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The Male Muses of Romanticism: The Poetics of Gender in Novalis, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Eichendorff Author(s): Martha B.

Helfer Source: The German Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Summer, 2005), pp. 299-319 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of German Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30039412 Accessed: 10/12/2010 20:25
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MARTHA B. HELFER Rutgers University

The Male Muses of Romanticism:

The Poeticsof Genderin Novalis,


E.T.A.Hoffmann, and Eichendorff

In German Romanticdiscourse woman generally functionsasthe inspiraThis figurationappears be metaphysito tion, source,andgroundof poesy.2 cal in nature:woman and the femininearetropedas the originary condition of possibilityof Romanticself-definition Romanticartisticproduction, and and feminine descriptorsshape Romanticconceptionsof subjectivityand and creativity.In scatteredstatementsin Friedrich Schlegel'sphilosophical aesthetic theory,for example,"DerGeist ist d[as] urspringl[ich]Weibliche" XVIII: the (KA 193,#796; emphasisin original), subjector "I" Ich)is fem(das inine (KAXVIII: 334, #137), andwoman'svery essenceis poesy (KAII:269, novelLucinde title figure,who is both the #127); andin his autobiographical loverandmotherto the painterJulius,inspireshis artisticcreation.Similarly, in Novalis'sFichte-Studien self-positingego definesitself in oppositionto the the "Muttersfire" fromwhence it originated(Schriften 105, #1); the subII: or "I" feminine(Schriften 261, #519); andin the firstof the two dediis II: ject von the catory sonnets prefacingHeinrich Ofterdingen dead beloved, "das Urbild zartgesinnterFrauen," excites the poet's metaphysicaldrive, functions as his muse,andsafeguards poeticproduction(Schriften 193).Anahis I: lyzing this female poetic ground from numeroustheoreticalperspectives, criticscome to similarconclusionsabout the primacyof the contemporary femininein Romanticpoetic production: woman is the idealized,unattainable"other" againstwhich the malepoet defineshimselfin a gestureof wish fulfillment, the priestess and source of enlightenment for the male poet woman andwoman'svoice arethe essenceof Romantic (Becker-Cantarino); Romanticdiscourseis informed Kuzniar, poesy (Schlaffer, Miller-Sievers); by a theory of the feminine (Menninghaus, Roetzel);Romanticismitself is "thediscursive productionof the Motheras the sourceof discursiveproduc-

tion"(Wellbery Kittler, on "Foreword" xxiii).

Clearlythe feminineformsanintegralcomponentof Romanticdiscourse, yet the Romanticsthemselvesprogrammatically questionthe genderof their own poetic ground.To quote Friedrich Schlegel:"DieFrauenwerden in der The German Quarterly (Summer 2005)299 78.3

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Poesieebensoungerechtbehandelt,wie im Leben.Die weiblichensind nicht idealisch,und die idealischensind nicht weiblich"(KAII:172, #49), and his is racynovelLucinde animatedby a dizzyinggenderplayin which a codedhomoeroticaestheticsubtlydebunksthe feminineideal.3 in Similarly, the fairy tale fromNovalis'sfragmentary novelDie Lehrlinge Sais, Hyacinthleaves zu his love Rosenbliitchen journeysto Saison a questforself-definition, and and when he lifts the veil of the statue of the goddessIsis,"dieMutterderDinge" I: sinksinto his arms.Butin a famousdistichto (Schriften 93), Rosenbliitchen the novelan apprentice the goddess'sveil andseesthat "themotherof all lifts II: things"is not his beloved,but-wonder of wonders-himself (Schriften 584). In this instance,at least, the metaphysical groundof the Romanticproin ject-presumed to be the maternal,eternalfeminineembodied the formof the beloved-proves to be the self-positingmale subject.4 This essay examinesthe figureof the male muse in three canonicalRomanticnarratives despiteoutwardappearances that likewisedo not conform to a gynocentricparadigm and broachesa broadmethodologicalquestion: Arecontemporary theoreticalapproaches Romanticismandgenderstudto ies shaping our readingsof Romantic texts, predetermining woman's primacy and inflatingwoman's currencyin Romanticpoetics, and occluding importantaspectsof the discourseon genderarticulatedby the Romantics themselves?Motivatingthis openquestionis the followingobservation: the scholarscitedabovewho argueforthe centralityof the feminineto Romantic in poetic productionall, in effect, concentrateon "woman" constructing their textual analyses,and then concludethat "woman" groundsRomantic has poesy.This research yieldedtremendousinsightsinto the structureand function of genderin the Romanticproject.But given the ironic,self-reflexive, self-critical, polyvalentnatureof Romanticdiscourseand the fluid gender categoriesthat animateit, it is conceivablethat Romanticismsimultaon neously inscribescompetingdiscourses gendernot completelyaccounted forin the scholarship date,andthat new interpretative to are paradigms posTo sible,indeednecessary.5 conceptualizehow a text mightinscribecompeting-and equallycorrect-discoursesthat comeinto focusasa functionof its theoreticalframework, reader's imaginethe text as a multifaceted,multicolored crystal. Shininga light throughthe crystal from one angle yields one colorand one perspective; shiftingthe sourceof illuminationyields a different coloranda differentview.What happenswhen we removewoman from the spotlightafforded by ourown criticalframework, highlightother her and aspects of these texts? The following analysisproposesto open up a new dimensionof the Romantic discourseon genderby challenging criticalunderstanding the our of in primacyof the femininein Romanticpoeticproduction a stock topos:the definitionof the malepoet.According most scholarship date,the definito to tion of the male artist in Romantictexts typicallyoccursvis-a-visa female

