensheim: Bollmann, 1991� —� Natural: Mind� Trans� Rodrigo Maltez Novaes� Minneapolis: Univocal, 2013� —� “Unser Programm�” Nachgeschichte. Eine korrigierte Geschichtsschreibung� Düsseldorf/ Bensheim: Bollmann, 1993� 22-27� —� Zwiegespräche. Interviews 1967-1991� Ed� Klaus Sander� Göttingen: European Photography, 1996� Flusser, Vilém, and Louis Bec� Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Eine Abhandlung samt Befund des Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste. Göttingen: Immatrix, 1987� —� Vampyroteuthis infernalis. A Treatise, with a Report by the Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste. Trans� Valentine E� Pakis� Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2012� Godfrey-Smith, Peter� Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness� New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016� King, Barbara J� Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat� Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2017� Lacan, Jacques� The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis� Seminar Book XI (1973)� Trans� A� Sheridan� New York: Penguin, 1977� Low, Philip et al� “The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness�” 2012� Francis Crick Memorial Conference� Web� 7 Mar� 2018� Plessner, Helmuth� Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch. Einleitung in die philosophische Anthropologie� Gesammelte Schriften IV� Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980� Ahumanism, Art, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, and You 393 Reich, Wilhelm� Character Analysis� Trans� Vincent R� Carfagno� New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972� Rigby, Kate� “Art, Nature, and the Poesy of Plants in the Goethezeit: A Biosemiotic Perspective�” Goethe Yearbook 22 (2015): 23-44� Robison, Bruce� “Vampire from the Abyss�” youtube.com. Youtube, 23 June 2006� Web� 18 Dec� 2018� Roof, Judith� The Poetics of DNA� Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2012� Sebeok, Thomas A� “Semiotics and Ethology�” Approaches to Animal Communication� Ed� Thomas A� Sebeok and Alexandra Ramsay� Berlin/ Boston: De Gruyter, 1969� 200-31� Steiner, Gary� Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents: The Moral Status of Animals in the History of Western Philosophy� Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2005� Sullivan, Heather I� “The Dark Pastoral: A Trope for the Anthropocene�” German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene� Ed� Caroline Schaumann and Heather I� Sullivan� New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2017� 25-44� Thakur, Gautam-Basu, and Jonathan-Michael-Dickstein, eds� Lacan and the Nonhuman� New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2018� Trivellin, Cristina “Vampyroteuthis Infernalis: l’alterità capovolta�” Flusser Studies 19 (2015): n� pag� Web� 15 Jan� 2019� Uexküll, Jakob von, and Georg Kriszat� Streifzüge durch die Umwelt von Tieren und Menschen� Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1956� “Vampire Squid�” aquariumofpacific.org� Aquarium of the Pacific, n�d� Web� 3 June 2019� Reviews Will Hasty: The Medieval Risk-Reward Society: Courts, Adventure, and Love in the European Middle Ages. Columbus: The Ohio State UP, 2016. 312 pp. $ 99.95. In the 2001 film adaptation of Sylvia Nasar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of John Nash, the inspiration for his major contribution to Game Theory occurs in a social setting where students vie for the affection of a young woman deemed the most attractive� Nash observes the equilibrium of strategies on the part of the competitors, whose attentions focus exclusively on their objective� He is then free to bypass the competition, ask someone whom the other players see as less desirable, and succeed in winning a dance� In examining the genre of courtly romance, Hasty employs Game Theory and its co-component, Probability Theory, as a new methodology for literary historians to not only deepen our understanding of a hitherto neglected social and literary construct, namely, “the medieval risk-reward society,” but also to do so in an innovative, well-researched study that illuminates and traces the development of this paradigmatic mindset of life as a game and gamble into the early modern period and beyond to the “Gilded Age” of the late nineteenth century� Achieving a synthesis of this magnitude, one that is also applicable to literary analysis in our own age, is no small feat� The reader can hardly fail to be fascinated by this new approach� Hasty offers us a phylogenetic exploration, a literary family tree if you will, of courtly romance from its mid twelfth-century French roots in the works of Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes to its major German branches in the canonical late twelfth and early thirteenth-century works of Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg, and Wolfram von Eschenbach� Not surprisingly, Hasty’s new interpretative optic provides us with a perspective on the reception of courtly literature remarkably different from the conventional currency of German medieval studies� The reader will find a particularly striking exemplification thereof in Hasty’s reframing of Gottfried’s Tristan� Apart from universal acclaim for Gottfried’s verse and artistry, the overall evaluation among German medievalists of the lovers’ courtly behavior has remained a pronounced negative one� Be it in the form of nineteenth-century imposed moral values or the oppositional metrics of church-mandated behavior versus courtly love ideals as promulgated in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries� Hasty breaks the accepted interpretative frame and successfully challenges the given consensus 396 Reviews of scholarly opinion� To do so, he introduces a new vocabulary to accommodate his new conceptual agenda� Approaching the representation of courtly love in Tristan, he does so under the rubric of “love as a cultural wager” predicated on expertise of the game, i�e�, its rules and how one needs to play it well� In other words, the game at hand demands a broad educational base in a wide range of subject matter expected of an educated courtier� As such, Tristan and Isolt demonstrate that they are consummate practitioners of the entire skill set required of courtly men and women� Tristan, in particular, even exceeds expectations by introducing an all but unachievable high standard of accomplishment that ever threatens to elicit the dark side of courtly existence, namely, envy, jealously and Schadenfreude on the part of his outperformed fellow courtiers� By the same measure, it is also an invitation to assume control in pursuing one’s own purpose� Hasty calls our attention to this daring self-initiative: “The lovers may be ‘utterly’ lost in love at the moment, but we observe that in identifying what ails them and in finding the solution in each other, they are already beginning to find their way again� Thanks to their knowledge of the subtleties of linguistic meaning and their ability to reason things out by process of elimination - skills honed in their studies and life experience - Tristan and Isolt here begin to turn to their own advantage what is controlling them� Here they are no longer merely suffering a love that is happening to them but also taking initiative and making love happen - as only they can� The way is difficult for Isolt and Tristan at the beginning of their love, and it will continue to be so� This seems to be one of the main points Gottfried makes in this groundbreaking romance�” (198) The balancing act between courtly norms of behavior and the demands of love remains precarious� This intrinsic instability that underlies the “game” transforms love into a dynamical system that players can control only up to a point before predictability begins to waver� The risk of provoking collective enmity toward a seemingly unassailable rival acts as a narrative goad to amplify the post-love potion episodes� Yet Tristan and Isolt succeed in navigating the shoals of