Die imaginierten Abenteuer eines Mönchs. E.T.A. Hoffmanns "Die Elixiere des Teufels" als Ausdruck romantischer Unsicherheit

Abstract

This article analyses the madness motif in "Die Elixiere des Teufels" written by E.T.A. Hoffmann. There is consensus among literary scholars, that the novel’s protagonist exemplifies the problem of the split ego, the accompanying madness, and the impossibility of deciding for oneself. However, despite several hints in the novel, scholars have overlooked the fact that the adventures of the monk Medardus have little to do with fictional reality. This has to do in particular, as the article shows, with the fact that he never left his monastery cell. By treating the motif of the mad monk according to the principle of romantic irony, Hoffmann on the one hand expresses his fears and on the other polemicizes with the Enlightenment and classical conviction, that man could develop into an autonomous and unified subject.

Keywords

• Romanticism
• Madness
• Romantic Irony
• E.T.A. Hoffmann