Traces du mesmérisme dans la littérature française du XIXe siècle/Einflüsse des Mesmerismus auf die europäische Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts: Actes du colloque international organisé les 9 et 10 novembre 1999/Akten des internationalen Kolloquiums vom 9. und 10. November 1999 ed. by Ernst Leonardy et al (review)

Abstract

564 Reviews Lukacs and regarding Realism as rooted in the eighteenth century. Only three of the papers really live up to the Franco-German and/or interdisciplinary promise of the title: a comparison of Werther,Paul et Virginie, and Atala sees them as symptomatic of a return to a domestic sphere which alone afforded scope forpersonal development and interpersonal relations afterthe intellectual and political crises of Rationalism; an account ofthe role of Aachen as a site of cultural mediation focuses on the activities of Franz Dautzenberg, who favoured a Franco-German Republic and, unlike many of his fellow citizens, despised Napoleon; and an article on the apparent unwillingness of scholars to take seriously the poetry set to music by Bach as an integral part of his work underlines the importance of the interdisciplinary approach. University of Leeds Paul Rowe Traces du mesmerismedans la litteraturefrancaise du xix0 siecle/Einfliissedes Mesmerismus auf die europdische Literatur des ig. Jahrhunderts: Actes du colloque interna? tional organise les 9 et 10 novembre iggg/Akten des internationalen Kolloquiums vom g. und 10. November iggg. Ed. by Ernst Leonardy, Marie-France Renard , Christian Drosch, and Stephanie Vanasten. (Travaux et Recherches, 45) Brussels: Publications des Facultes universitaires Saint-Louis. 2001. 288 pp. ?38. ISBN 2-8028-0139-2. The title of the present volume is somewhat misleading, as the focus of the vari? ous contributions is almost exclusively on French and German literature. An intro? ductory article claims that programme constraints precluded adequate coverage of Mesmerism in other continental and in Anglo-Saxon literatures. Any conference organizer would sympathize, but one wonders whether some of the fifteenessays in this collection might not have been sacrificed (or severely edited) to facilitate the broader perspective, if,as is implied, there were more proposals on other literatures. So what advantage has been gained from depth of coverage? The tome opens with an account by Bertrand Meheust of what Mesmerism was (or what authors understood it to be) and of its intellectual roots. This will prove invaluable to the uninitiated. The collection closes with two studies by Sonja Vanderlinden and Jean Dierkens that set Mesmerism in a durable tradition of faith in alternative remedies. The latter considers how justified modern Western medical science is in equating Mesmerism's techniques with quackery. He notes that hypnosis has acquired a certain respectability in the treatment of psychosomatic illness. The sceptic is less likely to be won over by the case made for taking seriously the relevance of astrology to medicine. Between these bookends there are surveys of Mesmerism in German and French literature of the early nineteenth century (Jiirgen Barkhoff,Tanguy Loge), analysis of contempo? raryaccounts of seances (Roland Mortier, Bettina Gruber), essays on Mesmerism and Goethe and E. T. A. Hoffmann (Lauren van Eynde), Kleist (Hans-Jiirgen Schrader), Jung-Stilling, Kerner, Schelling, and Schopenhauer (Leonardy), Immermann (Hu? bert Roland), Bellini (Marie-France Renard), Nerval (Michel Brix), Balzac and Dumas pere (Georges Jacques), and Flaubert (Claudine Gothot-Mersch). A number of these contributions are rather descriptive, listing references to Mesmerism in the works of the author in question, usually nuanced by some indication of scepticism concerning its efficacy; these are often attributed to some Romantic interest in the mysterious, the paranormal. Most will be of interest primarily to specialists on the particular authors. Brix and Schrader may prove of more general relevance. The for? mer explores the influence of Neoplatonistic mysticism on contemporary European culture and points out that Nerval's reflections on madness, informed by his travels in the east, in some ways anticipate Foucault in their awareness that it is a culturally de- MLRy 99.2, 2004 565 termined concept. Schrader challenges what he sees as an over-comfortableperception of Kleist as a modern writer,situating him instead in a pre-modern intellectual world. University of Leeds Paul Rowe Deutsch-englische Literaturbeziehungen: der historische Roman Sir Walter Scotts und seine deutsche Vorldufer. By Frauke Reitemeier. (Beitrage zur englischen und amerikanischen Literatur, 18) Paderborn: Schoningh. 2001. 290 pp. ?46.40. ISBN 3-506-70829-5 (pbk). Frauke Reitemeier's Deutsch-englische Literaturbeziehungen uses the very basic, thor? ough approach characteristic of German dissertations. The introductory review of past research in the field addresses...