courtly intrigue in a remarkably consistent fashion that could well awaken collective admiration among auditors acquainted with the challenges of life at court� Hasty rightly calls our attention to the affectus of joy that the successful intrigues of the two lovers promulgate at Marke’s court� Auditors may well then have found in his courtly romance a positive affirmation of love as a game worth playing, albeit one scarcely winnable for the rank and file� As Hasty clearly states: “Few courtiers will reach the high standard Gottfried holds forth here - perhaps just Tristan and Isolt in the imaginary action of his romance, and the ‘noble hearts’ among the poet’s audience” (199)� By pinpointing a venerable pedagogical and narrative technique so often overlooked in Germanic medieval Reviews 397 studies, namely, the abiding influence of Affectlehre, Hasty lends contour to a fundamental dimension of Gottfried’s work� As a result, the conventional concern with “meaning” shifts dramatically to “feeling�” The contemporary interest in “affect theory,” e�g�, in the work of the literary scholar and cultural theorist Lauren Berlant, bears out the impact of affective action, especially in a “fantasy of the good life,” for her purposes, the so-called “American dream�” For Hasty’s purposes, one might say the “courtier’s dream�” One can also say with a measure of certainty that both involve risk and the possibility of settling for less� Gottfried invests in a higher love - a love that only a specialist courtly population of noble hearts is able to appreciate - and thereby gives “high” a new and very different sense (vis-à-vis the Christian parameters of love)� But he also hedges his bets by conceding vröden (“courtly joys”) - though doubtless less refined and valuable ones than those to which the noble hearts have access - to the ‘world of the many’ (see vv� 45-53) (115)� Arguably, one of the most valuable insights of Hasty’s book is one that has long eluded literary scholars, namely, that the binary between pursuing divine love and courtly love is not mutually exclusive� As Gottfried paradoxically exemplifies through the love between Tristan and Isolt, the very act of loving another person in this transient world, even if by strict definition adulterously, can still be a path to loving God� What students of medieval German literature have long regarded as oppositional within the inflexible binary and ecclesiastical standard of “worldly” or “non-worldly” becomes then a means to re-evaluating Gottfried’s work as a radical affirmation of the salvific potential of courtly love� As Hasty aptly observes: “If in courtly love, the beloved toward which this concentration of all the capacities of self is oriented is not God, this does not necessarily mean that the way to God is closed, at least not for courtiers” (163)� The final chapter of Hasty’s work, “The Modern Self in Play,” is remarkable and attests to his rare ability to synthesize a range of seemingly disparate materials from other epochs� His summative reflection from the penultimate chapter sets the tone: “Love and adventure are among the first global moves for perishable goods that will increasingly shape the cultural action of the later Middle Ages and modernity� As such they are trendsetters” (204)� Hasty exemplifies this trend through Mark Twain’s dark humor in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court� Key to the “pursuit of adventure and love” is the calculated investment, i�e�, the risk of self, life and property for the sake of profit� As in all honest studies of cultural action, Will Hasty leaves the evolution of the contemporary risk/ reward society open-ended� His view of “culture as action” reveals a new dimension within medieval studies that encompasses the post-medieval world as well� In Augustinian terms, “the present of future things” comes into being through new beginnings, and accordingly, through new risks that may lead to the fulfillment of “self” along a continuum between totalitarian distopia and Kant’s utopian “kingdom of the ends�” I am certain that the reader will find this groundbreaking study to be as rewarding as I have� Truman State University Ernst Ralf Hintz Robert C. Holub: Nietzsche in the Nineteenth Century. Social Questions and Philosophical Interventions. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2018. 536 pp. $ 85.00. The nine chapters that constitute Robert Holub’s book on Nietzsche in the nineteenth century focus on questions of Education, Germans, Society, Women, Colonialization, Jews, Evolution, Cosmology, and Eugenics� The volume positions Nietzsche within “the discursive universe of the late nineteenth century in Europe, but in particular in Germany,” aiming “to understand how and what Nietzsche learned from these discourses, and how his thought then participated in the larger concerns of the era” (7)� Holub’s Nietzsche is not primarily a thinker who debates philosophical questions raised by the ancients, Kant, or German idealist philosophers� As Thomas Brobjer observed, Nietzsche’s library did not contain a single work by Hegel, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, or Kant, even though Nietzsche began to draft a dissertation on the latter� Holub’s research shows very clearly that Nietzsche responded to a large variety of discourses, some of which may seem to be quite uninteresting in themselves� He refused “to distinguish between the abstract and the historical, the philosophical and the mundane” (7)� Some may find it surprising that “[m]ost often he [Nietzsche] possessed only a partial view of a complex situation, and he was apt to draw conclusions from a paucity of information, his own ‘insights’ into human psychology, and personal predilections frequently influenced by perceived allies or foes” (219)� Taking Holub’s view of Nietzsche seriously should curb the overenthusiasm for the (self-fashioned) philosopher and ferocious critic� Holub notes the work of several scholars who have concentrated on the writings and numerous contemporary developments upon which Nietzsche drew, such as Thomas H� Brobjer, Christian J� Emden, Gregory Moore, and Robin Small� By comparison, however, Holub’s book is much larger, wider, and diverse in scope� We learn that, with but few exceptions, Nietzsche did not engage in heated Auseinandersetzungen with the most influential philosophers either of his own or former times� Hence, “an understanding of several of his [Nietzsche’s] main convictions and propositions is possible only if we pay sufficient 398 Reviews attention to the discourses [‘written or spoken communication of debate’] in which he participated” (3)� To be sure, Holub cannot be expected to cover every discourse in which Nietzsche’s writings are entangled� He states his purpose clearly and achieves it exceedingly well� As a result of his approach, Holub is able to uncover numerous, also unexpected turns in Nietzsche’s attention� I mention only a few� The scholarship of the legal historian Josef Kohler on comparative law had significant influence on Nietzsche, as is evident from his heavily marked copy of Law as a Cultural Phenomenon (1885)� To be sure, we know about Nietzsche’s close reading of Friedrich Albert Lange’s The History of Materialism and Critique of Its Contemporary Significance, although that interest is still quite remarkable� The discussion of thermodynamics (380) and the idea of the conservation of energy supported the notion of eternal recurrence� From the time of writing The Dawn in August 1881 on, however, Nietzsche no longer made any reference to the idea� Nietzsche’s concept of the will to power owes much to Maximilian Drossbach’s On the Apparent and Real Causes of Occurrences in the World (1884)� As is evident also from Holub’s book on Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem (Princeton UP, 2016), since his days at the university in Leipzig, Nietzsche “harbored and expressed views on Jewry and the Jewish religion that contain clichéd notions common to his peers”; in fact, he “never relinquished