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character,who is depicted as the true source of poesy. Perhapsthe most graphicexampleof this tropingof woman as the true sourceof poesy occurs in "Klingsohrs the von M~rchen," fantasticfairytale fromNovalis'sHeinrich The an Ofterdingen. tale,which comprises essentialcomponentof Heinrich's poetic education,culminateswith the female characterFabel-the fable's self-reflexive of representation poesy-singing and spinningthe text of the future from her own breast.And in the novel itself, of course,the budding poet Heinrich finds creative inspiration in the master poet Klingsohr's daughter,Mathilde,the famed "blueflower"of Romanticism.Yeteven this briefexplicationpoints to a significantoversightin the standard interpretive Whileit is true that Romanticismdoes cast the definitionof the paradigm. maleartistin termsof woman, the originary sourceof poesy,it is equallytrue that this femalefigureis subordinate and dependenton an exotericmale to of himself,the progenitor both Fabel figure:in this case, the poet Klingsohr and Mathilde.Indeed,Mathildeis repeatedly definedas the projection her of that he, not she, is the realsourceof poetic inspirationin father,suggesting the text. Similarly, E.T.A. in Hoffmann's Dergoldne bumblingpoetic Topfthe spiritAnselmusseemsto gainentranceinto the fluidpoeticrealmof Atlantis by learningto listen to-and transcribe-the sibilant,melodiousvoiceof the ArchivistLindhorst's and of daughterSerpentina, will be allowedto partake Serpentina's "goldenpot"when he accedesto the title of poet. Yetfrom the startof the narrative voiceis conspicuously controlledby herfaSerpentina's who likewise controls Anselmus's poetic initiation. Significantly, ther, Lindhorst's of voice, emanatingfroma golden "pot" flamraspy,discordant also groundsand enablesthe narrator'sproductionof the ing liquidarrack, text itself. Finally, Josephvon Eichendorff's Marmorbild aspiring in Das the poet Florioseemsto find his voice by learningto choosethe chasteChristian woman Biankaover the seductiveimageof the heathenVenus,the embodiment of a dangerous femalesexualityanda dangerous femaleart.Strikingly, undercuts however, a pronouncedhomoeroticaesthetic programmatically this surfacestoryline,and the maleminstrelFortunatoprovidestrueartistic inspirationfor Florio. Heinrich Ofterdingen my primary von as Taking focus, I examinethe function of the malemuse in these seminalnarratives of representative earlyRomanticism,high Romanticism,and late Romanticism.Using close textual analysis, I interpret this male inspiration as an essential component of the of self-critical, self-production the subject(das autopoiesis, self-reflexive, the of Ich)in and throughthe Romantictext.6Autopoiesis, cornerstone early Romanticism,ironicallytheorizesself-definitionagainstits literalimpossiof the bility:its goalis the representation the unrepresentable, pureego.7Exwith textualstrategiesofautopoiesis, Romanticseffect a disthe perimenting cursivecritiqueof conventionalmodes of representation that is consistent with current theoretical debates about gender and subjectivity (Butler,

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Edelman,de Lauretis).Eachnarrativeunderconsiderationhere presentsa in modelof autopoiesis which a maleartistdefineshimselfin termsof woman, but then questionsthe traditional femalegendering its own poeticground of and in ironicallyand self-critically, presentsa counterparadigm which the is processof poeticproduction codedas male.By settinginto playcompeting discoursesthat questionhow poetic productionis gendered, Romantics the destabilizeconventionalmodelsof genderandsubjectivity,8 suggestthat and genderitself is producedpoetically.

I Heinrich Ofterdingen von works to expose the traditionalfemale poetic ground-woman andhervoices-as constructedwithin and controlledby a male representational system. Accordingto the surfacestoryline the "blue flower"MathildeteachesHeinrichto sing,andthe poeticsubjectin the first of the novel's two dedicatorysonnets explicitly invokesa maternalmuse, albeit in the optative. Extolling the dead beloved'sformative role in his youthful self-definition,the poet vows to consecratehimself to noble art: "DennDu, Geliebte,willst die Muse werden,und stillerSchutzgeistmeiner the in Dichtungseyn"(193).9Importantly, volition expressed this statement subtly calls into questionthe efficacyof the femalebelovedas muse, and in the secondsonnet, the "sie" that animatesthe poet is no longerthe beloved, but rather "desGesangsgeheime Macht,"which appears"in ewigen Verwandlungen" (193). The novel itself-structured by a series of maleauthoredstoriesthat rewritethemselves"inendlesstransformations"-narrates the formationof the subject Heinrichas poet, using a male muse to motivate its modelof autopoiesis. Novalis explicatesin his Fichte-Studien, As the self-positingof the Fichteanego in terms of gendercategoriesperforce demandsthe autoproduction the malesubject.InHeinrich Ofterdingen of von male discourse-language written, spokenor sung by men-in its multiple, is fluid,metaphorictransformations, the inspiration,source,and groundof Romanticpoesy. In developingthis argumentI will complicate,althoughnot necessarily of astute reading the primacyof woman's voices contradict,Alice Kuzniar's in the poeticsof the novel.1'0 my opinionKuzniar's In analysisis correct,and offersthe strongestreadingto date of the function of genderin the novel's complex aesthetic structure.My interpretationlooks at a competing discourse in the text, and hence comes to a different conclusion: whereas focuseson hearingwoman'svoices, I proposeto listen closelyto the Kuzniar malevoiceaswell. Doing so risksessentializing too gendercategories simplistically,given Novalis'sstatement that men are to a certainextent women, III: just as women are to a certainextent men (Schriften 262, #117). Yet I

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would maintainthat while Novalisdoes cross-gender Romanticsubject, the he also drawsa cleardistinctionbetweenmaleandfemalediscourse, suppoa sition Kuzniar shares: When womenspeak singinHeinrich Ofterdingen, voices synonyor their von are mouswithunmediated the with utterance; writefrom breast, fluids they poetic fromthebody. in Woman's a in language, fact,establishesregulatory paradigm a thenovel: notonlycorresponds butgrounds self-referential of poeit to theory draws female on muta[like try.[...] Heinrich qualities passiveness, receptivity, and when clear command poetic the bility, motherhood] it becomes thatwomen voiceto whichhe aspires. Woman's Voices" 1197) "Hearing (Kuzniar, is However,as Kuzniar well aware,the women in the novel rarelyspeakor sing,andwhen they do speakorsing,they do so, forthe most part,with muted voices:throughmalenarration, omittedstorytelling, as insipidconversation, the projectionsof male desire,or throughdeath. Moreover, primacyof the woman's artisticproductionis repeatedly drawninto questionas woman's voice is modulatedor qualifiedthroughoutthe text. Considerthe following examples. molded by male narration. First, woman's voice is programmatically Talegives voice to Fabelas the avatarof poesy,and this female Klingsohr's artistic figureis shapeddoubly by men. The male poet Klingsohr inscribes Fabelin his spokennarrative singingand spinningthe threadof the future as from her own breast;and the spindle with which she forms this organic poetic threadis handedto her by Perseus(314), famed slayerof Medusa." Likewise,Sophie,the metaphysical groundof the Talewho overseesthe construction of a harmoniousnew poetic society,is Klingsohr's creation. Second,woman's voice as storytelleris conspicuouslyomitted throughout the novel. The lively accounts of Augsburgthat Heinrich'smother reconportedlyrelatesneverfind theirway into the narrative(this in marked trast to Klingsohr's the Provengal and the merchants',miners', Tale, book, and crusaders' Heinrich'smother and Cyane nevergive stories). Similarly, voice to the storiesNovalishad plannedfor them (345, 347). With the arguable exceptionof the autobiographical reportrelatedby Zulima,woman is excludedfromher traditionalrole as storytellerthroughoutthe text. as When she Third,woman is represented an insipid conversationalist. Mathildeis a vapidinterlocutor. Klingsohr's In speaks,whichis rarely, words, Mathilde,the embodimentof love, is mute and needs poesy to speakfor her would gainby learningto echoher (287).Hence,one wonderswhat Heinrich voice or mirrorher being (277). Mathildeis, in effect, a straw (wo)man for Klingsohr.Tellingly,Heinrich is immediately attracted to Klingsohr,but must be "thawedout"12(270) by his grandfatherbefore he even notices Mathilde in the first place: in contrast to the coded homoeroticism of normalizes its male muse Schlegel's Lucinde,Heinrichvon Ofterdingen WhenHeinrichdoesfallin love with Mathilde,he seesheras metonymically.

