A Companion to the Works of Stefan George by Jens Rieckmann, Stefan George

Abstract

892 Reviews and spiritist Karl Friedrich Z6llner, the mathematical expert Riidiger Thiele is able to show how sternly Fechner resisted occult thinking, and in particular the notion of a 'fourth dimension' where spirits might reside; and Dirk Evers explains how Fechner integrates the principles of physics, Romantic nature philosophy, and the Christian precept of divine benevolence into a conception of God as the supreme bond connecting all natural phenomena. In the opening essay of the volume, Gert Mattenklott surveys Fechner's writings as testimony to an integral personality and an integrated project, bringing out in particular the role of metaphor in expressing his sense of the relationship inwhich human life stands to plant life and to the world as a whole. He compares Fechner's world vision with Goethe's pantheism, but also notes that he was capable of endorsing both Darwinism and the latest thinking on wave motion within an overall conception of the ultimate stability of natural phenomena. By contrast with the deductive aesthetics of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel, Fech ner proceeded inductively, considering the processes by which like and dislike are generated, and discussing beauty in terms of that which is conducive to desire and happiness. His contribution in this area is assessed from four different points of view. Uta Kossner brings out Fechner's concern with the perception of meaning (Sinn), and thus the ethical dimension of his aesthetic thought, while Monika Ritzer dif ferentiates among the various receptions of the Vorschule der Asthetik by theNatural ist generation. Ulla Fix examines the relation of Fechner's aesthetics to contemporary semiology, and IngoWarnke discusses the centrality of association in Fechner's con ception of aesthetic experience, relating it to the connectionist theory of memory and to current psycholinguistic approaches tomeaning. Other contributions discuss Fechner's studies, his diaries, his friendship with Hermann Hartel, his relations with literati, and his reception in Poland. Fechner's presence in the intellectual world of late nineteenth-century Germany is also attested by Eric Paul Jacobsen's account of theMonist movement. Jacobsen's book has three main sections. The first traces those philosophical developments from Spinoza, via Leibniz, Herder, and Schelling, to Fechner and his contemporaries, which may together be regarded as constituting the long-term tradition of monist thought. The second reconstructs the development of Ernst Haeckel's interpretation of biological evolution and shows how Haeckel, for all his insistent materialism, participates in the discourse of the 'soul' at work in natural phenomena, which can perhaps be seen as further evidence of Fechner's influence. The dominant note here, however, is the presentation of Haeckel as a social Darwinist and imperialist, in which Jacobsen endorses the view of Daniel Gasman (Haeckel's Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology (New York: Peter Lang, I998)). The third part discusses the further development of evolutionary and ecological thinking in the writings of the Friedrichshagen circle: Wilhelm B6lsche, Bruno Wille, and the brothers Heinrich and Julius Hart. This monograph will be useful as an English-language survey of this material and of recent research on it. ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE DAVID MIDGLEY A Companion to theWorks of Stefan George. Ed. by JENSRIECKMANN. (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2005. XVi+257 pp. ?65. ISBN I-57113-214-7. In his introduction, Jens Rieckmann observes that, while there has been a renewed awareness of George in recent years in the German-speaking world, his 'reputation has lagged in the Anglo-Saxon world', possibly because of the comparatively strong interest in Rilke (p. 2). The Companion, aimed at a rather more scholarly audience MLR, 101.3, 2oo6 893 than its sister volume on Rilke, A Companion to theWorks of Rainer Maria Rilke, ed. by Erika A. Metzger and Michael M. Metzger (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004), reviewed inMLR, IOI (2006), 585-87 (here, quotations are left in the original German), attempts to 'contribute to a rekindling of interest in this crucial, albeit controversial writer [... .] in the Anglo-Saxon world and beyond' (pp. 2-3). The introduction, which offers a clear biographical account of George, setting his work in relation to a variety of people, places, and movements, is followed by...