stereotypical attitudes about Jews” (311)� However, Nietzsche was neither völkisch nor racist� Holub’s discussion of the colonial question is certainly one of the most original chapters in the book� Whether or not Nietzsche’s remarks on eugenics “were made in the context of growing European reflection on degeneration, evolution, and biological solutions to social issues” (452), they are especially troubling� For the sake of brevity, I have selected the question of women as a representative example of Holub’s approach to, and Auseinandersetzungen with Nietzsche’s writings� Curiously, Nietzsche’s critical, derogatory comments about women were not directed against the intellectual women he knew personally, Resa von Schirnhofer, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Malwida von Meysenbug, and his sister, Elisabeth� And, yet, Nietzsche’s private remarks about women, which are found largely on the pages of his literary estate (Nachlass), are demeaning and cruel� “Instead of looking exclusively to the private realm [i�e�, Nietzsche’s biography] for an explanation,” however, Holub considers, again, the historical context (217)� Nietzsche’s “most venomous remarks” were reserved for the idea of the emancipation of women (215), which were quite well spread in his day� Indeed, as Holub points out repeatedly, “he [Nietzsche] was much more a citizen of his own era than he and his critics concede” (218)� As is the case with the majority of questions Holub investigates, the question of women “became part of a complex nexus of movements and concepts in Nietzsche’s thought of the Reviews 399 1880s that defined the [presumed and supposed] ills of the modern world” (217)� It may be surprising to learn that Nietzsche’s work is often duplicitous� Unlike in his social life, to which the women he knew attest, in his writings, Nietzsche “assumes an almost completely different personality, adopting the persona of a haughty, combative, intemperate polemicist” (216)� Regarding Nietzsche’s whip remark, I suggest that the whip was not meant for the man but for the woman� See the photograph of Lou Andreas-Salomé with whip in hand and Nietzsche and Paul Rèe as “horses” pulling her wagon� Nietzsche himself choreographed the setting� He also dragged an unwilling Paul Rèe into the scene� My main reservation does not concern the quality of Holub’s highly interesting account or even the majority of conclusions he draws� It has to do with the absence of attention to the work of the early Nietzsche� By “early,” Holub means the Nietzsche of the 1870s on� Like so many scholars and philosophers, he goes no further back into Nietzsche’s life and writings than the time of his appointment as a professor of classical philology in Basel� But scholarship on young Nietzsche by Schmidt, Young, Hödl, and Blue, among several others, has been available for some time� My question is whether or not “Nietzsche” can be understood by focusing only on the later work without taking into account his early and earliest writings, including the sizeable body of poetry, prose, and dramas in the four-volume Nachgelassene Aufzeichnungen� Although one will have to swim against the tide of philosophers who have claimed “Nietzsche” as their own as Holub does, I believe that accounting for the work of early Nietzsche must necessarily alter views of the later “Nietzsche�” The impact of the son of a Lutheran pastor on his Gesamtwerk has not been adequately investigated� Indeed, in the light of the influence of the protestant tradition on Nietzsche, the titles Ecce Homo [Pontius Pilate’s words to Christ] and Der Antichrist [The Anti-Christian] cry out for reappraisal in the light of the writer’s Erziehung, subsequent Bildung, and, I would argue, later Anti-Bildung� Holub’s book is very well researched and well-written� It also contains a wealth of information about other writers and developments in the nineteenth century that is important in itself� Holub’s conclusions will not satisfy everyone� But that is as it should be� A relatively minor quibble is the small font size of the print which was probably required in order to drive down the cost of the publication of Holub’s voluminous 536-page book� Holub’s contribution to Nietzsche research is of considerable weight� Nietzsche scholars will need to engage Holub’s findings squarely� Future scholarship will be remiss if it averts attention away from the book� University of Arizona Steven D. Martinson 400 Reviews Nicole A. Thesz: The Communicative Event in the Works of Günter Grass. Stages of Speech: 1959-2015. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2018. 306 pp. $ 90.00. How should the world remember Günter Grass - as the renowned author and eventual recipient of the Noble Prize for literature who contributed significantly to the postwar German literary movement Vergangenheitsbewältigung or as someone who, in spite of his public image as a writer who faced the past, long withheld information about having been a member of the Waffen- SS during World War II? Of course, he had multiple facets to his character, and Nicole A� Thesz’s The Communicative Event in the Works of Günter Grass offers a multi-sided view of the author and his oeuvre with a focus on his pronounced attentiveness to the power of language� Divided into four parts and conveyed in concise, lucid prose, Thesz’s study traces how active dialogue, open debate, speech acts, and the identity-forming capacity of language function as a defining element throughout Grass’ works� In fact, Grass’ characterization of speech and language changed over the decades, revealing itself sometimes as a tool used for guileful and even violent purposes, sometimes for educating the people, and at other times simply for introspection and the literary creation of the self� Part I examines Grass’ communicative approach throughout the Danziger Trilogie� Oskar, the protagonist of Die Blechtrommel (1959), begins life already as a late talker but then develops a voice that can shatter glass, indicating the unusual power of language� Indeed, various characters use language to categorize and dominate others, especially throughout the Second World War� Oskar’s later role model Bebra never grows to heroic stature, but through grandiloquent speeches he seeks to increase his aura in ways reminiscent of so many demagogues of the era� Even in the postwar period, similar patterns of communication gave rise to power imbalances, suggesting some continuity between wartime culture and Adenauer’s Germany� In Katz und Maus (1961), Joachim Mahlke constantly strives to impress his rivals and the society from which he desperately desires approval, and it turns out that he understands his culture well� Former graduates of his school who return from the war as heroes give speeches that underscore the power of language in the Third Reich� Finally, in Hundejahre (1963) communicative strategies enable people both to cope with and also conceal the Nazi past, suggesting that the democratic society that former West Germany had become remained unable to adequately confront its recent history� Reviews 401 Grass’ move to establish a space for public, critical debate during the 1960s is the focus of Part II, which explains how his political efforts sought to create new discourses that furthered democratic aims� The society depicted in örtlich betäubt (1969) hopes for open dialogue on the past, but a divide persists between the younger, more revolutionary generation and the older generation that still carefully weighs words and remains incapable of deeds� The autobiographical novel Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke (1972) portrays Grass’ efforts for the SPD and the Willy Brandt campaign and amounts to a sort of a call to the people to have difficult conversations, such as about the Holocaust, suggesting that effective communication can lead to responsible citizenship and parenting� Moving on to Part III, we find that Unkenrufe (1992) expresses Grass’ appeal to his audience to engage in cross-cultural dialogue for the benefit of