Selbstsorge als Staatskunst: Bettina von Arnims politisches Werk

Abstract

Landfester, Ulrike. Selbstsorge als Staatskunst: Betting von Arnims Werk. Wurzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 2000. 404 pp. EUR51,00 paperback. Ulrike Landfester's Habilitationsschrift combines a holistic approach which finally considers all of Bettina von Arnim's writings from a political perspective, while uniting them thematically under von Arnim's utopian program of Selbstsorge, to create a text that has both a historic-contextual breadth as well as detailed textual analysis. Landfester draws from the many excellent politically oriented studies begun mostly within the last two decades, by scholars such as Ursula PUschel, Heinz Hartl, and Constanze Baumer (not to mention Landfester herself). Her study contributes significantly to the evolution the field in her attempt to unify Bettina von Arnim's politics and her aesthetics within a sound thematic framework. The overarching theme of Selbstsorge, with its roots in Socratic and Platonic political theory, and as employed by Bettina von Arnim within the context of Vormarz, is the central component of Landfester's thesis: Mit ihrer produktiven Rezeption dieser Idee, so die Kernthese der vorliegenden Untersuchung, nutzt Bettine den Spielraum, den die Spataufklarung mit der Verzeitlichung des Subjektbegriffes offnet, dazu, eine Utopie politischer Kommunikation zu entwerfen, die die Technologien der zur uberindividuellen Verbindlichkeit drangenden biirgerlichen Gesellschaftsmacht durch das Prinzip eigenverantwortlich auszubildender ethischer Individualitat abzulosen vorschlagt (69-70). Landfester's methodological approach is both complex and sophisticated. Artfully represented on the cover of her book, her subtitle refers to the material at hand as Bettina von Arnim's politisches Werk, purposefully implying a broader spectrum of text, which does not limit itself to specific published Werke. While considering all writing (published works, drafts, letters, etc.) as text, Landfester submits only the most illustrative examples to close textual analysis. Also on the cover is a refreshingly atypical sketch of Bettina von Arnim as a mature woman carefully scrutinizing a book. This sketch aptly represents Landfester's anti-exclusionary methodological principle, which mirrors what she terms as Bettina von Arnim's Aesthetic of Existence. Bettina von Arnim refers to her own writing process as a Buch ohne Titel, in which the sum total of one's writings must be considered as an ongoing all-inclusive text. Landfester incorporates this principle into her own methodology by considering all of Bettina von Arnim's writings as pieces in an ever-- developing (yet not necessarily teleological) political project. The cover image of Bettina von Arnim toward the end of her life, as the sum total of all previous experiences and at the zenith of her literary production, yet also as an ongoing developing being-or rather an unfinished Buch ohne Titel-portrays Landfester's Aesthetic of Existence in a most meaningful way. The text is divided into four sections, the first of which surveys Betting von Arnim's critical reception, and outlines Landfester's methodological considerations. …