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P.O. Enquist, Postmodernism,
and the Defense of the
Enlightenment
Susan Brantly
University ofWisconsin, Madison
1. See, for example, Jürgen Habermas's Der Philosophische Diskurs der Moderne (1985) or
Rort/s essay in Baker 19-38.
2. Racevskis makes this statement in the context of discussing Foucaulrs reading of
Diderot's Le neveu de Rameau, where he sums up: "For Diderot, the evidence of a moral
existence resides in the material reality of human relations, not in abstract ideals and
slogans that only tend to obfuscate reality or divert attention away from the real condi-
tions of existence" (73).
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32O
of most histori
know of the pa
past prevails ov
quite a number
the Age of En
"enact philosop
modernity," w
originating W
Enquis^sMagnet
and Livläkaren
examples of p
analyze Enquis
novels which br
should clarify
ideas. There is
of the Enlighte
of reason and a
Magnetisörensfemte vinter is set in 1793 and for the span of several mon
follows events in the life of Friedrich Meisner, a character inspired by, b
not identical to, Friedrich Anton Mesmer. In fact, Mesmer is mention
in the text in order to make the distinction between Mesmer and Meisn
clear to the reader. Other novelists have trodden this historical path
like Brian O'Doherty in The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P*** (1992)
O'Doherty treats Mesmer as a man who considers his methods to
scientific; he is a man of the Enlightenment, who genuinely wishes to h
his patients. The doctors who malign him and his methods are merel
resentful that he has taken their patients away. For O'Doherty, Mesm
is a manifestation of Enlightenment thinking but not a contradiction
it. This particular view of Mesmer is not uncommon; however, Enquist
Meisner is something altogether different.3 Meisner is a self-serving
charlatan and an expert at gaining power over others.
3. See Christiansen for a thorough look at attitudes toward Mesmer over the years. Chr
tiansen notes that Enquist's Meisner goes against the grain of this reception: "We m
conclude that for Enquist, Meisner/Mesmer was neither an Enlightenment thinker
a scientist. He sets a bad example as a doctor, and his politics are suspect" (30).
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Enquistas narrative p
refuge in a grotto after
who wish to punish him
(he has had intercourse
ously injures those who
pursuers. After some
Meisner escapes with
under the spell of Me
new companion make
new clothes and a mone
into the woods, never
abandons a pair of wom
of introduction, the r
murderer, and a sexual
as all that. The complex
up practice in the peace
Enquist has chosen a
to give way to the next
lenged by the new mod
by reports of the Fren
written on the novel ha
binary oppositions given
(Henningsen 51) [art/ir
nal" versus "rational,"
versus "consciousness"
versus "skepsis" "illus
versus knowing, mysti
"den demoniske konstn
kritiska förnuftets ihä
artist and preacher ver
for critical reason]. Enq
tionality in the form o
form of the doctor, Ru
assumes a position som
doubts are the main s
apparently simple opp
Given that Meisner is e
and murderer, one mig
would all reside with th
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322
is complicated
from blindness
famous attemp
Maria, Selinge
marauding sold
paradigm, this
Meisner's char
his patients: "
give them a lie
him, they can
is effective an
rationalism of
The moral high
sand. The doct
Medical science
concoctions. On
ordinerade da g
tre pâ var sida,
det onda stalle
leeches, to be a
bag of belladon
(53)]. Selinger h
patients get w
limitation of t
validity of any
eighteen-year-
reader suspects
volunteers to m
hon var dödsd
certain to die"
saved by the ex
fbrnunftets hä
4. The translation
Austin's The Magn
Visit (2001). All ot
5. The translator h
"The doctor had declared that she was doomed and must die."
6. Unlike Paul Britten Austin, I might have translated "förtjänstful'' in this context
as "worthy" or "beneficial." Her death is being claimed as a gain for science and reason.
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also describes a surgic
lost his nose in battle:
rödblank utsvällning"
shiny red fleshy swelli
the potential of the pr
pain looks like a sides
instrumental reason that Horkheimer and Adorno feared. The desired
goal of scientific results takes precedence over human pain and suffer-
ing. Patients become objects, not people.
