Modelli di interpretazione della storia in Vico e Schiller

Notwithstanding the scarce evidence of a direct influence of the Vichian conception of history on Schiller's works, there are many commonalities between the historical visions elaborated by the two authors. In this essay, the author examines the parallel conceptions of rhetoric, as the key to an integral humanist knowledge, and as an alternative to Cartesian rationalism; the author also carries out an analysis of the discontinuities between Vico's cyclical representation of the historic evolution, and the Schillerian idea of the accomplishment of history as a cultural reinforcement of a primitive naivety

«Machen Sie mich nicht reich. Geben Sie mir nur so viel, als man braucht, wenn man nicht gehorchen, und nicht befehlen will». Strategie del possesso nella «Betschwester» di Christian Fürchtegott Gellert: [«Do not make me rich. Give me only so much as one needs when one does not want either to obey or to command». Strategies of possession in Christian Fürchtegott Gellert’s «The Prayer Sister»]

As in all Gellert’s comedies, the characters of the The Prayer Sister (1745) aspire to both material well-being and an ideal spiritual happiness. The impulse to possession, which encompasses the sphere of reality as well as that of the symbolic, is an ambivalent, contradictory force. The aim of self-affirmation through wealth is coherent with bourgeois dynamism. The consequent exposure to the loss of a moral compass, however, corresponds to a drainage of the vital force which impels the logic of wish. This study deals with these themes both in Gellert’s theatre and in his essays

Tecniche di risemantizzazione. Il verso lungo nella lirica tedesca del 'fine secolo'

This paper aims to analyze certain features in the use of long verse by a few German language poets in the early twentieth century. Particular attention will be devoted to two collections: Der Weltfreund by Franz Werfel (1911) and Der Aufbruch by Ernst Stadler (1913). Our conclusion is that this technique was given preference in order to support a critical representation of modernization processes affecting all European societies, but especially Wilhelmine Germany between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. With regard to the acceleration and contraction imposed by mechanized production, long verse assumes an extended and quantitatively irregular size. For the authors being considered here, this is above all due to the influence of Whitman via a device destined to evoke a sort of primitive and universal human identity, liberated to spread out beyond codified boundaries.Il saggio intende analizzare alcune caratteristiche dell’uso del verso lungo in alcuni poeti di lingua tedesca nei primi anni del Novecento. Si prendono in considerazione in particolare due raccolte: Der Weltfreund di Franz Werfel (1911) e Der Aufbruch di Ernst Stadler (1913). Si giunge alla conclusione che questa tecnica viene adoperata di preferenza per sostenere una rappresentazione critica dei processi di modernizzazione che investono tutta la società europea, ma in particolare la Germania guglielmina, tra fine Ottocento e inizio Novecento. Rispetto all’obbligo di accelerazione e contrazione imposto dalla produzione meccanizzata, il verso lungo assume una misura estesa e quantitativamente irregolare. Esso è per gli autori considerati, soprattutto per l’influenza esercitata da Whitman, uno strumento destinato all’evocazione di una sorta di identità primitiva e universale umana, libera di distendersi al di là di limiti codificati

Per una lettura “begriffsgeschichtlich” della categoria di Gestalt. Le traduzioni di Stefan George dalla «Divina Commedia»

In the George-Kreis the category of “Gestalt” is often employed as a hermeneutic criterion for the interpretation of great authors of the past. Starting from the presence of the term “Gestalt” at various places in George’s translations from the Divina Commedia, which accompanied his poetic work for a long time, this article aims at reconstructing the way in which the paradigm of “Gestalt” fluctuates between the fields of historiographic inquiry and literary invention

«Wenn sich nach dem Werther die Leute totschießen, so ist das Buch gut; wenn sie auf andere schießen, besser». L’arte come pratica di costruzione del futuro in Ludwig Rubiner

Both as essay writer and poet Ludwig Rubiner (1881-1920) focuses on art as a revolution­ary practice. He conceives critical understanding of reality as a first step in a radical change of social conditions, which can be seen as the result of an artist’s specific attitude in evoking new worlds. This implies that only a non-realistic art can be politically successful, because it refers to a future horizon without restricting itself to describing the political situation of the time. In this paper, I analyze Rubiner’s strongly utopic art concept involving some typical categories of expressionistic literature like “Geist”, “Gemeinschaft”, “Katastrophe”

La rappresentazione del rituale di poesia nel ciclo «Waller im Schnee» di Stefan George

This paper focuses on para-religious elements in the poetry of Stefan George, with reference to the cycle Waller im Schnee, which occupies the middle of the first section in the collec­tion Das Jahr der Seele (1897). The waning of the sentimental relationship between the protagonist and his interlocutor is linked to the loss of effectiveness of a priestly ritual, which in the past had held the two together and whose significance has now diminished through perplexity and misunderstanding

«Die Ehre bleibt allein des Herzens Eigenthum». La definizione del carattere tragico nella teoria estetica e nella scrittura drammatica di Johann Elias Schlegel: [«Die Ehre bleibt allein des Herzens Eigenthum». The definition of the tragic character in the aesthetic theory and in the dramatic writing of Johann Elias Schlegel]

Johann Elias Schlegel’s writing for the theatre always pairs up with theoretical reflection. In his essays, Schlegel often takes an original stance with respect to his background as a member of the Gottsched circle. At no time does he ever set aside the mimetic principle; instead, he deploys it on behalf of an aesthetic of affects firmly anchored to a lucid understanding of the political and social situation surrounding the reception of his work. This study mainly focuses on how this intertwining finds expression in his essays and in his major tragedy Canut (1746)

«Am anfang aller Neuen Dichtung». Tre poesie incipitarie in George

George’s poetry is rich in metatextual strategies. The way he strategically places his lyrics in collections mirrors the programmatic natureof the texts. Bearing this in mind, the given study analyzes the lyrics that open the Hymnen (1890), Das Jahr der Seele (1897) and Der Teppich des Lebens (1900). The three lyrics share a symbolic representation of the poetic writing ritual. In his meeting with the enigmatic «herrin», in his walks in the autumn park or in the angel’s descent, George stages his strategies of the aestheticization of reality, which lie at the very core of his conception of poetr

La rappresentazione del rituale di poesia nel ciclo «Waller im Schnee» di Stefan George

This paper focuses on para-religious elements in the poetry of Stefan George, with reference to the cycle Waller im Schnee, which occupies the middle of the first section in the collec­tion Das Jahr der Seele (1897). The waning of the sentimental relationship between the protagonist and his interlocutor is linked to the loss of effectiveness of a priestly ritual, which in the past had held the two together and whose significance has now diminished through perplexity and misunderstanding

Biopoetiche/Bioestetiche

In its extensive meaning, ‘biopoetics’ is a meta-discursive structure intent at signalling, in the History of Arts, every possible intersection between the symbolical order of fictional forms and the organic one of bios. At least four levels of this intersection can be found: the biological existence of the author, the theoretical structure of the organic in the author’s poetics, the fictional representation of the organic in the single work, the bearing of the organic on the aesthetic response of the work’s audience. Until now, basically only ‘bioaesthetics’ has been attempted, which means that descriptions have regarded the mechanisms for which the aisthesis obeys to biologically determined conditions. What is still lacking are eminently ‘biopoetical’ models. A model which aims at reporting in an appreciable way the omnipresence of bios in every procedure of formal shaping needs to investigate every structure – the psychological, ideological and technical ones – in which an anthropological foundation acts as a producer of meaning. If this reasoning is accepted, then the aesthetic culture of the German 18th Century cannot but become a privileged model of reference for an analysis of this kind, as the one proposed in this issue of “Prospero”