new challenges in the post-Wall era� The characters Reschke and Piątkowska symbolically play out an imagined German-Polish dialogue that glosses over national differences for the sake of an all too fictitious harmony� While Reschke is sensitive to the call of the toads in the Polish countryside, profit-hungry German business tramples over the natural world and presages a doomed relationship� In Mein Jahrhundert (1999), Grass turns his attention to recounting moments in German history and stakes a sort of claim over the time period� His use of first-person narrative allows the work to jibe with oral history, but his tone shifts toward cynicism, stressing that speech acts fundamentally shaped the last century� Whether the infamous speech of Kaiser Wilhelm II that sent German soldiers off to put down the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 or Hitler’s speeches to the unemployed masses, oratory language profoundly impacted the fate of the German people� Grass suggests that, though the German people were responsible for their own actions, they were also manipulated by devious words during especially hard times� In Part IV we encounter a new version of Grass in the monologues of Beim Häuten der Zwiebel (2006), the book in which he infamously divulges his own earlier connection to the Nazi regime� A naive youth, he failed to question what was going on, even when people around him began to disappear, but Grass depicts himself also as a man who emerged skeptical of all ideologies in the postwar era and who ultimately could reject the very idea of “leaders,” a concept that reminded of Nazi discourse� Eventually, he not only became a respected writer in the German literary tradition but also cast himself in Grimms Wörter: Eine Liebeserklärung (2010) as someone with a special affinity to the Brothers Grimm, men who, like Grass, embraced political ideals and found their home in the Kulturnation of German language and literature� 402 Reviews Nicole A� Thesz’s book, which covers more than this brief review communicates, stands out for its timeliness� Not only does it offer a perspective on how forceful rhetoric during difficult times shaped German society in fateful ways, but it may also fill a gaping hole in the knowledge of so many young people in the United States today who have never even heard of big names like Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Christa Wolf� Günter Grass, whose works are absolutely filled with historical allusion, belongs on this list of famous and yet unknown writers, but Thesz’s volume explains the contexts within which his works take on meaning, thus making them accessible today� Purdue University Fort Wayne Lee M. Roberts Kristy R. Boney and Jennifer Marston William (Eds.): Dimensions of Storytelling in German Literature and Beyond: “For once, telling it all from the beginning.” Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2018. 290 pp. $ 95.00. In Dimensions of Storytelling in German Literature and Beyond: “For once, telling it all from the beginning,” Kristy R� Boney and Jennifer Marston William have compiled a fitting tribute to the work of Helen Fehervary, Professor Emerita of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Ohio State University� The book’s subtitle, drawn from Anna Seghers’s novel Transit (1944) about a German refugee recounting his attempt to flee Nazi-occupied Europe, speaks to the book’s various and interrelated foci� Dimensions of Storytelling, divided into three sections, features essays that, 1) honor Fehervary’s significant and career-long engagement with Seghers, 2) reflect on the role of storytelling in modernity - a central preoccupation of Seghers herself, and, 3) recognize the significance of personal perspectives for telling stories about signal historical events� Part I, “Anna Seghers: A Missing Piece in the Canon of Modernist Storytellers,” features essays by prominent scholars of Seghers and East German literature� Fehervary’s achievements include her work to make known the breadth and depth of Seghers’s intellectual and artistic development across the twentieth century� It is appropriate, then, that this section covers topics that span Seghers’s life, and represents the methodological perspectives that Fehervary’s approach to Seghers’s oeuvre has helped make possible� In “Anna Seghers in Heidelberg: The Formative Years,” Christiane Zehl Romero outlines the intellectual milieu in which Seghers circulated as a university student - a group that included exiles from Eastern European countries who had fled failed revolutions, including her Hungarian husband, Laszlo Radványi� Peter Beicken examines how, in Seghers’s “Ausflug der toten Mädchen” - written Reviews 403 during her Mexican exile - the author draws on cinematic narrative strategies to craft an avant-garde “requiem” for the people and places of her childhood home, Mainz, destroyed by fascism and bombs� Ute Brandes and Stephen Brockmann turn their attention to Seghers’s immediate postwar writings� Brandes argues for reading her texts that feature stark depictions of damaged German psyches and settings - and therefore not favored by cultural authorities in Germany’s Soviet-occupied zone - as contributions to the genre of Trümmerliteratur prominent in German-language literature of that time� Brockmann, in turn, hones in on the way that Seghers’s writing, as well as her mentorship of younger writers during the late 1940s and early 1950s, supported deep reflection into the fascist legacy of the new socialist state� Brockmann’s piece shows that Seghers’s postwar work does not, as some have assumed, reinforce an East German mythos of the state’s foundation in anti-fascist resistance� In a similar vein, Hunter Bivens’ and Benjamin Robinson’s reflections on Seghers’s final novels, Die Entscheidung (1959) and Das Vertrauen (1968), counter readings of the works as blindly supportive of the East German state� Instead, both identify in these works the formal innovations through which Seghers postulated tensions between the mundanity of daily life in socialism and the transcendent time of the realized revolution� Finally, Jennifer Marston William offers an overview of the way Seghers employs “conceptual metaphors” throughout her work in order to posit meaning-making as humans’ response to “the inherent emptiness of human existence” (96)� Part II, “Expressions of Modernity: Using Storytelling Unconventionally,” comprises essays that focus on ways in which Seghers’s predecessors and contemporaries subvert or innovate narrative forms� Robert Holub argues that Heinrich Heine’s inability to tell stories according to novelistic conventions pushed him into his signature self-reflexive narrative practice� In “Modernist Haze: Topographical Textures in Paul Klee and Franz Kafka,” Kristy Boney asserts that both the artist and writer “[visualized] modern topographies as […] disrupting tangibility and continuity” (123)� However, Boney also identifies in Klee’s paintings and Kafka’s writings depictions of space that suggest the potential for emancipation, not only alienation and isolation� Kristen Hetrick’s reading of Thomas Mann’s Die Betrogene and Nadine Gordimer’s Get a Life, shows how these two works that feature cancer-stricken protagonists diverge from a long tradition of what Hetrick terms stories of “the transformative nature of a cancer experience” (176)� The remaining pieces in the volume’s second section focus on the way Jews’ experiences of flight and resettlement in the twentieth century shape narrative� Here, Weijia Li highlights the life of German-Jewish Chinese Studies scholar, Willy Tonn, exiled in Shanghai from 1939 to 1949� Beyond serving as an important source of China expertise for Western 404 Reviews readers, Tonn wrote fictional works in which he merged Western and Eastern myths - a project, Weijia-Li points out, that aligned with larger discourses theorizing syntheses “between the Orient and Occident” (144)� Elizabeth Loentz’s work on “American Children Writing Yiddish: The Published Anthologies of the