Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning
<p>Drawing on the concept developed in Stephen Greenblatt’s <em>Renaissance Self-fashioning: From More to Shakespeare</em>, this thesis presents Heinrich Heine as an extreme case of the ‘self-fashioning’ writer. I argue that his preoccupation with self-construction determines what...
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| Formáid: | Tráchtas |
| Teanga: | English |
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2011
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| _version_ | 1826288958740365312 |
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| author | Elder, L |
| author2 | Phelan, A |
| author_facet | Phelan, A Elder, L |
| author_sort | Elder, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>Drawing on the concept developed in Stephen Greenblatt’s <em>Renaissance Self-fashioning: From More to Shakespeare</em>, this thesis presents Heinrich Heine as an extreme case of the ‘self-fashioning’ writer. I argue that his preoccupation with self-construction determines what and how he writes, how he treats his reading public and, crucially, how he perceives and evaluates his own career.</p><p>Though self-fashioning occurs in his earliest works, Heine’s decision to move to Paris (1831) was the single biggest self-determining act of his life; he constructs it as a moment of rebirth. Inspired by the July Revolution, he sought a new authorial identity in harmony with the supposed new world order and his own social, political and artistic ideals. However, the reality of juste-milieu society—a continual seesawing between modernisation and restoration—cast doubt on the possibility, even the desirability, of novelty and progress, the goals of revolution.</p><p>In this context, Heine cultivates the identity of a perpetually embattled writer through confrontational dialogue with contemporary ideologies and his readership alike; ever ambivalent in his attitude to the role of art in a modernising world, he is also engaged in an internal battle with the self. First I show how he establishes himself in the role of cultural correspondent in the early journalism by developing a mode of self-conscious spectatorship which enables him to negotiate between contemporary French conditions and German readership expectations. Second I investigate the strategies he uses to free himself from his Buch der Lieder legacy and redefine his identity as a poet in Paris; I show how the Neue Gedichte (1844) are assembled to record and reflect on this transitional process, making the collection a monument to his self-fashioning tendencies. Finally I explore how Heine manipulates the relationship between public and private within a concept of self to construct his authorial identity; I consider a number of self-editing and self-reconstructive practices in prefaces, letters and autobiographical writing.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T02:21:35Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:a41acb1e-84bd-4687-abc8-331bdacd30e5 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T02:21:35Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:a41acb1e-84bd-4687-abc8-331bdacd30e52022-03-27T02:31:39ZHeinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioningThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:a41acb1e-84bd-4687-abc8-331bdacd30e5GermanLanguages (Medieval and Modern) and non-English literatureEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2011Elder, LPhelan, A<p>Drawing on the concept developed in Stephen Greenblatt’s <em>Renaissance Self-fashioning: From More to Shakespeare</em>, this thesis presents Heinrich Heine as an extreme case of the ‘self-fashioning’ writer. I argue that his preoccupation with self-construction determines what and how he writes, how he treats his reading public and, crucially, how he perceives and evaluates his own career.</p><p>Though self-fashioning occurs in his earliest works, Heine’s decision to move to Paris (1831) was the single biggest self-determining act of his life; he constructs it as a moment of rebirth. Inspired by the July Revolution, he sought a new authorial identity in harmony with the supposed new world order and his own social, political and artistic ideals. However, the reality of juste-milieu society—a continual seesawing between modernisation and restoration—cast doubt on the possibility, even the desirability, of novelty and progress, the goals of revolution.</p><p>In this context, Heine cultivates the identity of a perpetually embattled writer through confrontational dialogue with contemporary ideologies and his readership alike; ever ambivalent in his attitude to the role of art in a modernising world, he is also engaged in an internal battle with the self. First I show how he establishes himself in the role of cultural correspondent in the early journalism by developing a mode of self-conscious spectatorship which enables him to negotiate between contemporary French conditions and German readership expectations. Second I investigate the strategies he uses to free himself from his Buch der Lieder legacy and redefine his identity as a poet in Paris; I show how the Neue Gedichte (1844) are assembled to record and reflect on this transitional process, making the collection a monument to his self-fashioning tendencies. Finally I explore how Heine manipulates the relationship between public and private within a concept of self to construct his authorial identity; I consider a number of self-editing and self-reconstructive practices in prefaces, letters and autobiographical writing.</p> |
| spellingShingle | German Languages (Medieval and Modern) and non-English literature Elder, L Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning |
| title | Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning |
| title_full | Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning |
| title_fullStr | Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning |
| title_short | Heinrich Heine in Paris: the poetics and politics of self-fashioning |
| title_sort | heinrich heine in paris the poetics and politics of self fashioning |
| topic | German Languages (Medieval and Modern) and non-English literature |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elderl heinrichheineinparisthepoeticsandpoliticsofselffashioning |