gelley on novalis

7/29/2019 Gelley on Novalis

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Novalis, Miscellaneous Remarks: IntroductionAuthor(s): Alexander GelleySource: New Literary History, Vol. 22, No. 2, Probings: Art, Criticism, Genre (Spring, 1991),pp. 377-381Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/469044

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Novalis, MiscellaneousRemarksIntroductionAlexander Gelley

T WASat Friedrich Schlegel's request that Novalis (Friedrich vonHardenberg) offered a collection of 125 aphorisms for the newperiodical, Athendium.Schlegel published them in the first issuein 1798, though not precisely in the form in which Novalis hadsent them. Consistent with the principle of Symphilosophiehat char-acterized the Jena group, Schlegel broke up certain fragments togive them a more pointed turn, omitted a few (used subsequentlyin the publication), and inserted some of his own. This collectionwas published under the title Pollen [Bliithenstaub],which Novalissupplied. (It was here, incidentally, that the pseudonym Novalis firstappeared in print.) Although the copy that Novalis sent for pub-lication has not survived, an earlier but substantially complete draftin Novalis's hand entitled Miscellaneous Remarks [VermischteBemer-

kungen] did. This is the version translated here.Miscellaneous Remarks reflects the impact of a wide range of con-temporary philosophy and scientific theory on Novalis, as well ashis association with the leading figure of the Jena Romantics, Fried-rich Schlegel, whom he had first met in 1792. Novalis was twenty-five when he put together the collection, and while it represents asignificant stage in his rapid development as a thinker and poet,other major work still lay ahead, notably, the novel Heinrich vonOfterdingen, the poetry cycle Hymnen an die Nacht, and extensivenotations on philosophy, religion, literature, and science which wereclearly intended for use in future theoretical projects. Only oneother collection of fragments by Novalis came out in his lifetime,Faith and Love [Glaubenund Liebe], in 1798. By the fall of 1800 histubercular condition had become acute and he died the followingyear.For Novalis the fragment as a form was both congenial andstrategic. In relation to Friedrich Schlegel's conception-"A fragmentmust, like a little work of art, be entirely isolate from the surroundingworld and complete in itself like a hedgehog"' -Novalis's manneris more open and exploratory. In a letter he characterized hisNew LiteraryHistory, 1991, 22: 377-381


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378 NEWLITERARYHISTORYfragments as "initiators of interesting trains of thought-texts forthinking [Textezum denken]."2The motto of Pollen, taken up againin ? 104 where fragments are characterized as "literary seeds,"3stresses not the explosive effect of wit aimed at by Schlegel, butthe more muted working of a "thought molecule."The philosophical dimension of Novalis was totally overshadowedthroughout the nineteenth century by an image of the poet initiallyput forward by his friend and first editor Tieck, an image that drewon a restricted repertoire from Novalis's fiction and poetry-theblue flower, night, death, dreams, the Golden Age-and that fed apopular and sentimental myth of Romanticism. The greatest partof the posthumous writings were not even published until 1901,and it was only in 1929 that a critical edition including all of thetheoretical work became available. At this stage Novalis's thoughtwas understood primarily as a reflection of Idealist principles,4 asif Novalis could have surveyed the Idealist movement from theendpoint and in the light of its ultimate tendencies. But his relationsto this philosophy--represented for him primarily by Kant, Schelling,and Fichte-were varied and fluid. Unlike Kleist, whose reading ofKant paralyzed his speculative impulses, Novalis confronted Idealistthought in a critical and creative manner. A notation like thefollowing is characteristic: "Fichte's I is a Robinson, a speculativefiction to facilitate the presentation and development of the Scienceof Knowledge [Wissenschaftslehre]... Every concept is an I--I is ageneral thought molecule."5 In Novalis the speculative dimension,far from being opposed to the poetic, was in continual and complexinteraction with it. As such he represents a side of Romanticismthat links up with more recent models of poetic activity extendingfrom Mallarm6 and Valery to certain elements in semiotics anddeconstruction.6The significance of the Jena Romantics for contemporary theoryhas been most recently demonstrated in Philippe Lacoue-Labartheand Jean-Luc Nancy's anthology-commentary L'absoluittiraire.7Thiswork proposes a genealogy for a deconstructive critique of theconcept of literature, arguing that the Jena group's preoccupationwith the literary as such represents a counter-position to the wide-spread view in its own time of the "Romantic" as a preeminentlyaesthetic (picturesque, romanesque)category.Walter Benjamin, in his pioneering study of the concept of criticismin German Romanticism published in 1920, had already underscoredthe movement's systematic nature, one that, he argued, it itself didnot fully grasp.8 Benjamin took the idea of "transcendental poesy''as Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis had conceived it-that is, of the


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INTRODUCTION 379self realizing its highest potency through reflexive articulation-asthe basis for a conception of Romantic criticism, a criticism thatwould not be judgmental, "but, on the one hand, fulfillment, com-pletion, systematization of the work, on the other, its dissolution [orresolution, Auflosung] in the absolute."'0 The work's absolute hereis to be understood not in the Hegelian sense, as assimilation intoa totalizing process, but rather as the immanent theorization of itsunfolding.In a letter to Friedrich Schlegel Novalis characterized MiscellaneousRemarksas "fragmentary pieces [Bruchstiicke] f the ongoing dialoguethat is going on in me--shoots.