Chicago Sholem Aleichem Schools,” offers a rich account of Yiddish-language instruction and production in secular Yiddish schools in Chicago from 1912 to 1977� Through her study of assignments, written in Yiddish, in which students tell stories about the schools’ influence on their own lives, Loentz charts a transition in the political and social role of the institutions, from a site for expressing progressive politics and Jewish unity, to Jewish “Americanization” and an emphasis on a nostalgic, Jewish past� Michael Peroutková’s essay on “A Literary Depiction of the Homeland of Jews in Czechoslovakia and East Germany after 1945” showcases, through an analysis of stories about Jewish survivors of World War II by the German writer Jurek Becker and the Czech writer Lenka Reinerová, how the Jewish experience was repressed in both socialist states� Part III, “The Personal Narrative: Storytelling in Acute Historical Moments,” features autobiographical and scholarly reflections on the intersections between individuals’ experiences and crafting stories� Here, Jost Hermand describes the personal and political contexts that motivated him to recount his experiences with the Hitler Youth� Marc Silberman presents what he terms an “intellectual autobiography,” detailing the development of his own research in GDR literature within the larger context of the history of East German studies (198)� Andy Spencer and Luke Springman write about the way personal histories of World War II shaped storytelling in East Germany� In “Conflict without Resolution: Konrad Wolf and the Dilemma of Hatred,” Spencer posits that the filmmaker Konrad Wolf’s political conviction, galvanized by his experience fighting for the Soviet Army against the hated Germans, shaped his postwar work� Springman, in “Bleibt noch ein Lied zu singen”: Autobiographical and Cultural Memory in Christa Wolf’s Kindheitsmuster,” argues that Wolf, in her novel about remembering childhood in fascist Germany, shows the significance of “everyday rituals,” such as songs, in shaping “individual and collective memories” (222)� Rounding out the third section is Amy Kepple Strawser’s English translation of the first chapter in Ursula Krechel’s 2012 novel Landgericht - the story of a Jewish lawyer returning to Germany after exile during World War II, and Sylvia Fischer’s interview with Eberhard Aurich and Christa Streiber-Aurich about their careers in the GDR’s cultural field� Overall, Dimensions of Storytelling comprises a rich collection of essays that showcases Fehervary’s scholarly interlocutors as well as her legacy as a professor and mentor� It will be of interest to scholars of East German literature, Reviews 405 twentieth-century German literature, and those who wish to gain insight about the contours of German Studies in the U�S� University of Kansas Marike Janzen Kyle Frackman and Faye Stewart (Eds.): Gender and Sexuality in East German Film: Intimacy and Alienation. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2018. 296 pp. $ 90.00. Scholars of East Germany have increasingly turned their attention to issues surrounding gender, sex, and sexuality to open new perspectives on foundational topics like consumer goods, labor, and the relationships between state and society� But so far, questions about gender and sexuality have not been widely applied to East Germany’s film productions, made by the state-sponsored film corporation DEFA� This scholarly omission seems even more surprising when one considers the substantial role that DEFA films play in scholarship on East Germany more generally� Therefore, Gender and Sexuality in East German Film: Intimacy and Alienation, edited by Kyle Frackman and Faye Stewart, provides a welcome and insightful first look at how film readings centering around gender and sexuality can lend new perspectives to particular films and also to East German studies more broadly� The volume’s twelve contributions (which began as presentations at the 2015 Summer Film Institute at the DEFA Film Library) cover different decades, approaches to cinema, and theoretical methods� They also embrace the full range of the DEFA catalogue� Popular feature films are studied alongside documentaries, amateur films, and experimental shorts� Even scholars closely familiar with DEFA will likely discover new films in this volume� The contributors develop similar themes across the volume, like gender roles ( John Lessard, Larson Powell), queer relationships (Stewart, Frackman), and the influence of the state and politics on personal lives (Sonja E� Klocke, Jennifer Creech and Sebastian Heiduschke)� Other crucial topics (like the effects of gender in the workplace or moving beyond binary frameworks) are the focal points of individual chapters by Muriel Cormican and Evan Torner� Underlying this strong thematic discussion is also a consideration for change over time� The roughly chronological organization of the chapters shows that issues of gender and sexuality were confronted much more directly in East Germany’s later decades� Several contributors focus on Der Dritte (The Third, 1972), so this film offers the best example of the kinds of insights provided in this volume� In terms of the 406 Reviews film’s plot, Stewart uses gendered and queer readings to reshape its widely accepted meaning� Traditionally, scholars have seen Der Dritte as a film that champions women’s liberation under socialism: the protagonist Margit is a successful single mother, who is free to enter into a third marriage if and with whomever she so chooses� But Stewart instead sees a more ambiguous message� Perhaps the film is about women’s liberation under socialism, Steward writes, and ‘the third’ does indeed refer to Margit’s third husband� At the same time, Stewart also points to the close relationship between Margit and her female best friend, who share an intimate scene, and suggests that ‘the third’ might refer to the romantic connections among Margit, her new husband, and her best friend� For Stewart, the film “validates both the social norm and the queer alternative” (96) and is far richer than ideologically-driven interpretations of it would suggest� Other contributors show how this delicate balancing in the film’s plot was replicated in the making of the film� Victoria I� Rizo Lenshyn demonstrates how East Germany’s film star Jutta Hoffmann (who played Margit in Der Dritte) presented herself in public as a dedicated socialist citizen so as to be allowed to work on films like Der Dritte that had views that could be seen as more experimental, outside of the mainstream, or not adhering to party views� This new reading of East German cinema further clarifies the roles of gender and sexuality in East Germany� Cinema, as a public, widely viewed art form, shows the pervasiveness of discussions about gender, sex, and sexuality in East Germany� Rather than hidden behind closed doors, East German cinema instead presented a wide range of plots, scenes, and subtexts that showed frustrations with gender norms or the desire to talk about relationships beyond heterosexual ones� And yet, the contributors to this volume show that even though these ideas were more widely discussed than either political ideology or historical studies might have suggested, these more permissive attitudes toward gender, sex, and sexuality were far from monolithic� Some movies, for instance, ultimately upheld traditional gender norms: Henning Wrage points out that even as women became more empowered in the 1970s, films continued to suggest women’s inability to foster social change� Yet other films, which seemed on the surface to uphold traditional gender norms, actually played with them� John Lessard uses the presentation of women characters and the work of women in filmmaking to show the subtle ways that plots and productions challenged patriarchal notions of work and gender� This multitude of ideas extended beyond discussions of gender� Kyle Frackman shows how the 1988 documentary Die andere Liebe (The Other Love), the first East German film to look at gay and lesbian