The Unknown Future: Premonitions between Prophecy and Pathology, 1750 to 1850 Tomasz Kurianowicz Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 Tomasz Kurianowicz All Rights Reserved Abstract The Unknown Future. Premonitions between Prophecy and Pathology, 1750 to 1850 Tomasz Kurianowicz My dissertation The Unknown Future examines the notion of Ahnung or Ahndung (in English: premonition) in German literature, philosophy, anthropology, and the sciences around 1800. Focusing on the heated debates among philosophers, writers and intellectuals as to whether humans can attain knowledge about the future, I trace the notion of Ahnung as it traverses various discourses. In doing so, I draw on Stephen Greenblatt’s idea of a new historicism and expand studies written by Stefan Andriopoulos, Joseph Vogl, Eva Horn, Michael Gamper and other scholars, explicitly referring to and expanding the literary theory concerning “poetologies of knowledge.“ Specifically I show how after 1750 religious models of prophecy were no longer easily accepted. At the same time, new statistical and mathematical models of prognosis were rising -- even as doubts remained about their ability to fully grasp the progression of time. Within these conflicts between traditional religious models and the new exact sciences, the concept of ‘premonition’ seemed to offer various thinkers and writers evidence for a prognostic capability of the soul that challenged rational, mathematical and statistical models of probability as the sole means for predicting the future. The hope was that premonitions could provide a supersensory knowledge based on fleeting, opaque glimpses into the progression of time. In chapter 1, I examine how philosophers discussed the phenomenon of premonitions and juxtapose Johann Gottfried Herder’s supportive perspective on premonitions in his essay On Knowing, Sensing, Wishing, Hoping, and Believing (1797) with Immanuel Kant’s dismissive claims in his study Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798). In chapter 2, I discuss major anthropologies and their representation of premonitions, specifically Karl Philipp Moritz’s Journal for the Experience and Knowledge of the Soul (1783-1793). Moritz not only presents interesting case studies of prognostic premonitory experiences, but also discusses them in a poetological context and defends them as valid prophetic narratives. My third chapter turns to a set of critical questions. If literary, poetic, and more generally narrative modes of expression are key instruments for articulating the prophetic power of premonitions – as Herder, Moritz and von Arnim argue – how are premonitions depicted in literature? Attending to three exemplary texts by Ludwig Tieck (The Story of Mr. William Lovell), Heinrich von Kleist (The Earthquake in Chili), and E.T.A. Hoffmann (The Sandman), the final chapter demonstrates how premonitions in literary texts question dominant mathematical and rational perspectives on the world. At the end of my dissertation, I briefly discuss the history of weather-based literary tropes between 1750 and 1850 and show why the limited ability to foresee the weather propelled discourses on supersensory knowledge, namely: premonitions. In the end, my dissertation shows how premonitions became a predominant literary technique for critically exploring the unknown progression of time and for questioning the objectifying impulses of a scientific world-view. This dissertation was advised by Prof. Dr. Stefan Andriopoulos and Prof. Dr. Oliver Simons. Table of Contents List of Illustrations p. iii Acknowledgements p. iv Dedication p. v Introduction Premonitions: A Supersensory Countermodel to Statistics and Probability p. 1 Chapter 1: Philosophy Johann Gottfried Herder’s Two Essays on Ahn(d)ung p. 26 Immanuel Kant: Ahndung as a False Fantasy of Unconscious Memory p. 40 Jakob Friedrich Fries: Premonitions as Metaphysical Insight p. 48 Achim von Arnim: Premonition as an Epistemological Principle for Art p. 56 Chapter 2: Psychology Karl Philipp Moritz: Anthropology and Philosophy as a Resource for Premonitory Experiences p. 72 Karl Philipp Moritz’s Magazin zur Erfahrungs-Seelenkunde p. 82 Karl Philipp Moritz’s ‘Revision of the Revision’ p. 89 Karl Philipp Moritz: Poetry as Supersensory Knowledge p. 95 Chapter 3: Literature Premonitory Literature – Ludwig Tieck: William Lovell Premonitions Between Epiphany and Insanity p. 102 Premonition as a Source for Manipulation? p. 117 i Premonitory Literature – Heinrich von Kleist: The Prognostic Capacities of the Soul Probability and Premonition: Differences and Similarities p. 126 Premonitions of the Improbable: Heinrich von Kleist: Improbable Veracities p. 135 Heinrich von Kleist: The Earthquake in Chile p. 