You may treat them then as youwill. They seem to me sufficiently revolutionary in content-thoughcertainly I am still too much taken up now with preliminaries. Iam bound to supply proofs. Much has gone through my head inthe past 3 months. First poesy-then politics, then physics enmasse."" The kind of assimilative, synthesizing impulse expressedin the last sentence came increasingly to the fore in the work ofthe following years. "Poesy" is not left behind but elevated to thestatus of an absolute, creative agency.Miscellaneous Remarksmay be approached not only in terms of itsthemes or topics but also as an effort to fashion an effective writingpractice, one that takes full account of the communicative relationto the recipient (see ? 125 below). Near the beginning of the collectionNovalis speaks of "the doctrine of language" (Sprachlehre)as "thedynamic force of the spiritual realm" (? 2). Defining this "doctrine"becomes, in effect, a continuing effort to exercise and exemplify it."There must still be so many words that I do not know,"'2 thinksNovalis's apprentice poet, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, at the begin-ning of the novel that bears his name. And although the devel-opmental process that the book traces seems to stress experientialand intuitive capacities rather than strictly linguistic ones, the linkagebetween poetic craft and language is basic to the novel. "Languageis in reality a small world of signs and tones" (I, 287), Heinrichsays at a later stage of his journeying, "In the same way that mancontrols it he would like to control the larger world and be able toexpress himself freely therein" (I, 268), a position echoed andelaborated throughout Novalis's theoretical writings (cf. ? 2, 6, and7 below). Elsewhere in the novel the world's "soul" is called "speech"(or discourse, das Gesprdch),a formulation that stresses the founding,communal dimension of language.When Novalis writes, "The art of writing books has not yet beeninvented. But it is on the point of being invented" (see ? 104 below)he has in view not so much a poetics or an aesthetics but what he


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380 NEW LITERARY HISTORYterms a tropology (Tropik):"The elaboration of transcendental poesyshould lead to a tropology-which would encompass the laws ofthe symbolicconstructionof the transcendental world."'3 Although theIdealist terminology may be alien to a modern reader, such passagesshow a preoccupation with a literary problematic that is still pertinent.Novalis, together with Friedrich Schlegel, stands first among thosewriters who critically tested the idea of literature (termed Dichtungand Poesie in their usage) as a fixed standard or founding concept.Romantic theory has, in fact, intervened in so decisive a way in theconceptualization of literature over the past two centuries that it isnow virtually impossible to separate our conception of literaturefrom this intervention. We may find it difficult to accept the JenaRomantics' valorization of the project of "poesy," but we continueto theorize the issues they raised with the aid of terms and strategiesthat they themselves first proposed.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,IRVINE

NOTES1 Friedrich Schlegel, Athendums-Fragmente, n Kritische Schriften, ed. WolfdietrichRasch (Munich, 1956), p. 45; here and elsewhere, unless otherwise noted, translationsare my own.2 Novalis, Letter of 26 Dec. 1798 in Schriften, ed. Richard Samuel in collaborationwith Hans-Joachim and Gerhard Schulz (Stuttgart, 1960), IV, 270. The continuationof the passage, in which he characterizes his "broken-off thoughts" [abgerisseneGedanken], s worth noting: "Many are like counters in a game [Spielmarken]and haveonly a transitory value. Some, on the other hand, I have sought to give the formof my most intimate convictions" (pp. 270-71).3 An echo of this usage may be found in Heidegger, whose mode of etymologicalphilosophizing has in any case marked affinities with Novalis: "A seminar is, as theword suggests, a place and an occasion for scattering grain here and there, seedsof reflection that may, someday, somewhere, in their own manner, sprout and bearfruit." (Identitdtund Differenz [Pftillingen, 1957], p. 67.) Cf. also Heidegger's referenceto Novalis in Unterwegszur Sprache (Pftillingen, 1959), p. 241.4 See Theodor Haering, Novalis als Philosoph (Stuttgart, 1954). Thomas Carlyle's1829 essay already takes this line.5 Novalis, "Das Allgemeine Brouillon," in Schriften, III, 405. Vols. II and III areentitled Das philosophischeWerk.6 John Neubauer's Symbolismusund symbolischeLogik-Die Idee der Ars Combinatoriain der Entwicklungder modernenDichtung (Munich, 1978), places Novalis at the centerof a constructivist or "combinatory" poetics that extends to po6sie pure and othermodernist tendencies. Other works that have underscored Novalis's influence areAlbert B6guin, L'Ameromantiqueet le r4ve (Paris, 1939), Hugo Friedrich, Die Strukturder modernenLyrik Munich, 1956), and Werner Vordtriede, Novalis und diefranzdsischenSymbolisten Stuttgart, 1963).7 See Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy, L'absolulittgraire Paris, 1978).8 See Walter Benjamin, Der Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik,in GesammelteSchriften,ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhauser (Frank-furt/M., 1974), I, 41.


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INTRODUCTION 3819 Although the English poesy is archaic in present usage, I use it throughout forthe German Poesie (or Poiisie)to indicate its status as a key concept for the Schlegels,Novalis, and other Romantic writers. Poetry is generally understood as referring toverse or lyric whereas the German Poesie designates a fundamental poetic (creative)capacity in man.10 Benjamin, Der Begriff der Kunstkritik n der deutschenRomantik, p. 78.11 Novalis, Letter to Friedrich Schlegel, 26 Dec. 1797, in Schriften,IV, 242.12 Novalis, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, in Schriften, I, 195, hereafter cited in text.13 Novalis, "Vorarbeiten zu verschiedenen Fragmentsammlungen," in Schriften, II,536.

gelley on novalis

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