"Nenne doch, o Muse, Den Sitz der kleinen Kolonie": Wieland's Portrayals of Nature Utopias in Verse and Prose

Abstract

Christoph Martin Wieland's mastery of form and artistic playfulness, displayed in his verse narratives and epics, have been praised unanimously. The contents and didactic intents of Wieland's verse-tales, on the other hand, have only seldom been the subject of closer examination. In this essay, the epic Oberon (1780, based on the story of the chivalric romance Huon de Bordeaux) and other narratives in verse and in prose by Wieland are seen in the larger context of the author's anthropological views. Wieland had attempted to come to terms with the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in various treatises and novels, especially with the latter's famous discours on the origin of inequality (1755). It is argued here that the core of Oberon – the island episode in Cantos Seven and Eight – as well as corresponding scenes in other verse-tales reflect anew the central issue of this preoccupation with Rousseau: the conflict between nature and education.