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GeistihresVaters derliebstenVerkleidung" hearshervoice as "ein in and "der fernes Echo" (271), whose source would appear to be either nature or Mathilde'srole in HeinKlingsohrhimself. Despite outward appearances, rich's artistic developmentis qualifiedat best. Although she promisesto teachthe aspiring minstrelto playthe guitarandHeinrich hopes shewill dissolve his entire soul in song (277), Mathildein fact neversings in the text. Heinrichhimself is awarethat Mathilde'sartisticand erotic powers derive musician.Noting he hadseenMathilde'sfacein fromherfather,the superior both the blueflowerof his dreamandthe Provengal book,Heinrichexclaims: warum hat es dortmein Herznicht so bewegt?O! sie ist dersichtbare "Aber Geist des Gesanges,eine wfirdigeTochterihres Vaters" (277). The "mute" Mathildehasno voice:she functionsas the visibleprojection a paternalpoof That Klingsohrpanderingly effects Mathildeand Heinrich's etic ground.13 union furtherunderscores commandingrolein Heinrich's his aestheticeducation:Klingsohr controlsHeinrich's sensualandartisticBildung.14 Similarly, Ginnistan'sartisticand erotic capabilitiesare doubly determinedby father has figures.In his TaleKlingsohr Ginnistanstagea wondroustheatricalshow Erosandthen seducehim, but she needsboth herfather'spermissionand for the key to his treasuryto do so. LikeMathilde's,Ginnistan'saesthetic and are from-father figures: eroticpropensities directlylinkedto-if not derived to whose namelessness underscores his Ginnistanis sexualpartner the father, paternalfunctionality,and in Novalis's notes for the continuation of the novel Ginnistan'sfatherthe Moon becomesa theaterdirector(339). of Fourth,the text repeatedly givesvoiceto woman as the projection male desire. In addition to the obvious examples of Mathilde and Heinrich's motheras the blueflowerincarnate,Zulima,the embodimentof exotic, oriental poetry (342), is invokedinto the narrativeby Heinrich.In a state of emotional and sexualexcitationoccasionedby the crusaders' stories,Heinrich sees "dieBlume seines Herzens"floating beforehis eyes and suddenly feelsin needof a lute-an instrumentthat hadfiguredprominentlyin poetic and sexual initiation in the Atlantis story (220-25)-"so wenig er auch sie wulfte, wie sie eigentlichgebautsey, and welche Wirkung hervorbringe" (234).Zulimaenterson cue playingherdeadbrother'slute, doublyinscribed of of as a projection malesexualdesireanda transmitter maleartisticproduction. Heinrichrefusesto acceptthe lute offeredby this femaleagent:his aesthetic inspirationcomes primarily from men. the text gives voice to woman throughdeath, a categoryof key Finally, aesthetic and philosophicalsignificancefor the definitionof the subjectin early Romantic discourse. In FriedrichSchlegel'swords, "AbsoluteVoll(KA women-especially mothendungist nurim Tode" II:286). Importantly, ers-in this novelarean endangered species:they eitherdropout of the narraThe tive or die.15 most strikingmaternaldeathoccursin Klingsohr's Tale,in which the motheris burnedat the stakeby the evil malewriterandherashes

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areconsumedby the othercharacters, therebybestowingon them an eternal birthingcapacity(312)-necessary for the productionof true poesy in the of This Romanticimagination.'16 universal incorporation maternalreproductive abilitiesclearlyis a male fantasy,and the master poet Klingsohrnow freely admits his Taleshows markedtracesof the poetic immaturityof his generativepoetic youth (287).The secondexampleof woman'spost-mortem and in is presented the novelas moredeveloped morerealisticthan the power secondpart, Tale.In the novel'sfragmentary fantasydepictedin Klingsohr's Heinrich'sascensionto the role of which presumably narrates "Erfillung," maturepoet, Mathildefinallycomesinto herown as a sourceof poeticinspivoice speaksto Heinrichfroma tree, rationin death,when herdisembodied seemingly enablinghim to sing for the first time in the text (224). But the After he hears scene is morecomplex than this summarymight indicate.17 Mathilde's voice Heinrich sees a divine light in which multiple figures whileMathildestandsby mutely, "als self-generate"auseignerLustbegierde" This vision of autopoiesis comfortsthe wollte sie mit ihm sprechen" (322). it and grievingHeinrich impelshim to song.This pointbearsrepeating: is not in of woman's voice, but a vision of self-generation the absence woman's voice, that inspiresHeinrich'ssong. In short,woman andhervoicesareconspicuouslyprogrammed throughout the text. This is not merelya matterof Novalis as male authorwriting woman orwoman'svoices.Nor is it a matter,as Kittlerhas suggested,of the male usurpingthe femalevoice to acquirehis own.18Rather-and hereI depoetic partfromKuzniar-Novalis as maleauthorwriteswoman'soriginary to with voice as mediated man,as ultimately unnecessary man.In accordance by Romantictheorythe text callsattention to its own castingof woman as the source of true poesy ironicallyand self-critically, and presents a counterin paradigm which the malepoet producesthe male subjectas text, i.e., as a discursiveconstruct. Significantly, Novalis had plans to transformthe evil malewriterof Klingsohr's Taleand to seat him at a loom, the locus of texere, the weaving of texts-a clearcounterto the femaleFabelas the Tale'ssole It of producer Romanticpoesy.19 is no coincidencethat the voice the writer in transcribes the extant Talebelongsto Fabel'sfather.In this text and elseis affair: "Dichten zeugen.Alles ist wherein Novalis'soeuvre poiesis a paternal Individuum Gedichtetemuf~ lebendiges seyn"(Schriften ein II:534,#36), and the Hymnen die Nachtconcludewith the poetic subjectsinkinginto the an inHeinrich Ofterdingen process von the of womb of the divinefather.20 Likewise, is autopoiesis codedas male.Man-not woman-is the truesourceof poeticinis at spirationin the novel,andthe subjectHeinrich constructed the nexus of multiple male discourses,indeedas the nexus of multiplemale discourses. is This processof maleautopoiesis reflectedin the text's narrativestructure.The firstpartof the novel consistsprimarily a seriesof storiesrelated of male speakers who narrateHeinrichinto subjectivity:on both the narraby

