Abstract
Having examined Hölderlin’s early poems and translations of tragedy (and Pindaric song) , this chapter turns to the poet’s adaption of the Dionysian spirit to produce a new style of poetry in the present. Gestures to a mystical transition from (unlimited) individual greed for money (and its visual underpinnings) to an experience of seeing that is rooted in earthly communality (2–3) are themselves transformed into a socio-political critique in modern time. This profound criticism that Hölderlin elaborates in his songs from 1799 to 1802 is linked, for instance, to an image of monetised tyrants who appropriate modern visual media to exploit nature’s resources for individual profit.
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Notes
- 1.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt pp. 262–263.
- 2.
Hölderlin-Handbuch. Leben, Werk, Wirkung, hg. J. Kreuzer p. 328.
- 3.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 287.
- 4.
Ibid. pp. 297–298.
- 5.
Ibid. p. 240.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Ibid. p. 262.
- 8.
Ibid. p. 290.
- 9.
Ibid. p. 284.
- 10.
Ibid. pp. 291–293.
- 11.
Ibid. p. 242.
- 12.
Ibid. p. 236.
- 13.
Ibid. p. 324.
- 14.
Ibid. p. 326.
- 15.
Ibid. p. 327.
- 16.
Ibid. p. 328.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Ibid. p. 330.
- 19.
Ibid. p. 335.
- 20.
Ibid. p. 337.
- 21.
Ibid. p. 236.
- 22.
Ibid. p. 238.
- 23.
Ibid. p. 290.
- 24.
Ibid. p. 306.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Ibid. pp. 306–307. Hölderlin’s Dionysian-inspired critique of the telescope, we should note, despite its potential relevance to modern visual culture, has been overlooked. See, for instance, U. Stadler, Der technisierte Blick: Optische Instrumente und der Staus von Literatur. Ein kulturhistorisches Museum (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2002). Although Stadler’s work claims to represent a comprehensive picture of German literature and the technologised view, Hölderlin’s critical relation to the telescope in The Poet’s Vocation, is never mentioned.
- 27.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 2, Hyperion, Empedokles, Aufsätze, Übersetzungen, Schmidt p. 170.
- 28.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 239.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 2, Hyperion, Empedokles, Aufsätze, Übersetzungen, Schmidt p. 690.
- 33.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 239.
- 34.
Ibid. “[…] die Begeisterung […]“, “Jetzt aber tagts!“, and “[…] unter den Pflanzen […]“, respectively.
- 35.
Ibid. p. 240.
- 36.
Ibid. p. 239.
- 37.
Ibid. pp. 239–240. “[…] kein Meister […]“,“[…] die göttlichschöne Natur“, “[…] von heiligem Strahl entzündet,“ “[…] Himmel und Erde […]“, and “[…] Götter und Menschen […]“, respectively.
- 38.
Ibid. p. 282.
- 39.
Ibid. p. 242.
- 40.
Ibid. p. 260.
- 41.
Ibid. p. 261.
- 42.
Ibid. p. 262.
- 43.
Ibid. p. 236.
- 44.
Ibid. p. 236. “Aber kommt, wie der Strahl aus dem Gewölke kommt,/Aus Gedanken vielleicht, geistig und reif die Tat?” and “Tatenarm und gedankenvoll!”, respectively.
- 45.
Ibid. p. 237.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Ibid. p. 328.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
Ibid.
- 51.
Ibid. p. 329.
- 52.
Ibid. p. 328.
- 53.
Ibid. p. 329.
- 54.
Ibid. p. 332.
- 55.
Ibid.
- 56.
Ibid.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
In regard to Rousseau’s corresponding statement in the 5. Promenade der Rêveries du promeneur solitaire during his brief stay at Lake Bienne (1765): “One enjoys oneself like God”.
- 59.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 332.
- 60.
Ibid. p. 333.
- 61.
Ibid. p. 334.
- 62.
Ibid. pp. 333–334.
- 63.
Friedrich Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 3, Die Briefe, Briefe an Hölderlin, Dokumente, hg. J. Schmidt (Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker 1992) p. 460.
- 64.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 335.
- 65.
Ibid.
- 66.
Ibid. p. 337.
- 67.
Ibid. p. 335.
- 68.
Ibid.
- 69.
Ibid. p. 290.
- 70.
Ibid. p. 285.
- 71.
Ibid. p. 286.
- 72.
Ibid.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
Ibid.
- 75.
Ibid.
- 76.
Euripides, Bacchae, in Euripides fabulae, ed. J. Diggle, vol. 3, Helena, Phoenissae, Orestes, Bacchae, Iphigenia, Avlidensis, Rhesus p. 303.
- 77.
Ibid. p. 297. Emphasis added.
- 78.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 290.
- 79.
Ibid.
- 80.
Sophocles, Antigone, in Sophoclis Fabulae, Lloyd-Jones p. 229.
- 81.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt pp. 290–291.
- 82.
Ibid. p. 291.
- 83.
Ibid.
- 84.
Ibid.
- 85.
Horace, Odes 2.19, in Horace, Odes and Epodes, ed. N. Rudd (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2004) pp. 134–136. Here we might also note that Hölderlin translated Horace’ odes and that in his translations we come across “Jupiter“ (V 21), “fruitful Bacchus“, fruchtbare[r] Bacchus (V 22), as well as “Melpomene” (V 1), which together betray one of the key sources of Hölderlin’s familiarity with the ancient Greek understanding of Dionysus as the god of music, dance and language. Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 2, Hyperion, Empedokles, Aufsätze, Übersetzungen, Schmidt pp. 682–684.
- 86.
Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Diels and Kranz, B15.
- 87.
Diodorus, Bibliotheca historica, 4.5.2, in Diodorus of Sicily, The Library of History, Oldfather, Books II.35-IV.58 p. 354.
- 88.
Hölderlin, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, Bd. 1, Gedichte, Schmidt p. 305.
- 89.
Ibid. pp. 305–306.
- 90.
Ibid. p. 306.
- 91.
Ibid. p. 781.
- 92.
Ibid. p. 337.
- 93.
Ibid. p. 307.
- 94.
Ibid.
- 95.
Ibid. p. 330.
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Murrey, L. (2015). The Dionysiac Chronotope (1799–1802). In: Hölderlin’s Dionysiac Poetry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10205-4_8
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