experiences in the country, made these communities more visible while also exposing their more general lack of recognition and the extent to which attitudes in East Germany lagged behind those in Western Europe� Reviews 407 As these examples show, the studies in this book make a great contribution to methods for studying East German sources in general, not just when it comes to questions of gender and sexuality� They offer particularly valuable methods for examining sources from a multifaceted viewpoint� Instead of a singular ideological reading, the contributors open up ways to see the ambiguities of everyday life in the state� The many questions that this book poses will likely inspire future projects� Editors Frackman and Stewart suggest areas of research including masculinity studies, sexual violence, and non-binary identities� Another consideration might be the connections between DEFA cinema and everyday experiences� It is clear that the 1970s saw changes in how films dealt with gender and sexuality, but how did these new discussions interact with how East Germans actually lived? Furthermore, while some contributions gesture to international developments, future research might look at East German film in a wider context: what attitudes toward gender and sexuality were particular to East Germany and which were shared within the socialist sphere and beyond, as sexual mores and gender roles changed in the later decades of the twentieth century? The fact that this volume opens up so many productive avenues of research shows how engaging and innovative these contributions are� This study will be important for anyone interested in postwar cinema or East Germany more broadly� Stanford University Colleen Anderson Katya Krylova: The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017. 197 pp. Hardcover $ 90.00. Paperback $ 29.95. With her lucid prose, Katya Krylova skillfully weaves together the historical context with pertinent case studies to illustrate how the selected writers, filmmakers, and creators of public art have engaged with the legacy of the National Socialist past� The Waldheim affair (1986-88), which serves as the point of departure for the volume, resulted in a long-overdue public discrediting of the myth of Austria’s victim status during the National Socialist regime� It was also the impetus for many of the subjects of Krylova’s study to become involved in a variety of protest movements and confront the past in their chosen media� After setting up the historical context with a discussion of the civic engagement following Waldheim’s election, Krylova dedicates five chapters to the exploration of two novels, a play, four films, and eight examples of public art 408 Reviews created between 1983 and 2014� With her case studies she explores how the confrontations with the past have evolved over time� In the first two chapters, “Melancholy Journeys to the Past: The Films of Ruth Beckermann” and “Reconstructing a Home: Nostalgia in Anna Mitgutsch’s Haus der Kindheit,” Krylova draws on Svetlana Boym’s discussion of nostalgia in The Future of Nostalgia and her distinction between restorative and reflective melancholy� According to Boym, the restorative nostalgic wishes to return to an idealized past, whereas the reflective nostalgic deals with the past from an estranged distance, scratching the patina of history� In the Beckermann chapter the author discusses how the filmmaker’s three Vienna films are examples of reflective nostalgia� In Wien retour (1983) Beckermann transports viewers to the Vienna of the twenties and thirties with the story of Franz West (formerly Weintraub) and makes visible the history of left-wing movements as well as the anti-Semitism of pre-Nazi Austria� Die papierende Brücke (1987) becomes a much more personal journey in the shadow of the Waldheim affair, in which Beckermann explores her own family history and reflects on growing up Jewish in Austria� In Homemad(e) (2001), the filmmaker focuses on her home street in Vienna and its contemporary inhabitants while at the same time reflecting on absences� In Chapter Two Krylova turns to Anna Mitgutsch’s novel Haus der Kindheit (2000) and argues that the protagonist’s engagement in the past moves from restorative to reflective nostalgia� She illustrates how the protagonist, a New York interior designer and the son of Jewish-Austrians, engages in restorative nostalgia after he reclaims his mother’s house in Austria, which he unsuccessfully tries to restore to its original condition� When he becomes interested in a group of dilapidated buildings, where members of the Jewish community had once lived, he sets out to uncover a past that has been erased and write a chronic of those persecuted and murdered� Although the new territory covered is limited, the two chapters provide an excellent overview of Beckermann’s films and Mitgutsch’s novel and illustrate how they reveal a shift in engagement with the past� In Chapter Three, Krylova sets out to “explore the intersections and diverse possibilities of the filmic and theatrical texts for confronting the past and representing continuing repercussions of the past in the present” (65) by turning to a film and a play which concern themselves with the murder of Hungarian Jews in Rechnitz on March 25, 1945� The author outlines how Margarete Heinrich and Eduard Erne’s documentary film Totschweigen (early 1990s) follows the frustrating and unsuccessful search for the gravesite of the victims, exposing the town’s attempts to cover up this past� Turning to the same historical event, Elfriede Jelinek’s post-dramatic play Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel, premiere 2008) focuses on how the past is repressed and personal guilt negated in language� Krylova’s insightful analysis of the documentary complements her discussion of Reviews 409 the play� In Chapter Four, the author focuses on Robert Schindel’s roman à clef Der Kalte (2013), which has a lightly veiled literary rendition of the Waldheim presidency as its backdrop� Krylova explores how the author’s biography as the son of Communist Jews and the Waldheim affair shapes Schindel’s literary contemplation of the struggles of both the survivors of the National Socialist brutality and their progeny in contemporary Austria� In Chapter Five “Missing Images: Memorials and Memorial Projects in Contemporary Vienna,” Krylova takes on a fascinating subject, which could easily be expanded into a book� She provides an overview of the first examples of public art, Alfred Hradlicka’s Mahnmal gegen Krieg and Faschismus (1988) with its “undifferentiated presentation of victimhood” (97), followed in 2000 by Rachel Whiteread’s Mahnmal für die 65.000 ermordeten österreichischen Juden und Jüdinnen der Shoah� While both are in well-trafficked areas, much of the more recent public art, which reflects on Austria’s role during National Socialist years, can be found throughout the city� Krylova discusses eight examples that engage critically with Austria’s National Socialist past� She organizes her examples, which were installed between 2002 and 2015, under six thematic rubrics - “Contextualizing Nazi Art,” “Localized Decentralized Memorials,” “Making Memory Visible,” “Remembering Everyday Persecution,” “An Intervention in Existing Memorial Culture,” and “Making Absence Visible�” Included in her discussion is Schlüssel gegen das Vergessen, the moving installation of keys in Servitengasse in Vienna’s ninth district, and the Steine der Erinnerung, which are found throughout the city� Both were brought about by private initiatives, which show a marked attempt by certain sectors to uncover aspects of Austria’s uncomfortable past� At the same time Krylova provides insights into Austrian engagements with the past, we, however, learn little about the artists and motivations with the exception of Karen Frostig and Ruth Beckermann� The comprehensive volume, which gained the distinction of 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title, is a welcome addition to academic and personal libraries� Krylova provides a valuable resource for those unfamiliar with the political events and the texts at the same time points to directions for fruitful future research� University of Michigan-Dearborn Jacqueline Vansant 410 Reviews Irène Cagneau, Sylvie Grimm-Hamen, Marc Lacheny (Eds.): Les traducteurs, passeurs culturels entre la France et l’Autriche. Reihe Forum Österreich 10. