Perspectives on Language in Ludwig Tieck's Epistolary Novel William Lovell

Abstract

It is surprising that Tieckian criticism has paid scant attention to the dilemma of linguistic expressiveness ubiquitously encountered and enunciated within the epistolary novel Geschichte des Herrn William Lovell (1795-96). The most comprehensive study to date on this subject is that of Ernst Ribbat, whose main thesis focuses on the extent to which the complex web of correspondence reveals differing levels of social intercommunication. Ribbat arrives at the conclusion that Tieck has presented im Gattungsrahmen des Briefromans kommunikative Beziehungen . . . , zugleich deren Krise,' an application of Marianne Thalmann's generalized observation that the epistolary novel constitutes die ideale Form, Krisenzustiinde auszudriicken.2 Ribbat supplies a pertinent though limited assortment of text citations to demonstrate various conceptions of language for which the novel provides a framework. It is my aim to broaden the nature of the investigation by including a fuller range of sprachphilosophische viewpoints and by measuring such pronouncements against the established Sprachtheorien of the Rationalists and Early Romantics. It will also be important to consider Tieck's own stance on the whole vexing issue of linguistic definition despite a paucity of autobiographical cues. Although Tieck's Verbildungsroman traces the labyrinth of entangled thoughts and sentiments of its titular hero (or anti-hero) in his trek through phases of idealism, sensualism and occultism in search of an identity, there is nevertheless some verifiable consistency underlying Lovell's reflections on the adequacy of language. As a Triebmensch rarely successful in curbing his emotions, even during periods of extreme cynicism and ironic detachment from his fellow men, Lovell clings persistently to the primacy of feeling as the measure of all things, an attitude linking him with his literary ancestor Werther. However, Lovell discovers much to his chagrin that the effusiveness of the heart is never matched by a linguistic eloquence capable of doing it full