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tive and metanarrative levels the text is aboutHeinrich'sinscriptionand into these stories.21 novel beginswith Heinrichlying in The self-inscription bedcontemplatingthe storieshe has been told by the malestranger, the and accountof the blueflowercreatesan indelibleimageon Heinrich's stranger's the thought andon his poeticproduction.Importantly, commonly-accepted assumptionthat Heinrichproduces poesyonly in the secondpartof the novel is incorrect.The text clearlyreportshis reactionon firsthearingthe story of the blueflower:"ichkannnichtsandersdichtenunddenken" (195).Heinrich then writes himselfinto the stranger'sstory of the blueflowerin his dream. This processof inscriptionand self-inscription continuesas Heinrichlearns that his fatheras ayoung manalsolistenedto wondrousstoriestold by an old man that led him, too, to dreamof a flower.Althoughthe dreamsdivergein betweenhimselfand his father content, Heinrichconstructsan equivalence by askinghis parentswhether the flowerin his father'sdreamalsowas blue, andthis act of maleautopoeisis the encapsulates novel'spoeticprogram. Heinrichboth constructshimselfandis constructedas anautotexere,weavingtoa that generatethemselvesfromthemselvesin getherof linearmalediscourses a non-linearfashion, "auseignerLustbegierde" (322). The self-generatingdiscoursesemanating from Heinrich'serotic blue flowerdreamdemonstratethis processof maleautopoiesis The imprecisely. ageryof this dream-generated by the stranger'sstory of the blue flowerculminateswith Heinrichgazingat a delicateface in the chaliceof a flower, whose glisteningleavesswell as the flower bendstowardhim and opens its sexualgesture(197).His eroticfantasyendswhen petalsin an unmistakable his mother's voice wakes him, suggestingthe maternalvoice, which interact in rupts the procreative in his dream,is non-generative, non-poietic nablueflowerdreamthen generatesthe imagThe ture.22 imageryof Heinrich's Tale.The ery of the theatricalshow Ginnistanstagesfor Erosin Klingsohr's show culminateswith avisionof Eros-male sexualdesire-lying in the chalice of an exquisitelybeautifulflower,leaningovera slumbering maiden,their bodiesmergedfromthe hipin the imageof a singleflower(300).Thisvisionin turn generatesthe imageryof Astralis'ssong, the self-reflexive discoursein which poesy narratesits own genesis.The siderealbeinglies sunken in the Beidesich chaliceof honey blossomsuntil HeinrichandMathilde"Vereinten At zu einem Bilde"(318) andAstralis-poesy-is born.23 the nexus of these discoursesHeinrich-Eros-engenders poesy. Similarly,the conclusion of father'sflowerdream, which his childsproutswings andhovers in Heinrich's over the earth (202), generatesthe conclusionof Klingsohr's Tale,in which and Fabelhoversoverthe earth (314).At the juncErossproutswings (305) ture of these discoursesthe child of the father's dream,Heinrich,is cona structedas a texere, weavingtogether,of Eros,malesexualdesire,andFabel, of the text's self-reflexive representation poesy.As the text engendersitself from its own male discourse,the male subjectis constructedas text.

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This processof autopoiesis codedas malethroughoutthe narrative. is Folhis blueflowerdream,Heinrich's mothertakesHeinrichon a tripto lowing Augsburgso that he can, in effect, finish inscribinghimself in his father's dreamby findinga woman likehis motherto substituteforthe blueflowerof his own dream.Heinrichleaves"seinen Vaterund seine Geburtsstadt" (204) andtravelswith his motherto herhomecity,but this journeyto maternalorigins provesto be a journeyto the father-to Schwaningand to Klingsohrinstead:tellingly,Frau are SchwaningandFrau Klingsohr both dead.Enroute to this originary locus, Heinrichhearsa seriesof storiesnarpaternalpoetic ratedby men about male poets. Eachstory reflectsor prefigures Heinrich's As these storiesunfoldin a linearprogression Heinrich and ongoingBildung. is integratedinto them non-linearly,the text constructs a metanarrative about the production the malesubjectas text. As he journeys,Heinrichis of firstaroused then literallyimpregnated this malediscourse: and "Manche by Worte, manche Gedankenfielen wie belebenderFruchtstaub,in seinen Schoofb" In bookhe cannotreadHeinrichseeshis own (263).24 the Provengal life produced text. Heinrichmust learnto producepoesyhimself-to proas duce himselfas poesy-and Klingsohr functionsas midwife in this process: "Schon nahtesichein Dichter,ein lieblichesMidchen an derHand,um durch LautederMuttersprache durchBerihrungeines zirtlichen Mundes,die und (268).The male poet Klingsohr opens Heinbl6denLippenaufzuschlielfen" rich's lips in song; Mathilde and maternal language merely function as Klingsohr'sagents in this process. With his fertilewomb and open lips, the apprenticepoet Heinrichis unThe masterpoet Klingsohr, contrast,is overtly in mistakablyfeminized.25 masculinized: heitrer Ernst derGeist war seines eine schbn Gesichts; offene Stirn, Ein gew5lbte und schwarze, durchdringende festeAugen, schalkhafter umden grofie, ein Zug frbhlichen und Mund durchaus mrnnliche es klare, machten bedeuVerhiltnisse tendundanziehend. warstark Er seineBewegungen waren und gebaut, ruhig und schien ewigstehen wollen.(270) er zu ausdrucksvoll, wo erstand, built"poeticground, with its "completely masIndeed,this "powerfully clear, culine proportions," metaphysical nature.In notes for the continuation is in of the novelNovalisidentifiesKlingsohr the eternalpoet who doesnot die, as
but stays on earth forever (348).26

The malediscourse Heinrich Ofterdingen subjectand von the structuring Heinrichvon Ofterdingen text finds its theoretical articulationin the the Fichte-Studien. David Wellbery noted, Novalis characterizes selfAs has the in positingof the Fichteanego in termsof gendercategories these earlyphilosophicalfragments,arguingthat the empiricalego must define itself independently of the pure ego or Being, which Novalis calls the "maternal "die sphere,"die Muttersfdre: Handlungdes Gewahrwerdenskann ja also

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nicht aus ihrer Sfire herausgehnund die Muttersfire mitfassen wollen" II: (Schriften 105, #1). Being-the pureego or "maternal sphere"-cannot be on modified;it is not predicated anything.Whenwe attempt to conceptualize Being by opposing it to "nonbeing," Novalis maintains, we come up is empty-handed."Nonbeing" merelya verbalconstruct, "eincopulirendes ego Hickchen"that the empirical attemptsto attachto the pureego, the madocheine HandvollFinsternis" II: ternalsphere,to no avail:"greift (Schriften 106, #3).27Thus, Novalis continues-in a portionof the fragmentnot discussedby Wellbery- the empirical must defineitself in oppositionto a ego as being completelylike itself, and this likenessis anatomical, it were: "Um sich selbst zu begreifen,muf! das Ich ein anderesihm gleichesWesen sich Dieses andreihm gleicheWesenist nichts vorstellen,gleichsamanatomiren. II: is anderes,als d[as]Ich selbst"(Schriften 107, #3). To "anatomize" to "dissect,"but the physicalsenseof the word resonatesin the sexualcontext generatedby the "copulating little hook"grabbing handfulof darkness" the "a in first partof the fragment.The self-positingmalesubject,who cannot define must define himself in himself in terms of the originary"maternal sphere," terms of a being anatomically like himself, a being who is himself: the self-positingof the Fichteanego in terms of gendercategoriesdemandsthe autoproductionof the male subject.28 the Further, self-positingof the male subjectmust occurwithin a "male" above. In the system, which I have called"malediscourse" representational refers to both the self-positing of the the Fichte-Studien term Darstellung Fichteanego and the rhetorical syspresentationof the poetic-philosophical tem in andthroughwhich the subjectposits itself.Ultimatelythese two levmust be identical:the self-positingmale subject defines els of Darstellung the as This himself via Darstellung Darstellung.29 is why autopoiesis, self-production of the subjectin and throughthe Romantictext, is codedas malein The von Heinrich Ofterdingen. male subjectHeinrichinscribeshimself in the of male representational system that produceshim, as theproduct the representationalsystem that produceshim. Heinrich'sfeminizationmust be readin light of this same-sexmodel of von the Darstellung, there is nothing camp about Heinrich Ofterdingen: yet novel'sstorylineconspicuouslyconformsto a heterosexual paradigm. Heinas rich'sfeminizationmight be interpreted an attempt to accessthe inacceswere it not for the fact that the text the originary"maternal sible, sphere," works to expose this originaryfemale ground-woman programmatically and hervoices-as constructedwithin and controlledby a male representaits tional system. This is why the text re-genders originary poetic groundas male and feminizes the nascent poet Heinrich. In so doing the text dethe stabilizestraditional gendercategoriesand underscores constructedness of genderand subjectivitywithin its own patriarchal representational system. At the same time, the text presentsa competingproto-feministrepre-