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019. 268 pp. € 39,80. Marc Lacheny: Littérature «-d’en haut-», littérature «-d’en bas-»-? La dramaturgie canonique allemande et le théâtre populaire viennois de Stranitzky à Nestroy. Reihe Forum Österreich 2. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2016. 352 pp. € 49,80. Die den Habsburger Vielvölkerstaat auszeichnende Mehrsprachigkeit scheint sich zumindest in der Forschung über diesen erhalten zu haben� So sind etliche einschlägige Studien zu dessen Literatur und Kultur in einer Sprache verfasst, die von derjenigen des Untersuchungsgegenstands abweicht - man denke nur an so illustre Beispiele wie Claudio Magris’ Il mito absburgico, Roger Bauers Le royaume de Dieu oder Carl E� Schorskes Fin-de-siècle Vienna� An diese Tradition der Mehrsprachigkeit knüpft die im Frank & Timme Verlag erscheinende Reihe “Forum Österreich” an, deren Bände mal auf Französisch, mal auf Deutsch, mal in beiden Sprachen erscheinen� Damit leistet die Reihe einen tatsächlichen Beitrag zum Kulturtransfer� Unter diesem Aspekt ist es nur stimmig, dass sich der jüngste, im Jahr 2019 erschienene Sammelband Les traducteurs, passeurs culturels entre la France et l‘Autriche in einem historischen Querschnitt mit den Übersetzern zwischen Frankreich und Österreich befasst und damit zugleich die Voraussetzungen für den Kulturtransfer beleuchtet� Mit den Übersetzern, so lassen uns die Herausgeber Irène Cagneau, Sylvie Grimm-Hamen und Marc Lacheny im Vorwort des Bandes wissen, greift dieser eine Figur auf, die lange Zeit im Schatten der von ihnen übersetzten Autoren stand und der von daher eine eher marginale Stellung zukam� Es mag dem in jüngster Zeit zunehmenden Interesse an Figuren des Dritten, Netzwerken und Konstellationen zu verdanken sein, welches dazu beigetragen hat, den Blick auch für diese bisher meist übersehene Figur zu schärfen� Der große Verdienst des Bandes liegt darin, dass er das Potenzial aufzeigt, welches der Untersuchung dieser Figur innewohnt� Dies tut er anhand von Übersetzungen zwischen dem österreichischen Kulturraum und Frankreich, die von den 1760er Jahren bis in die Gegenwart reichen� Der Band gliedert sich dabei in drei große Sektionen, die sich aus eher klassisch biographischen Darstellungen zu Übersetzern, aus Fragen der Rezeption und aus praktisch ausgerichteten Fallanalysen zusammensetzen� Die erste Sektion des Bandes wird von dem einzigen auf Deutsch verfassten Beitrag von Norbert Bachleitner eröffnet� Bachleitner zeigt anhand des in der Reviews 411 zweiten Hälfte des 18� Jahrhunderts für die Wiener Hofbühnen tätigen Übersetzers Joseph Laudes zentrale Mechanismen des literarischen Marktes auf� Diese Mechanismen treten im Bereich der Übersetzung besonders deutlich zutage, da die Übersetzer im 18� Jahrhundert unter den Schreibern, die ohnehin bereits prekären Bedingungen ausgesetzt sind, als Proletariat gelten� Der zunehmend auf Profit ausgerichtete Theatermarkt steht dabei in einem harschen Kontrast zu den Ansprüchen der von der Aufklärung angestoßenen Theaterreform, welche das Theater als eine Erziehungsanstalt begreift� Bachleitner zeigt in seinem Aufsatz, wie die Aussagen Laudes, der überzeugter Anhänger der Theaterreform war, immer wieder in einen unauflöslichen Widerspruch zu seiner Übersetzungspraxis geraten� Den Hauptteil des Sammelbandes macht die zweite, sich mit Fragen der Rezeption befassende Sektion aus� In einer Reihe von Beiträgen, die vom frühen 19� Jahrhundert bis in die jüngste Vergangenheit reichen, führt diese vor, dass die Übersetzer zentrale Schaltstellen bei der Vermittlung von Literatur besetzen und damit die Rezeption von Literatur steuern� So verfolgt etwa Irène Cagneau in ihrem Beitrag zu den französischen Übersetzungen Leopold von Sacher-Masochs die verschiedenen Metamorphosen, die dieser Autor im Verlaufe seiner Rezeptionsgeschichte erfahren hat� Die an Cagneaus Aufsatz direkt anschließende akribische Aufarbeitung Audrey Giboux’ der Übersetzungen Sigmund Freuds in Frankreich zeigt die Grabenkämpfe auf, die sich in der französischen Freud-Rezeption um dessen Werk entsponnen haben� Diese haben dazu geführt, dass ab den 1980er Jahren etwa zeitgleich zwei Übersetzungen von dessen Werk erschienen sind, die divergierende Übersetzungsansätze verfolgen� Während die von Jean Laplanche übersetzten und bei Gallimard erschienenen Einzelausgaben Freuds Eigenschaft als Schriftsteller und brillanter Stilist in den Vordergrund rücken, bleibt die unter anderem von Jean-Bertrand Pontalis verantwortete und bei PUF erschienene Gesamtausgabe möglichst nahe am Ausgangstext und an der für Freud spezifischen Terminologie, um so Freuds Eigenschaft als Wissenschaftler Rechnung zu tragen� Der die Sektion zu den Rezeptionsprozessen abschließende Beitrag von Lucie Taïeb, die ebenfalls als Übersetzerin tätig ist, gewährt aus einer gegenwartsnahen Perspektive einen Einblick in die Praxis� Dass dieser Beitrag den historischen Durchgang abschließt, ist in der Hinsicht gelungen, da er anhand der Übersetzungen von Friederike Mayröcker und Margret Kreidl den zentralen Stellenwert betont, den das persönliche Engagement der Übersetzer und die eher zufälligen Begegnungen, etwa auf Literaturfestivals, einnehmen� Taïebs Darstellungen mögen dabei helfen, bei der historischen Arbeit den Blick für scheinbare Nebensächlichkeiten zu sensibilisieren� 412 Reviews Die letzte Sektion vergleicht einzelne literarische Textpassagen jeweils im Original und in ihrer Übersetzung und hat damit eine praktische Ausrichtung� In dieser Sektion ist der Text von Elisabeth Kargl zu den Übersetzungen Ernst Jandls hervorzuheben� Da Jandl in seinen Texten vor allem mit dem konkreten Sprachmaterial arbeitet, entzieht sich sein Werk der Tendenz nach einer Übersetzung� Kargl untersucht nun die Strategien, die bei der Übersetzung Jandls angewandt wurden und zeigt anhand der von Alain Jadot und Christian Prigent vorgenommenen Übersetzung von Jandls Gedicht “wien: heldenplatz”, wie sich diese weniger am Wortlaut des Originaltextes orientiert, sondern die von Jandl eingesetzten Verfahren ins Französische überträgt� Die letzte Sektion führt damit auf der Textebene vor, was bereits für die vorherigen Sektionen galt, nämlich dass die Annäherung über die Ränder - der angeblich zweitrangigen Übersetzung - einen Weg in das Zentrum der Literatur bahnt� Eine Art Übersetzung leistet auch die 2016 ebenfalls in der Reihe “Forum Österreich” erschienene Habilitationsschrift von Marc Lacheny Littérature «-d’en haut- », littérature «- d’en bas- »- ? , die dem französischen Sprachraum eine umfassende Darstellung des Wiener Vorstadttheaters des 18� und des 19� Jahrhunderts bereitstellt� In der Einleitung klagt Lacheny den Missstand an, dass die österreichische Literatur häufig an den Maßstäben der von ihm so genannten ‘norddeutschen’ Literaturgeschichte gemessen wurde, was gerade anhand des Wiener Vorstadttheaters, welches auf eine langjährige eigenständige Tradition zurückblicken kann, oft zu einer unangemessen Darstellung, im schlimmsten Fall gar zu einer Abwertung dieses Theaters geführt habe� Lacheny dreht nun den Spieß um und verfolgt in dem ersten Teil seiner Arbeit den Einfluss, den das Wiener Vorstadttheater auf Repräsentanten der ‘norddeutschen’ Literatur wie etwa Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich Schiller und Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ausgeübt hat� Hierbei dient ihm vor allem die auf dem Wiener Vorstadttheater beheimatete Figur des Hanswursts� Zwar gelingt es Lacheny durchaus überzeugend nachzuweisen, wie sich sowohl Lessing als auch Goethe wiederholt auf das von Hanswurst repräsentierte körperbetonte Theater beziehen, allerdings