The language of angels and spirits: Swedenborg's 'Arcana Coelestia' and Kant's 'Traeume eines Geistersehers' (German text, Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant)

This dissertation entitled “Die Sprache der Engel and Geister: Swedenborgs Arcana Coelestia and Kants Träume eines Geistersehers” (“The Language of Angels and Spirits: Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia and Kant's Träume eines Geistersehers”) breaks up the dichotomy between Enlightenment and ‘Schwärmerei’ (enthusiasm), which dominates the secondary literature on this subject in the 18th century. Analysing these two exemplary texts of ‘Schwärmerei’ and Enlightenment, I demonstrate that both Enlightenment and ‘Schwärmerei’, despite their efforts, fail to explain phenomena which cannot be proven to exist (e.g., angels, spirits, life after death, hell and paradise). Only art is able to do so, because its discursive field is the representation of what cannot be represented (‘Darstellung des Nichtdarstellbaren’). Although the texts by Swedenborg and Kant do not belong to a literary discourse in a strict sense, I show that they display inherent literary and poetic qualities. This can be demonstrated by Swedenborg's and Kant's use of language as well as by their opinions on language (on their own as well as on the language of the angels and spirits).; Chapter One focuses on the various definitions given for the term ‘Schwärmerei’ throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Furthermore, it describes the close relation between ‘Schwärmerei’ and language. In Chapter Two, I discuss the prominent role of Emanuel Swedenborg in the discussion of ‘Schwärmerei’ in the 18th century, pointing out his double status as a scientist as well as a visionary. Then, I focus on the description of the language of angels and spirits in the Arcana Coelestia. In this context, I demonstrate the parallels with early Enlightenment philosophy and the aesthetics of Enlightenment, ‘Empfindsamkeit’, and ‘Sturm-und-Drang’. Chapter Three first examines the confusion which the Träume eines Geistersehers provoke in the reader, a confusion caused by linguistic and stylistic particularities of the text. After that, I analyse Kant's description of the language of spirits and demonstrate that the figure of the ‘Papillion’ featured in the Träume can be read as a metaphor for art. Then, I examine Kant's own poetic language, showing that the Träume ultimately belong to the discourses of both philosophy and literature.