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sentationalsystem in the figureof its nascentpoet. The feminizedHeinrich must learn to submit linear patriarchal discourseto a non-linearmode of ashe integrates himselfinto the storiesthat constitutehisBildung. reading II The critique of the female poetic ground articulatedin Heinrich von is radicalized E.TA.Hoffmann'sDergoldneTopfalmost the in to Ofterdingen In point of parody. this "modern fairytale"the idealwoman is a snake,albeita prettygreenonewho morphsinto a slinkymaidenat will, inspiringthe klutz Anselmusto becomea poet. To be sure,one might well ask-as the text implicitly does-precisely what kind of poet Anselmus becomes. After all, Anselmusis a copyist, a scribewho apparently learnsto be a poet by reproYet ducingtexts.30 even in Atlantis-a realmthat exists only as a textualconstruct-he doesn'tseem to createanythingoriginal, functionsmerelyas but a cipherfor "das Lebenin derPoesie" LikeHeinrich Ofterdingen, von Der (130). a of goldneTopfis text about poetic productionandaboutthe production the malepoet as text. Yet-much moreso thanHeinrich Ofterdingen-the von text overtly reflects on the recursive process of autopoiesisit itself stages. Hoffmanntextualizeshimselfas the malepoet who strugglesto produce the text Dergoldne which produces malepoetAnselmusas text, thereby the Topf, own self-definition. this enablingthe malenarrator's Importantly, recursive of maleautopoiesis jeopardized a malevolentfemale force,the is by process who is explicitlylinkedto the biblicalFallstory from the start of Apfelweib, the text. TheApfelweib, her name suggests,is not just any woman or the as stock evilwitch, but Womanherself, who must be killedoff as a precondition forthe malepoet to write.Andeventhen shethreatenshis poeticproduction. At the endof the text, the narrator, froma badcaseofwriter'sblock, suffering attributes his writing problems,his inability to complete the process of to Anselmus-not Serpentina autopoiesis, the deadwitch's kin.31 Strikingly, orhergoldenpot-serves as the narrator's and poeticexemplar, the Archivist Lindhorstis the true sourceof poetic inspirationin the text. In developingthis argumentI proposean alternateinterpretation the to advancedby Friedrich Kittlerand David Wellbery, who see Lindreadings horst as a male agent who guides Anselmus in his poetic initiation, and Serpentinaas the muse and poetic ground of the text. In their views in Hoffmann-and in Romanticismin general-becoming a poet is initiation into the language the Mother,the languageof nature.32 of Indeed,Anselmus would seemto gain entranceinto the fluid poetic realmof Atlantisby learning to listen to-and transcribe-the sibilant,melodiousvoice of the Archivist Lindhorst's who narrates father'smanuscripts her daughterSerpentina, and her father'sgenealogyto Anselmusas he copiesthese maleurtexts.But

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from the start of the narrative Serpentina's voice is conspicuously controlled by her father, who first sends Serpentina and her sisters to flirt with Anselmus, then abruptly silences these female poetic voices by ordering his daughters home again, and finally provides the texts Serpentina vocalizes for Anselmus. Moreover, it is not the successful translation or transcription of the female poetic voice that enables Anselmus to become a poet. Anselmus in fact succeeds in copying the originary text of nature narrated by Serpentina: the Sanskrit text documenting Lindhorst's genealogy, first recounted by Lindhorst in his rough, metallic voice in the third vigil, and merely elaborated on by Serpentina in the eighth. But this feat alone does not gain him entrance into Atlantis. Anselmus is given yet another text to copy, but fails this test when Lindhorst's control over his poetic initiation is challenged by an antagonistic female poetic force. The Apfelweib, who had predicted Anselmus's "Fallins Kristall"(5), causes Anselmus to conflate the real woman Veronika with the ideal woman Serpentina and hence to drop an ink stain on the original manuscript he is to copy. As retribution for his poetic transgression, Lindhorst imprisons Anselmus in a crystal flask. This singular punishment demands interpretation, and the language used to describe the incarceration obliquely suggests the punishment fits the crime. Anselmus is first scorched and then petrified by a process of Ver-dichtung, literally a process of "miswritsich ing," as it were: "eswar, als verdichteten die Feuerstrdmeum seinen Karper und wtirden zur festen eiskalten Masse" (103, emphasis mine).33Anselmus, a repository in the Archivist ver-dichtet,is then shelved-significantly-on Lindhorst's library, suggesting he is dangerously close to becoming yet another failed poetic text. he Just as Lindhorst metes out the punishment of Ver-dichtung, also sanctifies Anselmus's transformation into Dichtung, thereby establishing the Archivist as both the guarantor and ground of poesy in the text. Anselmus's entrance into Atlantis is predicated on a central battle between Lindhorst and

in his archnemesisthe Apfelweib, which this Evefigurestripsnakedand arlimors her wizened femalebody with parchmentleaves from Lindhorst's brary-"diese [die Pergamentblitter] im kinstlichen Gefige schnell zusammenheftend" (109)-to no avail. (That her famulusspringsfrom an the inkwell into battle furtherunderscores poetic natureof this confrontation.) The defeatof this femalepoetic figureby the patriarch Lindhorst-by of professiona guardian texts-paves the way forAnselmus'stranscendence him into the poeticrealmof Atlantis.Indeed,Lindhorst's nameinscribes very as the poetic ground of the text. In its Indo-European roots, "Lindhorst," "lithely [snakily] woven," is linked etymologically to both the snake the sourceof poeticinspiration, to texere, and the Serpentina, text's apparent This derivationsurelyis key to a narrative populatedby weaving of texts.34

