Heinrich Von Kleist and Modernity

by Fischer, Bernd; Mehigan, Tim

• ISBN13: 9781571135063
• ISBN10: 1571135065
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-22
• Publisher: Camden House

Summary

Modernity, with its lack of a self-legitimating ethico-philosophical system and reliance for legitimacy on discursive formations without ultimate foundation, poses the problem of homo politicus - the problem of acting in a moral universe without an underlying, structuring categorical imperative. From this angle, the oeuvre of Heinrich von Kleist - novellas, dramas, and essays - addresses problems emerging from a new universe of Kantian provenance - in many ways the same universe we inhabit today. This volume of new essays investigates Kleist's position in our ever-changing conception of modernity, employing aesthetic, narrative, philosophical, biographical, political, economic, anthropological, psychological, and cultural approaches, and wrestling with the difficulties of historicizing Kleist's life and work. Central questions are: To what extent can the multitude of breaking points and turning points, endgames and pre-games, ruptures and departures that permeate Kleist's work and biography be conceptually bundled together and linked to the emerging paradigm of modernity? And to what extent does such an approach to Kleist not only advance understanding of this major German writer and his work, but also shed light on the nature of our present modernity? Contributors: Se#xE1;n Allan, Peter Barton, Hilda Meldrum Brown, David Chisholm, Andreas Gailus, Bernhard Greiner, Jeffrey High, Anette Horn, Peter Horn, Wolf Kittler, Jonathan Marshall, Christian Moser, Dorothea von M#xFC;cke, Nancy Nobile, David Pan, Ricarda Schmidt, Helmut Schneider. Bernd Fischer is Professor of German at the Ohio State University. Tim Mehigan is Professor of German at the University of Otago, New Zealand.