Enquist deliberately problematizes the opposition between the two
sides. Rudolph Steiner, Selinger's friend and perhaps future son-in-law,
is a systematic, orderly man of science with no tolerance for religion
or any kind of mysticism or disorder. Meisner represents everything to
which he is opposed, and Steiner vows to expose him. He is at a loss,
however, to account for Maria's cure. Steiner is such a firm believer in
his rational systems, that he will not admit the possibility that Meisner's
methods are effective. Although Claus Selinger admires his friend's
orderliness and rationality, he is attracted by the seemingly miraculous
forces commanded by Meisner. Selinger's defining characteristics are
than he is "dum och hederlig" (215) ["stupid and honest" (196)], as he
himself states. Meisner exploits Selinger's solid sense of honor in order
to recruit him as a scientific observer who lends credibility to Meisner's
methods. Meisner has indisputably cured Selinger's daughter, therefore
his methods are demonstrably effective. Selinger cannot find it in himself
to refuse collaborating with Meisner both because he is intrigued and
feels a moral obligation to assist, if possible, in similar cures. Thus, for
honorable reasons, Selinger abandons his strict, rational friend Steiner,
in order to take up with the compelling Meisner.
This same sense of honor, however, proves to be inconvenient to
Meisner at a later point. Claus Selinger discovers that Meisner's second
most celebrated case is a fraud. Madame Keiser enjoys the attention that
her lengthy, public cure brings her. She claims that a fetus has formed
inside her bowels, has died, and is the cause of her swollen abdomen.
She goes so far as to introduce chicken bones into her rectum, claim-
ing they are the bones of the child. Selinger discovers the fraud, and
his sense of honor compels him to reveal it: "Förtroende byggt pâ
bedrägeri är en illusion: den hâller inte" (197) ['Trust based on fraud
is an illusion: it doesn't last" (180)]. Selinger's revelation unleashes
unexpected violence, both from Meisner and against Meisner. Meisner
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324
strikes Selinger
mesmerism ...
cannot win a
the face is mild
at the hands of
irrational, whi
trol. Meisner n
ends before a v
her own conclu
escape and star
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After the abuses of Wor
ism, there was a general
of belief/faith] has been
the somewhat paler ter
one of the major partic
like "naivitetens bankrut
"delvis d nâgot liknande
(as quoted in Jansson 2
called the "death of ideo
The End of Ideology (i96
Anglo-American critici
and others. As Boyne a
theorists, the power of
on the wane. By the mid
capitalism, communism
to inspire Western peop
the world555 (Boyne 13
to note that this thesis
metanarratives55 which
postmodernism (Boyn
Thus, for a moment
American criticism w
postmodernism. The ra
in the late sixties caus
two theoretical camps
resistance to the term
cultural value placed o
the perception that pos
in collusion with neoco
in the Swedish heart fo
the Enlightenment. Alt
question whether, given
debates surrounding trol
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326
generation of n
P.C. Jersild, an
quite profitabl
her wish to dis
modernism, Be
and historiogra
of the sixties,
(1993; The No
as Novel). Thes
the United Sta
when applied t
term might ye
of a specificall
to reject the E
ity with Enligh
postmodern m
"Postmodernis
systems: quest
critical accepta
In an interview
the release of M
in trolöshetsdebatten and what he tried to address in his novel:
Men jag vili komma at en skepsis och trolöshet som drivits till sin spets,
och slutat i ett slags apati. Sã här, till exempel: alia politiska ideologier är
värdelösa och tomma, alltsâ kan jag inte engagera miß ipolitik. Verkligheten
är mãngtydig-jag kan aldrig avgöra vad som är sont. Osv.
Det, tyckerjag, är en utomordentlig harnslighet. Hur ihalig, mangtydig
och skiftande vãr verklighet an är, sa tvingas man som människa i alla fall
ta stäüning, varje dag, varje timma. (Cornell 464)
8. One must acknowledge that the definition of postmodernism can vary widely depending
on who is speaking. Lyotard writes of epistemological postmodernism, a sort of critical
stance toward modernity that has existed since the birth of modernity. Therefore, one
can speak of postmodernism in Tristam Shandy, for example. Historians and philosophers
tend to refer to modernity as generally extending from Descartes to Nietzsche, therefore
postmodernity is everything after and including Nietzsche. According to this, both liter-
ary modernism and postmodernism belong to postmodernity. In terms of literary study,
postmodernism especially begins to take shape in the 1960s. It is this literary postmodern-
ism with which the present essay primarily concerns itself, though it is unwise to ignore
the other two. See Amy Elias's introduction to Sublime Desire for a particularly lucid
presentation of these three faces of postmodernism (xx-xxviii).