with names" whosestoryline a characters "speaking equates becoming poet

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with understanding Lindhorst's genealogyby learningto decipherSanskrit, forthe Romanticsthe originary the Indo-European language, languageof nature. the own expulsionfromAtlantis-which Further, history of Lindhorst's reversesthe genderingof the biblicalFallstory-constiprogrammatically tutes an essentialcomponentof Anselmus'spoeticBildung. salamander The who had insisted on throwinghis spark,"derGedanke," his into Lindhorst, love the lily and destroyingher,has been banishedfromthe EdenicAtlantis becauseof his brashbehavior, has beensentencedto life on earthuntil he and finds three poetic spiritswho will marryhis snakydaughters.Importantly, Lindhorst's mythic autobiography providesthe condition of possibilityfor the surfacestorylinenarrating Anselmus'stransitioninto the liquidpoetic realmof Atlantis.Likewise,at the conclusionof Hoffmann's"modern fairy tale,"Lindhorst's voice,emanatingfroma goldenchaliceof raspy,discordant groundsand enablesthe narrator's productionof the flamingliquidarrack, text itself. III Das effectsa metacritique the reof Josephvon Eichendorff's Marmorbild cursiveprocessof maleautopoiesis von and stagedin Heinrich Ofterdingen Der andlaborsto restorean originary femalemetaphysical goldneTopf, groundto Romanticpoetics.At the same time, the text underscores futility of its the own recuperative nicht nachdenWurzelnim Grunde," the gesture:"forscht warns the aspiringminstrelFlorioas he tries to Venus/Bianka doppelgiinger discernheressence,"dennunten ist es freudlosund still"(52).Generally read as a narrative inscribes-indeed prescribes-the endof the Romanticera that in favor of a conservativeChristian paradigm,Das Marmorbild simultaneously deliversthe coupdegraceto the traditionalfemale poetic groundthe maternal,eternal feminine embodiedin the form of the beloved-and ironicallyroots Romanticpoetics in a radicalhomoeroticaesthetic. to According the surfacestoryline,the young poet Florioseemsto findhis voice by learning choosethe chasteMadonnafigureBianka to overthe seductive imageof the heathenVenus,the incarnation a dangerous of femalesexuand a dangerousfemaleart, but the male minstrelFortunatoprovides ality true artistic inspiration for Florio. Significantly,Florio is attracted to Fortunato'sbody, his very being, and his voice from the start of the text: "DemjungenFloriodinkte die schlankeGestalt des Fremden,sein frisches keckesWesen,jaselbstseinefrbhliche Stimmeso iiberaus er anmutig,daf5 gar nicht von demselben this wegsehenkonnte"(25).Moreover, maleartisticinspiration,the text suggests,can be as dangerouslyalluringas the seductive heathen art of the marble statue. On meeting Florio for the first time

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Fortunato at gazeswith visiblepleasure the beautifulyouth in his innocence, and then cautionshim to guardagainstthe "Spielmann" luresyouths who into a magic mountain from which they cannot escape(25-26), a warning that would seem to apply not to the marble statue Venus and her or "Venusberg," to herservantDonati, who neversingsor playsmusic in the but narrative, to Fortunatohimself,the only maleminstrelidentifiedin the text. Tobe sure,Fortunato's as warningmight be interpreted a simpleallegoricalallusionto the Tannhauser but the seductivelanguage with which legend, the minstrelis introduced we readhis injunctionliterally:an extensuggests The sive, if understated,homoeroticaesthetic subtendsDas Marmorbild.35 text begins with Florio'sattraction to the minstrel Fortunato,whom he meets en route to the Italiancity of Lucca.Fortunato'sfirst song, infused with homoeroticdesire,introduces-and arguably invokes-Venus andDonati into the narrative,therebybespeakingthe animatingpower of Fortunato's autopoietic aesthetic. Addressinga "rosenbekrinztes Jiinglingsbild" with flamingeyes (30), the male minstrelFortunatosings of Venusand her in realm,of knightsandwomen at a celebration which eachmanholdsa sexuindeterminate"Liebchen" his arms (31). Abruptlychanginghis tone in ally and mode of presentation,Fortunatothen sings of an "einsamBild"at the very center of the celebration(31), the lily-wreathedstranger: Sein Mund schwillt KUssen zum Alsbracht' einGrUilen er
und Solieblich bleich, Aushimmlischem Reich.(32)

Importantly, this central "solitaryimage" signifies doubly in the text. the Fortunato's audienceinterprets imageas the paleknightDonati,who apaction suggeststhis pearsrightafterthe song'sconclusion,but the narrative introduces metonymicdisplacement the text. The lovely a into interpretation strangerwith the swelling mouth who bearsgreetingsfrom the heavenly to realm,the beautiful youth of the song'sfinalstanzawho will leadFlorio the refersto none other than Fortunato HeavenlyFather, himself,who is expliclaterin the text (46).36 itly comparedto a Christlike"Botedes Friedens" The programmaticallyconfusing imagery of Fortunato's song-informedby both homoeroticismand metonymic displacement-is emblematic of the narrative principlethat structuresthe text. In the ensuingaction Bild"Fortunatoapparentlyis Florio'shomoeroticattractionto the "einsam his heterosexualinfatuationwith the "Doppelbild" Bianka/Vereplacedby of nus (49), but the text subtlyindicatesthat this transference eroticenergy in fact masks a displacement.Tellingly,in his terrifyingencounterin the with the seductiveheathen art of the marblestatue, it is not feVenusberg male sexuality,but narcissisticsame-sexdesirethat threatensFlorio.In the

