Rethinking the Uncanny in Hoffmann and Tieck by Marc Falkenberg, and: Staatsgespenster: Fiktionen des Politischen hei E. T. A. Hoffmann by Odila Triebel, and: Die Kunst der Fantasie: E. T. A. Hoffmanns Leben und Werk by Hartmut Steinecke

Abstract

884 Reviews asMenninghaus puts it: 'dasmetrische Hypogramm gibt den grofien pindarischen Gebilden ganz buchstablicheine sapphisch-adonische Unterschrift' (p. 99). For since Hellingrath's championing and editing ofHolderlin in the early twentieth century the hymns have rightlybeen understood asmodelled on Pindar, and particularly on the 'harteFiigung' of his style. Without disputing Pindar's importance forH6lderlin, Menninghaus proposes a number ofmodifications of thisunderstanding: apart fromdrawing our attention to theSapphic rhythms themselves and the 'diskretePotentialitat furdas Lesen' (p. 96) they offer,he points out that 'harte Figung' is only one element of Pindar's mixed style and, in a simple but illuminating application ofHolderlin's poetics of reversal, thatwe might in any case read 'harte Fiugung' as the necessarily inversemanifesta tionof something quite different, which in this case would be, precisely, theSapphic. Similarly, he suggests that these poetics might have prompted the shiftfromSapphics toAlcaics undergone by 'Thrinen' (p. 94). This is a short and elegant book, but one that says a great deal (I have only touched on a fewaspects) and opens up far more. It often feels like a very evocative sketch, and has quite a narrow base: the development of the context which allows us to consider Sappho at all, so important forMenninghaus's 'allegorical' method, relies almost entirely on Friedrich Schlegel-we hear nothing about contemporary translations or editions. That seems to be because itgrew out of a close reading of 'Halfte des Lebens'. As Menninghaus tellsus in the introduction, that readingwas first presented in 1994, and he made a conscious decision to continue work on it without any 'Zeit und Publikationsdruck' (p. iI). It shows. THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD CHARLIE LOUTH Rethinking theUncanny inHoffmann and Tieck. By MARc FALKENBERG. (Studies in Modern German Literature, ioo) Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang. 2005. 258 pp. /30; SwF 67; ?45.80. ISBN 978-3-03910-284-6. Staatsgespenster: Fiktionen des Politischen beiE. T A. Hoffmann. By ODILA TRIEBEL. (Literatur und Leben, NF 6o) Cologne: Bohlau. 2003. ix+228 pp. ?29.90. ISBN 978-3-4I2-07802-7. Die Kunst der Fantasie: E. T A.Hoffmanns Leben undWerk. By HARTMUT STEINECKE. Frankfurt a.M.: Insel. 2004. 645 pp. E32.90. ISBN 978-3-458-I7202-4. In his study,originally written as a Ph.D. dissertation inComparative Literature for theUniversity ofChicago, Marc Falkenberg revisits theRomantic Uncanny and the contributions of Freud, Ernst Jentsch, and Tzvetan Todorov to our understanding of thisphenomenon. His starting-point is thehypothesis thatFreud's location of the uncanny in repression has distorted theview of thepoetic uncanny in theRomantics' strategy of deliberately disorienting the reader's act of interpretation. This strategy is identified as a reflectionof the insecurities arising from theRomantic 'Kant-Krise' and of theirunderstanding of prose, which draws heavily on 'such poetic elements as verbal ambiguity, irony,and metaphor' and 'develops the potential for creating amultiplicity of conflicting interpretations' (pp. 27-29). This epistemological and aesthetic background is sketched out over two pages, and Falkenberg makes sweep inggeneralizations about previous literarycriticism: forexample, that 'the exclusive identification of theuncanny with Freud's understanding has led to a restrictive read ingofRomantic prose as only a dramatization of repression' (p. 22). This can only be called a highly reductive view of thewide range of interpretations ofRomantic prose since Freud. MLR, I02.3, 2007 885 Falkenberg does consider the significance of repression in creating the uncanny, in addition to thatproduced by uncertainty that is perceived as threatening. In the chapter on Der Sandmann he examines clues confirming the existence of the Sand man and concludes firstlythat, although 'in thematerial world' we would consider Nathanael mad because ofhis inability todistinguish between imagination and reality, inHoffmann's fictionalworld Nathanael's imagination is capable of producing real monsters and so he is the author of his own fate; secondly, that,due to the conflicting but equally valid interpretations,our activity as readers corroborates Nathanael's per secutory delusion. The dual focus of the chapter on Der blondeEckbert is the threat of punishment forguilt decided independently ofmoral choices which hangs over Eckbert and Bertha, and thedisorientation of the reader,who is 'contaminated by the character's paranoia' so thathe 'cannot resort to the confirmation that is available in the realworld to assess thevalidity of [his...