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(I wanted to get at a sk
taken to its utmost and e
All political ideologies
become engaged in poli
what is true, etc.
That, is I
incredib think,
and transitory our reali
stand, every day, every h
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328
even while it t
for the novel as follows:
9. It is baffling to me ho»v Ake Lundkvist could write of this novel "Dess form är den
historiska realismens" (160) [Its form is that of historical realism]. Enquist does everything
he can to expose this historical reality as neither historical, nor reality.
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lek, som spegel av berät
too, history fails us: sto
to interpret them. The
narrator and listener55 (
gestures, Enquist under
the limits of historical n
Meisner is compared i
sion for his patients, of
berättelser är sanna, bar
are true; only more or l
can be seduced by the au
to an author's construct
mesmerist. Whereas Mei
because of the consequen
metafiction, on the con
and rejects its own auth
between the reader an
his readers into acceptin
have been tricked. The l
metanarratives, which o
in the novel is yet anoth
verdict is not given, fo
ments. Enquist ultimat
not tell the reader what t
In an essay from 1967,
his novel about Meisner:
J]ag vet var nagonstans Magnetisören fiddes: langt tilbaka i den rniljö
dar jag växte upp, bland bönhus och andaktsstunder, bland ma'nniskorsom
klängde sig intill iron som om de varit blomrankor. Jag hade kunnat ta
mig loss, men vad had blivit kvar? Kunde man ta bort stödenfran dem?
Magnetisören fóddes i ett fotografi som jag sag, fr an trettiotalets Tyskland,
ett partimöte i Nürnberg, med uppatva'nda ansikten som plötsligt tycktes
mig välbekanta, en massa i hängiven ext as, beredd att g a med pâ allt.
(Tryckpunkter 102)
(I know where The Magnetist was born: Way back in the environment
in which I grew up, amid chapels and prayer meetings, amid people
who clung to faith like clinging vines. I could have torn myself loose,
but what would have been left? Could one take the supports away
from themi The Magnetist was born in a photograph that I saw, from
Germany of the 1930s, a party meeting in Nürnberg, with upturned
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33O
10. Erik Henningsen claims that Enquistas novel supports Horkeheimer and Adorno's
thesis, but I disagree.
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repeated is the ascendan
power, followed by ca
this an Ironic or Satiric
to be favored by postm
skepticism about hum
the same mistakes are m
Despite Enquisfs skep
awareness of the limits
preferred alternative.
looks toward a future in
disastrously, eclipsed by
again sets a novel in th
what came before the
This too, makes the En
Livläkarens besök
11. 1 find it necessary to doctor Austin's translation, so that the echo is not obscured
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332
King Christia
entrenched, de
ened by the r
champion of t
name as a schol
"Pa detta satt
relationen mell
var Miltons 'Pa
career: through
evidenced in th
Losf* (19)]. In o
dogmatic and h
rule over his su
an imbecile. In
the king, and a
has become som
course of his u
tion involves r
kuvad, och med
den till sina u
with shattered
to relinquish it
Contrary to p
to step into thi
the unstable ki
good picture of
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Under the old regime,
nyism flourished, the
services were nonexiste
political project of th
Rorty. Enquist too, mak
Enlightenment: uOm u
som är förnunftstron
fysiken och astronomi
som tankefrihet, toler
a rational and hard fac
within medicine, mat
soft face, which is the
and liberty35 (97)]. inMa
awareness of the short
still supports the side
the somewhat easier ca
conflict between the t
Magnetisörens femte v
attractions as well as di
reader who would cho
Struensee's power is gi
to approve of his love a
renders Struensee vul
the relationship into an
During a conversation
that is then repeated a
Tiina Nunnaüys fine translation does not allow for the erotic double-
entendre in the Swedish. Had she chosen to write of a slit in history that
12. Although Guldberg's world is outmoded and belongs to the past, with a little imagina-
tion, one can find parallels in today's world, so perhaps the threat has not passed.