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as Venusberg, Venusgazes at her own imagein a mirror(58)-a scene that recallsFlorio'sfirst introductionto the marblestatue standingin the pond Bild reflectedby a "trunkene[s] Wassergazingat "das dereigenenSch6nheit" spiegel" (37)-Florio looksat the statuesandtapestriesthat adornthe palace, and sees that all women depictedin this art are Venus,while the men all becomehimself(62).Confusedandfrightened this self-reflexive aesthetic, by the sounds of an old song that come driftingthroughthe Florio,guidedby Venustransforms into a scary window, resistsVenus'sseductionby praying. and is then vanquishedby the "immergewaltigerverschwellenden figure T6nen" of Fortunato'spious song (62)-a phrasethat harks back to the whose mouth "swellsto kiss"in Fortunato's first song (32).Indeed, stranger the repetitionof imageryalludingto homoeroticdesireis apt. Evenas the scaryVenusimage fades,Floriois seized by mortalterrorwhen an army of to knightswho all look likehim lungeforward,andwhat appears be a gigantic man with outstretchedarmsworks his way out of the wall towardhim (62). Floriobolts from the palacewith his hairstandingon end, passingthe who stands "hochaufrecht" his boat, fingeringhis in phallicizedFortunato, guitar (62). (Thatthe sexualthreatrepresented the minstrelreplacesthe by sexualthreatembodiedby Venusis underscored the text itself.The narraby tive explicitlyscriptsFortunatoin the same structuralposition as the heathen goddess,standingin the still pondin which Florio firstseenthe marhad ble statue [62].)The next day,as Florio triesto fleeLucca, againencounters he Fortunato,whom he recognizes"nichtohne heimlichenSchauer" (64). In a remarkable Fortunato-the minstrel metalepticreversal,however, who abruptlychangestone and mode of presentationin his songs (31), the minstrelwho takes on many guises, surprising even himself with the boldness and profoundmeaning of his transformations(50)-then providesa normalizing glosson the eventsof the previous evening.Afteridentifyingthe ruinsof a heathentemple,beforewhich stands"einzum Teilzertrfimmertes Venusbild" (64), Fortunatosings a wholesome song in which the seductive the goddessVenusis replaced "einandresFrauenbild," Madonna(66).Veby nus, Fortunatoexplains, awakens every spring and tries to lure innocent youths into her "erdichteten (67), and Florionearlyfell Gartenund Palast" to this temptation.But Fortunatoapparentlycounteractedher seducprey tive heathen art with a pious Christiansong that enacts an etymological a together"of the threateningearthspirits:"Glaubt ein mir, religio, "binding redlicher Dichterkannviel wagen,denndieKunst,die ohne Stolz undFrevel, die besprichtund bindigt die Erdgeister, aus derTiefe nach uns langen"(68). Inspiredby the binding power of Fortunato'sdaring religiousaesthetic, Florioaffirmshis Christianfaith in song, gazes at Fortunato's young travelandrecognizes charmingboy as the maidenBianka: the "Um ing companion, reisen zu kannen, und zugleich alles Vergangene ungehinderter gleichsam von sich abzustreifen,hatte sie Knabentracht With anlegenmiissen"(69).37

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this castingoff of past history,a "magicfog"lifts, and the "newborn" Florio can now safely fall in love with the "boy"Bianka:in the text's final (69) metonymic displacementhomoerotic desire is translated into a chaste, Christian,heterosexualparadigm. Das Marmorbild a text about learningto readdifferenceinscribedin is sameness.Floriomust learnto distinguishVenusfromBiankaandFortunato as fromDonati, andhe must learnto read"boy" girl.The text instantiatesa of homographesis(Edelman),redacted-as it must be in the disprocess Yet courseof the Ageof Goethe-through woman.38 despiteits conservative the text undercutsits own normalizingresolutionin an autocritical veneer, gesture. Venus awakens every spring, and the recursiveprocess of male autopoeisisinscribed in the text will repeat itself. As he learns in the Venusberg,Florio'shistory is every man's history. Expressedin different narrates discursive the formationof the malesubject. terms,DasMarmorbild The "newborn" subjectFlorio(69)with the femininefloralnameemergesdynamicallywithin a matrixof genderrelations,indeedas a matrixof genderrelations (Butler7). of hereto underscore I adopt the parlance JudithButlerandLeeEdelman an important filiation to a majorbranchof contemporarygenderstudies, which maintains that subjectivity,gender,and sexualityare not essential, but constructs.Ina famousformulation Judith unitarycategories, discursive Butlerassertsthat the subjectis formedby virtueof havinggone throughthe des3), processof assuminga sex (Butler whereperformativity performative and ignates "thereiterative citationalpracticeby which discourseproduces Lee the effects that it names"(Butler2). Similarly, Edelman arguesthat gender and sexuality are constituted throughprocesses"asmuch rhetoricalas psychological"(Edelmanxiv), while Teresade Lauretisproposesthat the of "construction genderis the productandthe processof both representation the and self-representation" Lauretis Precisely sameissuesareat stake (de 9). of in in the self-reflexive self-inscription Heinrichvon Ofterdingen the patriarchaldiscoursethat produceshim as a textual construct,in the recursive constructionof Anselmusas male-authored text, and in the constructionof the male subjectFlorioas the productof a dynamic matrixof genderrelaand tions. Certainlyone coulddiscussthe intricaciesof Butler's,Edelman's, theoriesin fargreaterdetailthan I have done here.My point in de Lauretis's of drawingthis connectionis not to illustratethe obviousapplicability congendertheoryto Romanticism,but ratherto suggest,as Philippe temporary and Lacoue-Labarthe Jean-Luc Nancy have done in a differentcontext, that Romanticism formsthe basisof ourown criticalconsciousness earlyGerman and von Der today (Lacoue-Labarthe Nancy 15). Heinrich Ofterdingen, goldne and processthroughwhich gender Topf, Das Marmorbild stagethe autopoietic and subjectivityare produced discursively.

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Notes
1 Research this articlewas for supported a grantfromthe Universityof Utah by Research Committee. 2 Throughout with analyzingthe discursive constructhis essay I am concerned in tion of gendercategories "woman" Romantictexts, not with a socio-historical like or politicalanalysisof realwomen'srolesin Romanticcultureand Romanticcultural I to Poesie. Derivedfromthe production. use the term "poesy" designatethe German and refersto all modesof Romanticdiscourse, Greek Poesie poiein,"tomake,create," hence has a muchbroader than the English"poetry." signification homoeroticaestheticsee Helfer,"Confessions." See 3 Foran analysisof Lucinde's of in Redfieldfor a reading genderas a performative Lucinde. "Thedistich confirmsthat the 4Wellberyproposesa differinginterpretation: femalefigureonly gives the male subjectbackto himself,that she functions-paraits doxically-to veilfemininity,to maintainit within the Same,to prevent manifestaMoment tion as Other"(Specular 63). desirein GermanClassicismfor a complestudy of male-male 5 See Gustafson's shift I am proposing Romanticism. for mentaryexampleof the type of paradigm 6 SeeLacoue-Labarthe Nancyfora discussion autopoiesis earlyRomantic of in and The scholarship male musesis slim;see Ungerfor an overview.Foran on discourse. see analysisof the deadbelovedas musein Romanticism Bronfen; LevyandDeShazer considerthe variousguises the muse assumesin 19th-and 20th-century literature; Gravesprovides historyof the figureof the muse in Classical a mythology. of is Fichte-Studien. 7 The derivation this theoryof autopoiesis laidout in Novalis's In an incisivecritique Fichte's of modelof the self-positing subject,Novalisidentifiesa vicious circlein the one seeminglyincontrovertible principlethat groundsFichte's entire philosophical system, the statement "I=I."Novalis arguesthat the fact of self-consciousness cannotbederived fromthe reflexive of self-positing, act sincereflecor in tion, by definitiona mirroring, alwaysresultsin a reversal inversion the subject's Novalisproposes correctthis unavoidable to inversion the subin self-representation. that poetryis capableof representing the ject's self-positing poetically,maintaining the unrepresentable, pureego. Romanticaesthetics"ina 8 Kuzniar arguesthat genderconstructionsundergird both forgendercategories for poetictheory"("Laand profoundly destabilizing way, bor Pains" 75). von refer edition. 9 CitationsfromHeinrich Ofterdingen to VolumeI of the critical Woman's 'o The following analysissets up a dialoguewith Kuzniar's "Hearing Voices."In "Labor Pains" Kuzniar modifiesherargumentslightlyandspeculates that "theromantic in poeticandthe philosophical project maybegrounded termsof reversible genderpositions"(75). " I makethis in who seesFabelas confirming "die argument oppositionto Kittler, feminineund infantileIdentitit des romantischen Dichters" (464). 12In the original,the grandfather wollen dich hier schon aufthauen" says: "Wir (270). in order. 13 As such, Mathildeis inscribed a visual,hence phallicized refersto both "thatwhich pertainsto 14 In the Age of Goethethe term"aesthetic" education" thus involvesboth sensiperception the senses"and to art:"aesthetic by

