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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 ->4-~ , & I I 75-26,661 £ I SGROI, C elia Ann, 1949- | GEORG HEYM'S METAPHYSICAL LANDSCAPE. | The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1975 | Language and Literature, modern Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 t h is dissertation h a s b e e n microfilmed e x a c t l y a s r e c e i v e d . GEORG HEYM'S METAPHYSICAL LANDSCAPE DISSERTATION Presented in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy of the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Celia A. Sgroi, B. A. , M. A. ^1/ itU *v *•»'• *v» *r» •(* The Ohio State University 1975 Reading Committee: Approved by Professor Hugo Bekker Professor David Miles Professor Wolfgang Fleischhauer VITA F e b ru a ry 21,1949 ..................... Born - Fulton, New York 1970 ................................................ B. A. , State University of New York, College of Oswego 1970-74............................................ University Fellow, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 197 1 ................................................ M. A. , The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1971-73; 1974-5 ........................ Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Major Field: German literature and philosophy TABLE OF CONTENTS Page VITA ............................................................................................................................. ii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1. Features of Heym's Metaphysical Preoccupation . 4 2. Development of Heym's Creative Attitudes and Poetic Idiom: Tradition, Key Images and Themes . 15 3. Ambivalence of Images: Heym's Figurative L a n g u a g e ........................................................................................... 25 C hapter I. COSMIC LA N D SC A PE ...................................................................... 35 1. Clouds 2. The Sun 3. The Stars 4. The Moon II. INNER LANDSCAPE ...................................................................... 130 III. METAPHYSICAL S P A C E ............................................................. 178 1. Heaven and Earth 2. Enclosed Space 3. Death and Dislocation CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 226 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 230 * iii INTRODUCTION At the time of his death in 1912, Georg Heym was regarded by a select group of avant-garde intellectuals in Berlin as a most promis­ ing literary talent. Beginning in 1910 the poet was an active contri­ butor to Die Aktion and other literary journals of the avant-garde, and a frequent participant in the poetry readings of the "Neo- pathetisches Cabaret", an organ of the radical literary group der Neue Club. One volume of poetry, Der ewige Tag, appeared in May, 1911. When he died, however, Heym was still an obscure figure. His unexpected, accidental death at the age of twenty-four made him the first great martyr of Expressionism. He was suddenly a genius, tragically cut down in first flower--and his literary associates sought to project Heym to the public according to their image of him: "ein Kerl": rough and boisterous, vital, aggressive, a revolutionary and social critic; a poet whose primary subject was the new urban land­ scape; a creator of grandiose, pathetic visions of war, flaming cities, disaster and doom. He was heralded as a visionary who had pro­ phesied the coming of the Great War. After the first excitement died away, Heym was banished again into obscurity. In the last twenty years, however, there has been a revival of interest in Heym. He is now considered with Trakl and Benn to stand at the forefront of German expressionist poets. The renewed interest has made clear once again that Georg Heym is a mysterious figure. His work is unfinished: his last, so-called "expressionist" phase represents an enormously rapid and confusing development. Over four hundred poems, a number of novellas and dramas, and several essays stem from that period--all compressed into a span of less than two years (March, 1910-January, 1912). Naturally, most of the poems are drafts, sketches and fragments. Some of the influences are obvious: Hblderlin, BUchner, Nietzsche, Baudelaire and Rimbaud--and Stefan George, although Heym denied that asser­ tion vehemently and took every opportunity to vilify George and his followers. Heym left no theoretical writings, only his diaries and a few topical essays--and the reports of his friends and associates. And it appears that those individuals may not have known or been able to appreciate the "real" Georg Heym. ^ After editing two collections of poems and publishing at least four lengthy evaluations of Heym's work in a period of twenty-five years, Kurt Pinthus announced in 1937 that his view of Heym had been mistaken. Before, Pinthus had called Heym: "ein expressiver, explos iver Dichter: der sthmmige, derbe, unsentimentale Berliner barst und platzte stets von dichterischen Visionen, die er in Verse, Erzhhlungen, Tagebiicher unermtidlich zu bannen suchte. " Heym owed his "tbnende, drbhnende, vokalreiche Strophen" to the influence of Baudelaire, Pinthus continues: "Aber sphter entstrbmten ihm dann freiere Gedichte, und mit der gelBsteren Form Itist sich auch sein gequfetltes Ich. Denn die bisher unverbf- fentlichten TagebUcher zeigen, dass dieser kraftstrotzende, wildgeniessende Kerl von Leid und Sehnsucht zertriimmert war, 2 zermartert vom Leben, von seiner Zeit und seinem Intellekt. " The confusion about Heym persists. Because of the fragmentary nature of his work, it is unlikely that the mystery surrounding his nature and his intentions will ever be completely solved. But certain aspects of Heym's work and his views demand critical attention. He is no longer considered a great genius, but he is recognized as a pro­ mising young poet whose influence upon expressionist lyrics was con­ siderable, and whose works are filled with the energy, vitality, and will be expression which are decidedly lacking in many of his con­ temporaries. One of the factors which contributed to Pinthus1 re evaluation of Heym and his work was the discovery of a diary entry which Pinthus found both amazing and significant to an understanding of the poet: ", . am allerunheimlichsten erschien uns Ordnern seines Nachlasses, dass Georg Heym in seinem Tagebuch plbtzlich das damals unzeit- gem&sse Bekenntnis und hellsichtige Selbstbekenntnis hingeschrienben hatte: 'Man kbnnte vielleicht sagen, dass meine Dichtung der beste Beweis eines metaphysischen Landes ist, das seine schwarzen o Halbinseln weit herein in unsere flilchtigen Tage streckt. 1,1 This remark about the metaphysical "Land" which Heym sought to illuminate is still as surprising and fascinating today as it appeared to Pinthus in 1937. 1. Features of Heym's Metaphysical Preoccupation What do we mean when we speak of Heym's "metaphysical land­ scape"? The term is obviously derived from the poet's pronounce­ ment that his work provided "der beste Beweis eines metaphysischen Landes. , das seine schwarzen Halbinseln weit herein in unsere 4 flilchtigen Tage streckt." This statement expresses a metaphysical preoccupation--perhaps even a metaphysical quest--in typical Heym idiom: in a figurative language shaped primarily by concrete visual im agery. It is difficult to determine just what Heym meant by a "meta- physisches Land, " possibly because he may not have known himself.

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