E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Der Sandmann": Reflection and Romantic Irony
1980; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 95; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2906690
ISSN1080-6598
Autores Tópico(s)German Literature and Culture Studies
ResumoThe German Romantics never tired of extolling the virtues of chaos and confusion. Diese kunstlich geordnete Verwirrung, diese reizende Symmetrie von Widerspruchen, dieser wunderbare ewige Wechsel von Enthusiasmus und Ironie-these attributes constituted for Friedrich Schlegel the signs of genius in works by Cervantes and Shakespeare. Tieck favored a literary genre he designated as the Naturmdrchen, a fairy tale that confuses the imagination to the point of poetic madness. And Novalis felt that chaos must forever threaten to shatter the illusion of order in art.' Of all the German Romantics, E.T.A. Hoffmann perhaps most successfully translated the theoretical pronouncements of his colleagues into literary practice. He persistently asserted his right to exercise the power to confuse, though perhaps not always to his advantage. A person whose mind doesn't grow dizzy reading Prinzessin Brambilla simply doesn't have a mind, Heine noted with characteristic dry wit.2 Of Hoffmann's many tales and novels, none became the target of harsher critical attack than Der Sandmann.
Referência(s)