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334
must be pushed
consummating
into a love tri
conceives the f
The consumm
tions, Roussea
tyska upplysn
men of the En
reads passages
Holberg, the N
with Enlighten
old regime, ope
and Struensee p
Augusta, and
Struensee, she
avlat framtiden
you.... We have
Struensee and Caroline Mathilde is doomed. Struensee is executed in
the most horrible way, and in the short run, it seems that Guldberg^s
forces have won. In the long run, of course, the Enlightenment ideals
of Struensee will prevail: "orden och tankarna gick inte att halshugga,55
(385) ["words and thoughts could not be decapitated55 (310)]. Enquist
makes a point of tracing the fate of Louise Augusta: "Det finns idag
knappast nâgot europeiskt kungahus, ej heller det svenska, som inte
kan räkna sina anor tillbaka till Johann Friedrich Struensee, hans
engelska princessa och deras lilla filcka55 (386) ["Today there is hardly
any European royal house, including the Swedish, that cannot trace
its lineage back to Johann Friedrich Struensee, his English Princess,
and their little girl55 (311)]. The future belongs to Struensee.
Even so, Struensee is not perfect. He does have his shortcomings.
His skills as a physician are no more impressive than those of Rudolph
Steiner and Claus Selinger. He secures his post because he has experience
with cupping. Struensee is prone to bouts of cowardice and fears pain.
He is more of an idealist than a politician, and he pushes his reforms
through perhaps too swiftly, leaving the people little time to adjust. He
does not pay enough attention to "the great game,55 the power politics
of court. He creates too many enemies. Because he is an idealist, he is
deprived of methods that his opponents are free to use: "De renhjärtade
var dömda till undergâng55 (265) ["The pure-hearted were doomed to
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destruction" (215)]. The
a tool used against hi
scruples are in danger
Struensee's Enlightenm
novel, Enquist remain
face in the world of po
eloquent testimony to
Just as Claus Selinge
Magnetisörens f ernte
what he believes mus
As an epigraph to Liv
Immanuel Kant:
The admonition to show courage and think for oneself could just as
well serve as an epigraph to Magnetisörens fernte vinter as to Livläkarens
besök. There is nothing fundamentally at odds with postmodernism
in this quotation from the Enlightenment. Possessing a distrust of
metanarratives is not far from employing one's own reason without
the guidance of an authority. It is tempting to let others decide, mis-
takes are inevitable, the world is complex, but we must make the best
decisions we can.
13. Here I would have preferred to translate "kail" as "calling" instead of "birthright."
The distinction is between what one has a right to do, and what one has an obligation
to do. As Enquist said, everyone must take a stand.
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336
Making History
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elisions are common i
what to include and wh
same issue when conte
mörker som är ljus, ell
är det med historien, m
och mörker55 (377) [ccIs
is dark? A choice mus
choose what to see, wha
and interpretation are e
Guldberg imagines h
common enough metap
can be interpreted, and
will into the swirling
mind set that he believe
it, authorized by a divi
postmodern reader sees
are an imposition of th
insistence upon his abil
history is another cautio
Guldberg5s interpretive
so clearly gets things "
and that his actions wi
tion "Guldbergs tid55 [G
becomes the common e
Guldbergs tid sedan int
would remain55 (310)].
Enquist indulges in an
the labyrinth. Struense
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338
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it ended with Streunsee
then be read as all ideal
Enquist cared to make
Conclusion
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34O
Holocaust has m
Enlightenment
as diametricall
femte vinter an
postmodern sk
Enlightenment
reason and the
features into a
the binary op
as most binary
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The Defense of the Enlightenment
Works Cited
1989.
2001.
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342
Olsson, Bernt and Ingemar Augulin. Litteraturens historia i Sverze. Stockholm: Nor-
stedts, 1987.
Racevskis, Karlis. Postmodernism and the Search for Enlightenment. Charlottes ville: u
Virginia p, 1993.
Shideler, Ross. Per Olov Enquist: A Critical Study. Westport: Greenwood P, 1984.
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