| What political significance is there to the indirect character of poetic speech? This dissertation examines how Friedrich Holderlin engages the destructive potential of revolutionary politics through his organization of poetic material. Drawing upon lyric poetry, philosophical fragments, translations, narrative fiction, drama, and letters, it demonstrates how the complexity of his language critiques collective action and points towards an alternative orientation of consciousness towards the world.; The first chapter establishes Holderlin's relationship to political upheavals of the late 18th century. Responding to the failure of the French Revolution to realize its ideals, he develops a style of writing whose circuitous manner of expression contrasts with the urge to transform society immediately (and hence prematurely). By postponing the disclosure of meaning, literary language provides an alternative, belated model of timing.; The second chapter turns to Holderlin's novel Hyperion, which addresses the theme of political action. Moving between past and present, the protagonist's epistolary narrative suggests a passive bearing that eschews the dangers of direct action in favor of the labor of interpretation. By challenging his readers' expectations regarding narrative conventions, Holderlin aims to direct his audience towards a more reflective state of consciousness.; The third chapter examines Holderlin's attempt in his tragedy Der Tod des Empedokles to depict contemporary political developments by means of historical analogies, which address the phenomenon of revolutionary change without naming it directly. Nonetheless, other writings from around this time indicate that his preoccupation with individual sacrifice in the service of revolution compromises the theoretical rigor of this approach.; The fourth chapter examines the relationship of Holderlin's late lyric poetry to the emerging public sphere. The elliptical style of several hymns and elegies suggest his aim of establishing an alternative mode of communication that reveals meaning circuitously. In order to highlight the political implications of this undertaking, the argument examines his correspondence with the publisher Friedrich Wilmans, which testifies to his ambition to reinvent his readers' relationship to the process of interpretation. |