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ble/sensualand artisticBildung. that the disappearance thesewomen paradoxically of 15 Kuzniar argues guarantees theirubiquity("Hearing Woman'sVoices"1201). 16Foran analysisof the birthtopos in German see Romanticism, Kuzniar"Labor Pains." Woman'sVoices" the 17This is Kuzniar's summary("Hearing 1201).Importantly, scenerewritesthe Atlantisstory,in which the malepoetis introduced the formof a in voice that seemsto emergefroma tree (224).As I discussbelow, the poet Heinrich is constructedat the nexus of such self-generating discourses. 79. des 18AufschreibesystemeSee also "DieIrrwege Eros." Theidentification thewriterwith "numerals geometric of and 19 (264)sugfigures" the as as gests Novalismighthavedeveloped character initiatinga mathematical, oplike Kant,Novalisconsidered mathematicsto be the purest posedto a verbal, poiesis: form of representation. 20 "EinTraumbricht unsre Bandenlos / Und senkt uns in des Vaters Schoofl" I: here (Schriften 157).I havechosenthe sexualmeaningof the word "Schoofb" and in von an warranted the strong my discussionof Heinrich Ofterdingen, interpretation by sexualimageryof both texts. developmenttakesplace"almost 21 Newman assertsHeinrich's exclusivelyin the of (62).Calhoonnotes Heinprocessof the creativeinterpretation poeticconstructs" rich'sdevelopmentis carefullyscripted(126). 22 Kuzniar argues the mother's voice completes Heinrich'sdream ("Hearing Woman'sVoices"1198). 23 In his reporton Novalis'splans for the novel's continuation,Tieck identifies Astralisas poesy (Schriften 360). I: 24 Thewordsandideasthatimpregnate Heinrich issuedby thehermitin the sexare ual spaceof the mine. In oppositionto the otherheterosexually-charged in the caves the narrative cavesof Heinrich's his father's and (the dreams, cavein theAtlantisstory the in which the princessand the youth consummatetheir relationship, grotto in which Ginnistan seduces the hermit's cave-devoid of women,andcontaining a Eros), a shrineto a deadwoman-arguably represents sexualspaceremovedfromwoman: leaveshis motherto descendinto the cave,andreturnsto his mother'sarms Heinrich fromthisuterinespacepopulated controlled men.On cavesin when he emerges and by see GermanRomanticism, Ziolkowski18-63. 25 Kuzniar andKittler both arguethe maleRomanticpoet is feminized,but do not commenton Klingsohr this context. in 26 To be sure,in a contemporaneous note that Novalissubsequently crossedout, Mathildereturnsfromthe deadandconstructsthe subjectHeinrich throughhis own "Mathilde kommtundmachtihn [Heinrich] durchseineeignenLie(male)discourse: der"(348). Moment 62-69. 27Wellbery, Specular of 28 Calhoon's (see psychoanalytic reading the novelin termsof narcissism espeis cially71-96), thoughcast in a differentvocabulary, consistentwith my argument that the self-positing malesubjectproves bethemetaphysical of to ground the Romantic project. 29 Fora discussion Novalis'stheoryof Darstellung theFichte-Studien Helfer, of in see 77-89. TheRetreat ofRepresentation

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See Nygaardfor a discussionof the motif of copyingin the text. "Es war,alshieltenmirrechttiickischeGeister(es mochtenwohl Verwandte vielleichtCousinsgermains getiteten Hexesein)einglinzend poliertes der Metallvor, in dem ich mein Ich erblickte" (123-24). Moment 72-82. Fora criAufschreibesysteme 32 Kittler, 83-115; Wellbery,Specular of Kittlersee Oesterle. tique is rewrites by 33 This reading substantiated the fact that the scene of Verdichtung Anselmus'sinitiationinto the poeticrealmof nature.On meetingSerpentina the for firsttime,Anselmusstaresinto hereyesandhearscrystalbells,andis then surrounded aroundhim, enby flamesthat weave goldenthreads("schimmernde Goldfidchen") or velopinghim in a naturaltexere, text (12). fromthe Indo-European (flexible),fromwhich the Old High lento 34 "Lind"comes are the lindiandthe English German lind, "lithe" derived; OldHighGerman lintmeans "Horst" comes from the Indo-European "zusam"Schlange" (Wahrig 2389). *kert-, mendrehen, winden, flechten"(Wahrig 1887). alsonotes the text'shomoeroticism, that somethingthreatening arguing 35 Richter causesus to readoverthe text's literalmeaningandto "seek readrefugein allegorical ing"(60). notes the text "seemsbent on deceithere"(64). 36 Richter contendsthatthe only plausible for is interpretation Bianka's appearance 37 Pikulik that she thereby"deniesher sex" (140), but he does not analyze the text's homoeroticism.Eichner follows Pikulik's interpretation. which sexuprocesses 38In a subtleandpowerfulanalysisof the rhetorical through maintainsthat heterosexuality Edelman ality is produced discursively, only can be defined in terms of homosexuality:"[...] homosexualitymarksthe otherness,the difference to and internal 'sexuality' sexualdiscourse itself.The order heterosexualof of ity seeks to stabilizethat differencethroughthe articulation sexualidentitiesto which it canascribe fictivecoherence, a its thereby betraying insistenceon, andits own investmentin, the logic of identity, the logic of the same."Edelman coins the term to this homographesisreferto the puttinginto writing-and henceinto diffirance--of self-contradictory logic of identity:the term conjoins"'homo,'the overdetermined a sameness,with 'graphesis,' signifierpointingto signifierof this self-contradictory the inscription inscriptionitself as difference" of (xix).
31

Works Cited
Barbel. "Priesterin Lichtbringerin. Ideologie weiblichen und Zur des Becker-Cantarino, Charakters derFriihromantik." Frau Heldin in Die als undAutorin: kritische Neue Ansiitze zurdeutschen Literatur. Wolfgang Ed. Paulsen. Berne: 1977.111-24. Francke, with the Dead:The Deceased Elisabeth. Beloved Muse." and as Sex Bronfen, "Dialogue Deathin Victorian Literature. ReginaBarreca. Ed. IndianaUP, 1990. Bloomington: 241-59. Bodies Matter: theDiscursive that On Limits "Sex." York London: New and Judith. Butler, of 1993. Routledge, and Detroit: Novalis, Freud, theDiscipline Romance. Calhoon,KennethS. Fatherland: of WayneStateUP,1992.

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