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Critical Climates: <I>Stimmung</I>, Voice and Mythopoesis in German

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Critical Climates: <I>Stimmung</I>, Voice and Mythopoesis in German City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 6-2021 Critical Climates: Stimmung, Voice and Mythopoesis in German Literature from 1950–1989 Marc Cesar Rickenbach The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4366 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] CRITICAL CLIMATES: STIMMUNG, VOICE AND MYTHOPOESIS IN GERMAN LITERATURE FROM 1950-1989 by MARC CESAR RICKENBACH A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2021 © 2021 MARC CESAR RICKENBACH All Rights Reserved ii CRITICAL CLIMATES: STIMMUNG, VOICE AND MYTHOPOESIS IN GERMAN LITERATURE FROM 1950-1989 by Marc Cesar Rickenbach This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Charity Scribner Chair of Examining Committee Date Bettina Lerner Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Charity Scribner Vincent Crapanzano John Brenkman THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Critical Climates: Stimmung, Voice and Mythopoesis in German Literature from 1950-1989 by Marc Cesar Rickenbach Advisor: Charity Scribner Critical Climates examines the interest in myth among a number of literary figures from 1950 to 1989 in relation to the concurrent re-emergence of the German aesthetic concept of Stimmung. At once referring to atmosphere, milieu, mood, disposition and harmony, while carrying along its root Stimme, or voice, this dissertation shows how Stimmung informed a literary practice among German-language authors that engaged the relationship between narrative, ideology and collective moods in a way that can be spoken of in terms of a mythopoesis. This project builds upon contemporary scholarship that focuses on Stimmung as a way to refigure literary studies beyond cultural studies and poststructuralism, as well as work that analyzes social phenomena in terms of atmosphere to make sense of affect’s political importance. This study, however, differs somewhat from these approaches by focusing on the manner in which writers themselves appeal to an atmospheric and acoustic consciousness in their own literary texts and social critiques. This shift in register not only reveals various attempts to reintroduce into the language of critique a concern for the collectively breathed and mediated climates in which these writers lived, but it considers the way in which past literary experiments were responding to a felt need for new collective narratives that dominant forms of ideology critique struggled to offer. With particular attention paid to texts by Max Frisch, Elias Canetti and Elfriede Jelinek, I show how these authors depart from academically sanctioned forms of critical engagement by iv drawing on their respective training in architecture, chemistry and musical performance. I argue that by doing so they bridge the gap between esoteric reactionaries responding to the failed promises of the 1960s on the one hand, and more rational approaches seen in some of the work of the Frankfurt School’s later generation on the other. Grounding their writing in these particular disciplines, the authors here make clear the extent to which those aspects of experience that exist prior to ideology remain only vaguely thought: namely, the manner in which architectural spaces attune social relations, to what extent power and its narrative practices insinuates itself in the air that we breathe, and how the sounds and silences of voices sustain gender, class and racial injustices. The way in which these authors write these atmospheres into their work ultimately reveals a latent affinity to the socially constitutive force of myth and its inherent relationship to collective identity and transformation. I trace this relationship between the various connotations of Stimmung and myth back to Johann Gottfried Herder’s interest in folklore and climate, through Friedrich NietZsche’s understanding of mood and ideology, and, finally, Peter Sloterdijk’s critique of post-68 cynicism that culminates in a call for more artistic and literary forms of engagement. What Frisch, Canetti and Jelinek ultimately – albeit implicitly – argue for is a recuperation of myth and its relationship to these affective experiences on the side of rational critique. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to give contour to how the conceptual connotations of Stimmung has informed alternative approaches to the critique of ideology from roughly 1950 to 1989. More importantly it offers a framework in which to consider how the valences of Stimmung, whether atmosphere, mood, disposition, harmony and voice during this period might prefigure our own contemporary political, social and epistemological concerns. Whether it is the air that we breathe, the spaces we dwell in, or the voices that are heard and felt in these atmospheres, the authors here offer valuable examples for literature’s reaction to, and potential use for critique. This v dissertation examines the way in which a growing realiZation that we exist in shared atmospheres and breathing spaces historically coincided with a series of political and spiritual crises of the postwar period that sought a corrective to what was perceived to be an overly rational relationship to the world. In doing so, Critical Climates attempts to extend contemporary scholarly interest in these aesthetic and physical experiences to the domain of literary studies from a writerly point of view. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am particularly indebted to my advisor Charity Scribner who showed an enthusiasm for the project from its inarticulate inception all the way to its realiZation. Her taking me seriously as a scholar and her seeing this dissertation out in the world before I knew what I was even trying to say, lent a calm steadiness for which I am incredibly grateful. Vincent Crapanzano, whose deep knowledge and openness to unorthodox ideas proved both insightful and inciteful (in the best possible way), identified solutions to problems I didn’t know I had. I owe similar thanks to John Brenkman whose thoughtfulness as a reader and interlocutor made my own questions clearer to myself. In the department of Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, CUNY a very special thanks goes to Bettina Lerner, always a shadow advisor who saw me through my exams and set this project in motion before it took on a decidedly German inflection. Giancarlo Lombardi’s unwavering and spirited support helped to steady me on my feet so I could keep focus on writing, and André Aciman entertaining an early discussion of a dissertation topic based on the image of a man screaming into the mountains, allowed me to reach a bit further with my ideas than I otherwise might have dared. As a Writing Across the Curriculum Fellow at LaGuardia Community College, I had the luck of counting Karen Miller among my teachers. It was during this time that I truly learned how to be both a serious and generous scholar. Even more than my academic support, I am grateful to my friends and family who have both supported and tolerated me throughout this long process. George Derk, my oldest childhood friend blaZed a trail into doctoral studies for the both of us and served as a confidant and reader. JD Knotts, my friend and co-captain, probably learned what not to do in graduate school before vii moving back west to pursue his own academic career. Long discussions with Mike Russell concerning art and music constantly reminded me why I do what I do and often helped to recalibrate my perspective. As for family, so much of what follows in these pages is a direct reflection of my life with them. To my grandparents Franz-Karl and Marie Rickenbach, and Frieda and Cesar Girardetti (who I never met but whose extensive library no doubt attuned me to literature early on) I owe a long overdue thanks for the opportunity to have grown up bilingual with one foot in the Voralpen and another in the Santa Monica Mountains. Familie Kamber served as a home base in Lenzburg and were dispatchers of all things dialect and regional. My sister Robyn, her husband Andy, and children Gedeon and Solenne, offered love, support and play between semesters. And, of course, my parents Iris and Robert. I could write an entire dissertation on how important their love and support has been these past years. I quite literally could not have done any of this without them. Finally, my best friend and partner, both personally and professionally, Chelsea Largent kept me accountable to myself (and her) during this entire process. In addition to being my home, she also stood in as reader, critic, provocateur and champion, always insisting I could and would finish this when I was convinced otherwise. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Postwar Atmospheres .................................................................................................................
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