138 Heinrich von Kleist’s Understanding of the Horrors of History p. 142 Premonitory Literature – E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman p. 146 Meteorological and Nature Tropes as Symbols of Premonitions: A Historical Analysis of Meteorology and its Epistemological Crisis p. 148 Stormy Iconography: Caspar David Friedrich’s Mönch am Meer and the Darkness of Premonitions p. 162 The Crisis of Meteorology and Weather Metaphors in The Sandman p. 169 The Ambiguity of Nathanael’s Destiny: The Transgressvie Meaning of Premonitions p. 177 Conclusion Premonitions in Today’s Pop Culture and World Politics: Jordan Peele’s Horror Movie Us (2019) p. 191 Liiiterature p. 201 ii List of Illustrations - Caspar David Friedrich: Der Mönch am Meer, 1808–1810 (state before restauration), oil on canvas 110 × 171,5 cm, Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, picture source WikiCommons (copied on 1st of March 2020): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_M%C3%B6nch_am_Meer#/media/Datei:Caspar_David_Fried rich_-_Der_M%C3%B6nch_am_Meer_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg - Jordan Peele: Us, 2019, Amazon Streaming, Screenshots, streamed in March 2020 on www.amazon.com iii Acknowledgments I thank Professors Stefan Andriopoulos, Columbia University, and Oliver Simons, Columbia University, for their willingness and enthusiasm to advise this dissertation over the course of the institutionally tumultuous years we experienced together. Their intellectual work falls nothing short of inspirational. I also thank Professor Andreas Gailus, University of Michigan, for helping me to develop in 2012 and 2013 this dissertation topic during my first two semesters in the United States as a visiting PhD student from the Freie Universität Berlin. While in graduate school, many fabulous people crossed my path and were of invaluable help. I would like to mention a few: Christoph Schaub who is one of the smartest literary scholars I have ever met and a thriving professor of literary studies. I thank him for his support, the good conversations we had (in New York, Wilhelmshaven or Berlin) and his willingness to listen and to give sensitive advice, which helped me to believe in myself. Simon Walsh, who is one on the brightest intellectuals I have ever known. He helped me particularly strongly in the end-phase of this dissertation and made me overcome difficult challenges even in the darkest and most difficult times. His help (and his Koala stamps) will remain unforgotten. My thankfulness for his support and all our intense discussions over (low quality) beers – either in Ann Arbor or Adelaide, New York or Berlin – goes beyond words. Landon Little who supported me as a good friend with his wise Californian words and smiles, warm hugs and phrases, his coolness and positive attitude, and his American apple pies after long days of work. Wojciech Adomas who listened to my problems in little Polish bars in Greenpoint, New York, while helping me to concentrate on the good things in life. My best friend Boban Dukic, Anne Röhrborn, my good and very talented friend Samuel Thoma, Niklas Straetker, Xan Holt, and Michael Watzka. Thank you for your sound advice and friendship over the last decade. I also owe a big thank you to my family, whose emotional and financial support made graduate school achievable in the first place. My parents came from Poland to Germany in the late 1970s with nothing more than a suitcase and helped me to establish my career through love and big sacrifices. I cannot put in words how much I appreciate their uncompromising support. At the end, I want to thank most eagerly my twin sister Katerina who is always at my side – in my heart and my thoughts. Having her in my life is the greatest gift. You all made this possible. Without you the world would be an empty place. iv To my mother Anna, my father Janusz, my twin sister Katerina and my brother Piotr. v Introduction Premonitions: A Supersensory Countermodel to Probability So viel ist wohl gewiß, daß in besonderen Zuständen die Fühlfäden unserer Seele über ihre körperlichen Grenzen hinausreichen können und ihr ein Vorgefühl, ja auch ein wirklicher Blick in die nächste Zukunft gestattet ist... —Eckermanns Gespräche mit Goethe, III. Teil, 7. Oktober 1827 My dissertation explores the concept of Ahndung at the intersections of various discourses in German culture during Romanticism. In English, Ahndung means premonition; in contemporary German orthography it is rendered Ahnung. My undertaking will allow us to reevaluate and rethink the distinctions drawn between knowledge and belief in the period beginning in 1750 and ending in 1850. Furthermore, my analysis allows us a new assessment of literary history and also