Nos limites do conhecimento, nos limites da forma: uma leitura de sonetos de Rilke e Hermann Broch

RESUMO Diversos escritores de língua alemã refletiram em seus textos sobre questões epistemológicas e compreenderam a literatura como uma forma específica de conhecimento, em condições de avançar sobre domínios às vezes inacessíveis, às vezes complementares à investigação científica. No início do século XX, Rainer Maria Rilke e Hermann Broch utilizaram-se - entre outros meios - da forma do soneto para realizar tal reflexão. Em Rilke, tal interesse está posto tanto em sonetos dos Novos poemas quanto nos Sonetos a Orfeu; em Broch, numa fase inicial e menos conhecida de sua obra, que prepara a ampla reflexão epistemológica que se realizará em seus romances.

Tolkien i Wielka Wojna

Finally here comes a volume modestly entitled Tolkien and the First World War. On the threshold of Middle-earth. This is the result of many years of study by the author, John Garth, who writes in the introduction: This biographical study was born from one observation: how strange that J.R.R. T o l k i e n b e g a n t o c r e a t e h i s m o n u m e n t a l m y t h o l o g y i n t h e m i d s t o f t h e F i r s t W o r l d W a r, [emphasis added — J.Z.L] that disappointing crisis that shaped the present day. This sentence may surprise the Polish reader, whose consciousness has shaped a completely different image of the First World War, as an event that may have been a crisis, but gave Poland the independence it had been dreaming of for over a hundred years. Meanwhile, for the generation to which Tolkien belongs, it was just that — a crisis. As Hermann Broch, who was slightly older than him, wrote about this war: “Goodbye Europe, beautiful tradition is over”. Garth shows how Tolkien contrasted his work with this perception of the experience of the Great War, a work that is a great mythical story about destruction but also about hope. At the same time, it is a tribute to the memory of the generation that died in the trenches of Flanders.

Aussteigen um 1900

Die Visionen der Lebensreformer auf dem Monte Verità inspirierten Schriftsteller wie Hermann Broch, der selber ein Aussteiger war. Im verheißungsvollen Jahr 1900 gründeten Ida Hofmann und Henri Oedenkoven eine lebensreformerische Heilanstalt in Ascona, beeinflusst von Ideen Rudolf Steiners sowie Friedrich Nietzsches. Viele Spielarten des Aussteigens - von unpolitischen über sozialistische und anarchistische Positionen - waren in Ascona vertreten. Neben Karl und Gusto Gräser, Otto Gross und Erich Mühsam hospitierten in der Kommune Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller wie Hermann Hesse, Ernst Bloch, Yvan und Claire Goll, Franziska zu Reventlow, Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball und Oskar Maria Graf. Willkommen waren auch Vertreter der neuen Tanzkunst wie Rudolf von Laban und seine Mitarbeiterin Mary Wigman. Der Band untersucht die Faszination, die Nietzsches Philosophie auf die Kommune ausübte, sowie Spuren der Reformideen, die in der Medizin, der Architektur und der Literatur der Moderne zu entdecken sind. Sieben Aufsätze beleuchten erstmals Hermann Brochs Beziehungen zu diesen Gegenwelten, denn 1927 verkaufte er die Fabrik seiner Familie, schaffte mit vierzig Jahren den Berufswechsel vom Industriellen zum Schriftsteller und schuf in Wien sowie im amerikanischen Exil ein Erzählwerk voller Aussteigerfiguren.

Epilogue

Opening to further reflection, the epilogue recalls Franz Neumann’s 1954 arguments that anxiety arises in response to economic and cultural threats to identity and status, often paralyzing political participation. In times of disillusionment and social unrest, anxiety precipitates unreflective responses, including adherence to “caesaristic movements,” grounded on “false concreteness” or social prejudices. Another great observer of the rise of authoritarian movements, Hermann Broch, ties anxiety to our embodied ego’s existence in its world, to its self-enhancement, and to responses to perceived threats. When confronted with dangers to its self-expansion, anxiety, panic, and compensatory behaviors aiming at sadistic “over-satisfactions” (Superbefriedigungen) ensue. These responses can be seen in individuals and in the groups and movements they form. Together, these authors strongly support the book’s argument for abiding with anxiety and approaching it with a certain existential knowledge—of oneself and one’s circumstances.