“Die Kunst des hellen Mittags”: Entertainment and the Public Sphere in Kleist’s Das Käthchen von Heilbronn
2014; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 129; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mln.2014.0037
ISSN1080-6598
Autores Resumo“Die Kunst des hellen Mittags”:Entertainment and the Public Sphere in Kleist’s Das Käthchen von Heilbronn Nancy Nobile (bio) Even before the curtain rises on Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, its subtitle prepares us for grand entertainment, for “ein großes historisches Ritterschauspiel.” But what a preposterous mess it is! Its plot skips haphazardly across four centuries;1 its femme fatale sports false teeth, false hair, and an iron corset; and its title character somehow “schmeißt sich dreißig Fuß hoch” from a ground floor window,2 breaking both her legs in the same place. After recovering “ein wenig” (209), she walks 100 kilometers barefoot from Heilbronn to Strassburg (DKA 983), keeping pace with men on horseback for three months as they traverse forests, ravines, and, for good measure, a desert. In addition to its myriad affronts to logic, Das Käthchen revels in slapstick humor and flimsy plot devices. As their family’s castle burns, [End Page 640] “die Tanten von Thurneck” screech in unison “Wir sind verloren! Wir sind gespießt” (1802);3 thunder claps on cue to herald the villainess Kunigunde’s first appearance (882–84); Käthchen chats cooperatively in her sleep (2112–15); and before two letters are dispatched to the wrong addresses, Stein asks—one can almost see his eyebrows waggling at the audience—“Die Briefe sind doch nicht verwechselt?” (1675–76). The gimmickry and illogic of Das Käthchen have led many readers to conclude that Kleist deliberately stitched his text together “aus bunten Flicken” (Weigand 327), creating a “Jahrmarkt der Seltsamkeiten,” a “Bilderkabinett” (Ueding 174–75), a “Montagewerk” (Greiner 178), or an “Ästhetik des Bizarren” (Oesterle 303). Although the motley, improvisational quality of Das Käthchen cannot be disputed, it falls short as a structural principle, and seems unlikely to have satisfied Kleist, a writer who prided himself on the formal rigor of his plays: “doch in der Kunst kommt es überall auf die Form an, und Alles, was eine Gestalt hat, ist meine Sache.”4 It is the goal of this study to show that a particular type of entertainment governs the structure and plot of Das Käthchen and provides the framework within which its mosaic elements operate. A form of the word “Unterhaltung” occurs in the text only once, yet at a crucial place: embedded within the Kaiser’s prolix account of the night Käthchen was conceived. Though this monologue takes place late in the play (Act V), it describes the earliest elements of the plot. Alone in a room of his castle, indeed hiding himself away, the Kaiser recalls his encounter with Käthchen’s mother: Es mogte ohngefähr eilf Uhr Abends sein, und der Jupiter ging eben, mit seinem funkelnden Licht im Osten auf, als ich, vom Tanz sehr ermüdet, aus dem Schloßtor trat, um mich in dem Garten, der daran stößt, unerkannt, unter dem Volk, das ihn erfüllte, zu erlaben […]. Gertrud, so viel ich mich erinnere, hieß sie, mit der ich mich in einem, von dem Volk minder besuchten, Teil des Gartens, beim Schein verlöschender Lampen, während die Musik, fern von dem Tanzsaal her, in den Duft der Linden niedersäuselte, unterhielt; und Käthchens Mutter heißt Gertrud! Ich weiß, daß ich mir, [End Page 641] als sie sehr weinte, ein Schaustück, mit dem Bildnis Papst Leos, von der Brust los machte, und es ihr, als ein Andenken von mir, den sie gleichfalls nicht kannte, in das Mieder steckte […]. (2475–2490, underscoring added) Had we not been informed that this passage describes events that may have led to “Empfängnis” (2481), we might miss its carnal contents altogether, so cloaked are they by euphemism, bombast, and a tone of utter entitlement. While the Kaiser’s high-flown words extol the scenery, it is left to us to imagine the crass act he committed, in a public park. The most powerful man in the realm strolls incognito among his subjects and makes random sexual use of one of them. Then, to soothe his weeping victim, and to give her something to remember him by, he sticks a “Schaustück” of the pope5 into...
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