Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Öztekin, Özlem

Titel

Novalis' Orient: Eine geistesgeschichtliche und philologische Untersuchung

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• With special focus on the Arabic figures Zulima and Ginnistan in Henry d'Ofterdingen (Hd'O 1802), who reveal the path of the Golden Age, the following study investigates the Islamic Orient in Novalis's writing and its relation to his utopian project of founding a new poetic and philosophical nature-centered religion that is free of dogmas. Inspired by the Chiliastic elements of Joachim of Fiore (1135–1202), the works by Novalis analyzed in this study, including Hd'O, Christendom or Europe (1826), the preface of Faith and Love (1798), and his fairy tale Hyacinth and Roseblossom (1798–99), express the hope of a coming Golden Age. This utopian vision was supposed to be established based on a cosmopolitan understanding of religion aligned with G. E. Lessing's (1729–81) thought, who had previously looked toward the Orient in an attempt to define a new religion. Drawing on literary and historical sources, the turn toward the Christian and Islamic Middle Ages, such as the peace negotiations in Hd'O, create an imaginary space that in some ways reflects the contemporary East/West relations of that era as it presented itself in the Ottoman Empire and during the period of European colonialism. The aim of this investigation is to further define the role of the 'great orient', including Novalis's secret language, by revealing various oriental motifs, metaphors and the oriental language of flowers. Furthermore, in reference to Edward Said's 1978 book, this study addresses questions regarding Novalis's Orientalism. The question pursued is whether Novalis's intercultural and hybrid work can offer an alternative to Orientalism.