Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures University of Toronto
Towards an Understanding of Leichtgläubigkeit through Kleist’s Über das Marionettentheater and Die Marquise von O…
March 25
4-6 pm
via Zoom
Because both the “definition” and “nature” of Leichtgläubigkeit become more volatile as well as modified according to the literary text, a challenge is to think about Leichtgläubigkeit without thinking about it. What does it take in an encounter (with a person or with a text) to reveal that, which either shapes or undermines the idea and notion of Leichtgläubigkeit?
Über das Marionettentheater tells the story of a conversation between two persons who debate about grace through a series of seemingly unrelated anecdotes they exchange. If Leichtgläubigkeit is part of a(ny) conversation, where two people, like Herr C. and the narrator, are prepared to forget about what they think and believe that what the other says is true, then Leichtgläubigkeit acts like a pact in conversation. However, what happens in a conversation that starts pushing the limits of this pact or agreement? In the narration of Marionettentheater, the mere abandonment or suspension of disbelief opens up towards other aspects of mental conditions, like Verwunderung and Erstauen.
Kleist’s novella, Die Marquise von O. . . . (1805/06), besides problematizing the ambiguous circumstances of her pregnancy as a result of a potential sexual violence, is a story about truth and the authentication of truths as well as perplexity and resoluteness. As the narrative unfolds, with the Marquise’s public announcement, the reader witnesses how each character’s particular situatedness affects the various ways and forms of their thinking (things) and knowing (things). Kleist plays with the various implicit contracts within communication, the characters’ bonds to their senses as well as the bonds of the senses to the outside world. Even on the level on writing, when Kleist bends language and representation to the point of playing with the readerly contract, what does that mean for the concept of Leichtgläubigkeit?
Rita Laszlo is a PhD candidate in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures at the University of Toronto.
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