Das Ich als Gegenwelt. Anmerkungen zur Dichtung Jean Pauls (con una Nota al testo di Federico Vercellone)

Abstract

Jean Paul’s style of writing is both multifarious and self-reflexive in its being crowded with authorial critical comments and metaliterary digressions, which, according to this essay, aim at portraying a fragmented and complex subject who has by now lost any empathic and “romantic” connection with nature.  Starting from a survey of the cultural and philosophical background of Jean Paul’s formative years, this essay delves into the themes of the shattered idyll and the ambiguous relationship between the “I” and the “other” by analysing the main characters of two short narratives, Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz in Auenthal and Leben des Quintus Fixlein.