läuft dessen Darstellung immer wieder Gefahr, Hanswurst lediglich als allgemeine Trope für dieses Theater zu behandeln, sodass ein tatsächlicher Einfluss des Wiener Vorstadttheaters - etwa anhand konkreter Textbeispiele - eher selten greifbar wird� Im zweiten Teil zeigt Lacheny auf, wie wiederum die Stücke der deutschen Klassiker auf dem Wiener Vorstadttheater als Vorlage zu etlichen Parodien gedient haben, wobei hiervon aufgrund seiner damals enormen Popularität vor allem Schiller betroffen ist� Lacheny orientiert sich in seiner Darstellung maßgeblich an den Forschungen des Experten für das Wiener Vorstadttheater Jürgen Hein, indem er hervorhebt, dass die Parodierung der Klassiker nicht zwangsläu- Reviews 413 fig deren Abwertung bedeute, sondern sich auch als Respektbekundung lesen lasse beziehungsweise im Falle Johann Nestroys eher die falsche Aneignung der Klassiker durch das Bildungsbürgertum bloßstelle� Der bis dahin untersuchte Zusammenhang zwischen dem Wiener Vorstadttheater und den ‘norddeutschen’ Klassikern, so zeigt der dritte und letzte Teil der Arbeit, wird in dem Werk Franz Grillparzers greifbar, der sich aus beiden Traditionen bedient� Auf diese Verbindung führt Lacheny in einem anschließenden, zwischen Nestroys Parodien von Grillparzer und Friedrich Hebbel angestellten Vergleich zurück, dass Grillparzer im Gegensatz zu Hebbel besser abschneidet� Denn während Nestroys Parodie von Hebbels Judith eine vernichtende Abrechnung mit dem ‘norddeutschen’ Theater darstelle, seien Nestroys wiederholt anzutreffende parodistische Referenzen auf Grillparzers Dramen eher als Respektsbekundung zu verstehen� Lachenys Darstellung liefert eine umfassende Einführung in zentrale Fragestellungen, die das Wiener Vorstadttheater betreffen, und sein Ansatz, dieses weniger gegen die ‘norddeutsche’ Literatur auszuspielen, sondern vielmehr deren Gemeinsamkeiten aufzuzeigen, ist lobend hervorzuheben� Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Thomas Nolte 414 Reviews Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren Colleen Anderson Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Foreign Policy Institute 1619 Massachusetts Ave� NW Rome Building, Suite 734 Washington, DC 20036 colleen�anderson@jhu�edu Thomas O. Beebee The Pennsylvania State University Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures 442 Burrowes Building University Park, PA 16802 tob@psu�edu Jennifer Caisley University of Cambridge- Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Raised Faculty Building Sidgwick Avenue CB3 9DA Cambridge England jsc72@cam�ac�uk Paul Dobryden University of Virginia Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures P�O� Box 400125 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4125 pad9q@virginia�edu Carl Gelderloos Department of German and Russian Studies Binghamton University P�O� Box 6000 Binghamton, NY 13902 cgelderl@binghamton�edu Peter Gilgen Cornell University Department of German Studies 183 Goldwin Smith Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 pg33@cornell�edu Ernst Ralf Hintz Truman State University 100 E� Normal Avenue Baldwin Hall 253 Kirksville, MO 63501 USA ehintz@truman�edu Marike Janzen University of Kansas Department of German Studies 1445 Jayhawk Blvd� Wescoe Hall, Room 2080 Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7594 mjanzen@ku�edu 416 Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren Eckhard Kuhn-Osius Hunter College German Department West Building Room 1405 695 Park Ave New York, NY 10065 ekuhnos@hunter�cuny�edu Steven D. Martinson University of Arizona German Studies 301 Learning Services Building Tucson, AZ 85721-0105 martinso@email�arizona�edu Brian McInnis Christopher Newport University Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures McMurran Hall 105 One Avenue of the Arts Newport News, VA 23606 mcinnis04@gmail�com May Mergenthaler The Ohio State University Department of Germanic Languages and Literature 498 Hagerty Hall 1775 College Rd Columbus OH, 43210 mergenthaler�4@osu�edu Thomas Nolte Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Deutsches Seminar Wilhelmstraße 50 72074 Tübingen thomas�nolte@posteo�de Marius Reisener Universität Zürich Deutsches Seminar Schönberggasse 2 8001 Zürich Marius�reisener@uzh�ch Lee M. Roberts Purdue University Fort Wayne Department of International Language and Culture Studies 2101 E� Coliseum Blvd�, LA 267 Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1499 robertlm@pfw�edu Jacqueline Vansant University of Michigan-Dearborn Department of Language, Culture and Communication 4901 Evergreen Rd 3016 CASL Building Dearborn, MI 48128 jvansant@umich�edu Harald Zils Department of German and Russian Studies Binghamton University P�O� Box 6000 Binghamton, NY 13902 hzils@binghamton�edu senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ 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Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft BUCHTIPP Thomas Boyken, Nikolas Immer Nachkriegslyrik Poesie und Poetik zwischen 1945 und 1965 2020, 229 Seiten €[D] 24,90 ISBN 978-3-8252-5402-5 e ISBN 978-3-8385-5402-0 BUCHTIPP Das Studienbuch arbeitet die Heterogenität der deutschsprachigen Nachkriegslyrik zwischen 1945 und 1965 anhand von Fallanalysen heraus. Die Dichter orientieren sich an typisch deutschen Lyriktraditionen wie der Naturlyrik (z. B. Peter Huchel), favorisieren die Anverwandlung avantgardistischer Schreibweisen (z. B. Gottfried Benn), propagieren den sprachlichen ‚Kahlschlag‘ (z. B. Wolfdietrich Schnurre), orientieren sich an christlich-heilsgeschichtlichen Deutungsmustern (z. B. Werner Bergengruen) oder plädieren für das ‚Gebrauchsgedicht‘ mit politischem Impetus (z. B. Bertolt Brecht). Zugleich ist eine kontinuierliche Auseinandersetzung mit der Formenvielfalt moderner Lyrikströmungen zu beobachten. Die systematische und didaktisch aufbereitete Einführung eröffnet den Zugang zu diesen unterschiedlichen Prozessen. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. 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Sonstige Mitteilungen bitte an hhoebu@uky.edu © 2021 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Alle Rechte vorbehalten/ All Rights Strictly Reserved Druck und Bindung: CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 0010-1338 NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 6 NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 6 26.01.2021 11: 22: 12 26.01.2021 11: 22: 12 Band 52, Heft 3-4 Harald Höbus ch, J oseph D. O ’ Neil (Hr sg.) ISSN 0010-1338 Band 52 T h e m e n h eft: N ew s fro m N a tu re G a s th e ra u s g e b e r: H a rald Z il s und C a rl G eld e rloo s H a rald Z il s a nd C a rl G eld e rloo s : I ntrod u c tion: “ N ews fro m N a tu re ” M ay M e rg e nth ale r: “ o h e yl s a m s N i c ht s ” : Z u r F u n ktion d e s L i c ht s in B ro c ke s ’ N atu rly rik Pete r G ilg e n: N atu ral B ea uty : F ro m S p e c ulative R eali s m to K a ntia n F or m J e nnife r C ai s ley: “ G ra nit I I ” : A n E xploration of G o eth ea n “ S teig e r u n g ” a n d “ Pola rität ” M a riu s R ei s e n e r: A uto(g a m e )- Poie s i s b ei W ilh elm von H u m boldt Pa ul D obr yd e n: Tea c hin g U r b a n H ygie n e in th e Weim a r Kultu r film K . E c kh a rd Kuhn- O s iu s : D a e m o n A b s c o n ditu s : E ntrop y in M a x F ri s c h ’ s H o m o Fa b e r B ria n M c Inni s : T h e E nviron m e nt a s Coloni z e r, M ig ration a s “ Üb e rfre m d u n g ,” a n d S atire in F ra n z H ohle r ’ s “ D ie R ü c ke rob e r u n g ” T hom a s O. B e e b e e: A h u m a ni s m , A r t, Va m py rot e uthi s infe r n a li s , a n d You: A n A nim al A c t b y V ilé m F lu s s e r a n d L oui s B e c narr.digital C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A I n t e r n a t i o n a l e Z e i t s c h r i f t f ü r G e r m a n i s t i k I n t e r n a ti o n a l e Z e it s c h r ift f ü r G e r m a n i s ti k NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 1,3 NARR_Colloquia Germanica_20215234.indd 1,3 26.01.2021 11: 22: 10 26.01.2021 11: 22: 10