Astralis von Novalis: Handschrift-Text-Werk

Abstract

Vietor, Sophia. von Novalis: Handschrift-Text-Werk. Wurzburg- Konigshausen & Neumann, 2001. 416 pp. EURO44,00 paperback. Of the many manuscripts by Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) that have resurfaced since 1960 in the course of on the historical-critical Novalis edition, perhaps none is more precious than the one that Sophia Vietor has located at the British Library in London and chosen as the subject for this fascinating study. Astralis is the poem that begins the fragmentary second part of Heinrich von Ofterdingen and, in effect, serves as the bridge between Die Erwartung and Die Erfullung-the expectations raised by the protagonist's initiation into love and poetry in the first part of the novel, and the envisioned transformation of the world through the power of poetry made conscious of its own abilities. Stefan Zweig acquired Astralis in 1911 and clearly regarded it as one of the chief glories of his manuscript collection, which included musical scores by Beethoven and Mozart and which Zweig valued as indices of the process underlying artistic creativity. Before leaving Salzburg for London in 1936, due to the rise of Nazism and Austro-Fascism, Zweig sold some of these manuscripts and donated others to the Austrian National Library; only after 1986, when the heirs of Stefan Zweig bequeathed a collection to the British Library, did it become evident that Zweig had taken Astralis-hitherto regarded as lost-with him into exile. One thing is certain: the attentive reader of Vietor's monograph will readily understand why Zweig held this manuscript in such high esteem. Vietor's subtitle, Handschrift-Text-Werk, indicates the tripartite division of her study. Following the introduction, in which she outlines the key role of Astralis within Heinrich von Ofterdingen as a manifestation of early German Romanticism's self-reflective Poesie der Poesie, Vietor discusses the chronology of Novalis's on his novel, the likely owners of the Astralis manuscript prior to Stefan Zweig, and the publication history of this poem since 1802. While Novalis specialists will appreciate Vietor's painstaking graphological analysis as an aid in establishing the probable dating of the manuscript in June or July of 1800-several months earlier than previously assumed -the main philological gain comes in her establishment of a text, complete with manuscript variants, that eventually will be included in the concluding volumes of the historical-critical Novalis edition. The many additions and corrections within the manuscript make it clear that the text of Astralis is neither a transcription nor a mere rough draft, but rather a completed poem that also documents the amount of work that goes into art. In this regard, it indicates that Klingsohr's description of poetry as strenge Kunst (HKA I: 282) in chapter 7 of Heinrich von Ofterdingen accords with its author's own poetic practice. In the conclusion to her comparison of the finished text with its crossed-out variants, Vietor remarks: Im Ganzen lasst sich sagen, dass die Endfassung distanzierter, poetologisch reflektierter and starker auf den Roman bezogen ist als die Vorformen (124). As considerable as Vietor's achievements already are, the real treat for her readers begins with the third and final section of her study (136-379), which involves the interpretation of Astralis as Werk: i. …