Hofmannsthal: Jahrbuch zur europäischen Moderne 25 ed. by Maximilian Bergengruen et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: Hofmannsthal: Jahrbuch zur europäischen Moderne 25 ed. by Maximilian Bergengruen et al. Raymond L. Burt Maximilian Bergengruen, Alexander Honold, Gerhard Neumann, Ursula Renner, Günter Schnitzler, and Gotthart Wunberg, eds., Hofmannsthal: Jahrbuch zur europäischen Moderne 25. Freiburg: Rombach Verlag, 2017. 306 pp. Since 1968 the Hugo von Hofmannsthal Gesellschaft has had an active publication record to support the promotion of Hofmannsthal studies, beginning with the Hofmannsthal-Blätter, which focused on unpublished sources on the poet’s life and work and adding in 1971 a companion series, Hofmannsthal-Forschungen, that presented findings of scholars delivered at conferences or addressing specified topics. In 1993, these two publications were merged under the title of Hofmannsthal: Jahrbuch zur europäischen Moderne; the resultant periodical expanded its scope to place the poet’s life and work within the wider context of European Modernism. For its twenty-fifth year, the editors have selected seven contributions that add perspective to the life and works of Frank Wedekind, Rainer Maria Rilke, Marcel Proust, Karl Kraus and Arthur Schnitzler (as well as, of course, Hofmannsthal). Such collections may often be mined by scholars in search of a particular author or topic, whereas others may read the book in its entirety for insight into contemporary research with its variety of approaches and interpretive methodologies. In this volume, some of the articles proceed logically and methodically, and others surprise the reader with the creative twists and turns they take through their unexpected connections. The opening article by Klaus Bohnenkamp falls among the former and constitutes almost half of the pages dedicated to articles. His “‘Wir haben diesen Dichter geliebt . . .’: Hugo von Hofmannsthal und Eduard Korrodi: Briefe und Dokumente” delivers a meticulously researched investigation of the interaction of the Austrian poet with Korrodi, a Swiss journalist and the longtime editor of the [End Page 123] Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Bohnenkamp tracks every reference to Hoffmannsthal in Korrodi’s writings from 1917 to Hofmannsthal’s death in 1929. He follows Korrodi’s comments on publications from the Hofmannthal’s papers, with special attention to the novel fragment Andreas. Also included are Korrodi’s critique of Hofmannsthal’s works published in anthologies and performances of Hofmannsthal’s plays on in the German-language stage up to 1952. The essay is followed by the printing of the existent correspondence between Hofmannsthal and Korrodi and ends with Korrodi’s Nachruf of Hofmannsthal from 1929. Another example is “Selbstsucht und Selbstsuche: Schnitzlers Psychopoetik des Narzissmus,” in which Michael Navratil postulates that a general, dominant tendency can be drawn out of Schnitzler’s works revealing the defining role of narcissism in the psychological profile of his protagonists. To illustrate his thesis, Navratil ends the essay with an interpretation of Schnitzler’s “Die Frau des Richters.” In order to show the influence of Ecclesiastes on Hofmannsthal’s writings, Heinz Rölleke uses parallel textual comparisons in his “Hofmannsthal und das alttestamentarische Buch ‘Kohelet’” to great effect. Beginning with the indirect influence on the opening lines of Jedermann, he proceeds to a detailed analysis of Hofmannthal’s “Ballade des äußeren Lebens” in which he shows the unfiltered inspiration it draws from this most enigmatic book of wisdom in the biblical canon. Inspiration of a different sort of book on literature is taken up by Daniel Hilpert in his contribution, “‘Mein Fleisch heißt Lulu’: Eugenik und Sexualpathologie in Frank Wedekinds ‘Die Büchse der Pandora. Eine Monstretragödie.’” The book in question is Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis (1886). Hilpert places Wedekind’s literary production within the cultural context of the late nineteenth century, in which deviance in sexuality, race, and art were seen by many as a sign of a cultural collapse. The scientific discussion about eugenics inspired Wedekind to bring the themes of sexual pathology and eugenics into literature. Wedekind is dealing not only with the character of Lulu but with the construction of the entire plot by using Krafft-Ebing’s descriptions of sexual pathology as the narrative framework. On the artistic end of the spectrum, Johannes Ungelenk’s contribution, “Rainer Maria Rilkes ‘Die Flamingos’: Ein Kling(-ge-)ding,” starts with the traditional genre analysis of this sonnet as...