Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations and Publication Dates
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Prussia and Germany in Kleist's Day
- 2 Kleist and the Political World
- 3 The Nation, the State, and the Subject
- 4 Education and Social Change
- 5 The Theory and Practice of War
- 6 Administration and Justice
- Conclusion
- Works Cited
- Index
Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations and Publication Dates
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Prussia and Germany in Kleist's Day
- 2 Kleist and the Political World
- 3 The Nation, the State, and the Subject
- 4 Education and Social Change
- 5 The Theory and Practice of War
- 6 Administration and Justice
- Conclusion
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
The conduct of individuals in extraordinary situations is often the point of departure for Kleist's works, but he nonetheless retains a persistent interest in the dynamics of social interaction. His writings do not usually depict his own society directly, but they undoubtedly refer to matters of some importance for the political and intellectual life of early nineteenth-century Germany. His literary milieux are too richly conceived to be dismissed as a mere backcloth against which individual characters are shown. Of course, Kleist does not represent particular societies in their precise historical detail; rather, he investigates more generally the material – historical, political, psychological – processes that influence cultural development. His characters are deeply shaped by their native cultures, however much they try to defy the community by seeking emancipation or self-realization. They are neither discrete monads nor altogether socially determined, for it is in the space between self-assertion and conformism, instinct and culture that personality formation occurs. Moreover, the thesis of Kleist as “poet without a society” ignores his criticism of those who turn away from the world: the idyll outside society may be attractive, but it is illusory, temporary, and fragile. Kleist consistently disapproves of complete self-absorption, and he draws attention to the blindness of Kohlhaas, or of Agnes and Ottokar, or the intransigence of Piachi or of the Elector in Homburg. His characters develop through their complex interaction with prevailing norms, which remains poised between rebellion and assimilation, and most clearly so in Penthesilea.
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- Information
- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004