«Studi Germanici», 26 (2024)

Leggi l’intero fascicolo / Das ganze Heft lesen

• Frontespizio e indice, pp. 1-6
• Editoriale, pp. 7-8
  Luca Crescenzi – Francesco Fiorentino

Saggi

• «Mio padre è morto da un paio di settimane». Sull’Hamlet di Boris Nikitin, pp. 11-36
  Annalisa Sacchi
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.01
  
  «My Father Passed away a Couple of Weeks Ago». On Boris Nikitin’s Hamlet
  The essay delves into Boris Nikitin’s Hamlet with Julia*n Meding, centring on the theme of mourning and its portrayal within a radical reconfiguration of the ‘documentary theatre’ genre. Set against the backdrop of the ‘reality turn’ that has seen significant growth over the past two decades, particularly in German-speaking theatrical landscapes, Nikitin’s stage critically interrogates the power asymmetries inherent in documentary theatre. He introduces an artistic format that denaturalizes the concept of ‘reality,’ presenting it as a constantly evolving horizon shaped by constructs. In doing so, he forges a form of ‘queer documentary’ that resonates deeply with Saidiya Hartman’s notion of «critical fabulation». The essay argues for recognising fiction not as an antithesis to reality, but rather as a vital tool to dismantle dominant narratives and to initiate alternative modes of knowing and analysis. This approach invites a critical examination of the boundaries between history and imagination, exploring the potential to reconstruct scenes of subjugation without perpetuating the grammar of violence.

• Poesia e atmosfera. Prolegomeni per una filologia dell’aria, pp. 37-59
  Federico Italiano
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.02
  

  Poetry and Atmosphere. Prolegomena to a Philology of Air
  The essay explores the relationship between atmosphere and poetry, highlighting the phenomenality of air as a crucial element for understanding the world and human dynamics. As an integral part of the atmosphere, air eludes traditional linear models, requiring a volumetric and transdisciplinary approach. From a geo-poetic perspective, the concept of atmosphere is examined through the works of Rainer Maria Rilke and Gottfried Benn, two central figures in the literary modernity of the 20th century. The thesis argues that their poetics represent the shift in atmospheric paradigms at the dawn of the 20th century: from the symbolic-therapeutic view of air, typical of the late 18th century and still influential before the First World War, to a world shaped and traumatised by the technological malleability and adaptability of air.

• Il resto e la polvere. Nelly Sachs e Jacques Lacan, pp. 61-79
  Felice Cimatti
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.03
  

  The Residue and the Dust. Nelly Sachs and Jacques Lacan
  In this paper, we aim to identify in the theme of «dust» – the discarded and unburned residue (though itself the result of a terrible combustion) – the «paradigm» – in the sense that Agamben speaks of it in Signatura rerum: sul metodo – that can hold together the otherwise distant figures of Nelly Sachs and Jacques Lacan. The problem they both face is imagining how to do something with what remains. The «dust» of a people for Nelly Sachs, the «mark» of a body for Jacques Lacan. What to do with the end? What to do with the mark that never stops causing pain? What to do with death? The traditional answer is to celebrate the memory of this end; it is to preserve the memory of the trauma so that the suffering of those who have been exterminated is not erased. From this imperative follows the idea that the only permissible use of language is that of re-enactment and remembrance. But then comes Nelly Sachs’s poem, which calls instead for the use of language not to remember, but to pave the way for what is new, and thus to forget. Because death, incredibly, is not the end, but only «a whirling passage» from which new stars can be born.

• Elegie ohne Strumpfhose – Undine Gruenters Der verschlossene Garten (2004), pp. 81-112
  Birgit Nübel
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.04
  

  Elegie without Stockings – Undine Gruenter’s Der verschlossene Garten (2004)
  Undine Gruenter’s Der verschlossene Garten (2004) narrates the love story between an older man and a young woman in a confined place and within a limited duration, told from the perspective of the male first-person narrator and starting from its end. On the levels of both histoire and discours, it is a narrative staging and fictional discursive exploration of a utopia and dystopia of love at the same time. The novella, characterised by a high degree of self-reflection and intertextual references – to works such as Goethe’s Elective Affinities, Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, and Luhmann’s Love as Passion, among others – is read, on the one hand, as an essayistic and (auto)fictional textual context. On the other hand, the perspectival differences are highlighted; they lie between the cross-gender approach of the extratextual female author, the male narrative voice, and the narrated female character. Unlike the described garden, Gruenter’s text is not closed but is designed to be multiperspectival and open.

• Kurt Tucholsky, der «Ohrenmensch». Spuren einer unerforschten Klanglandschaft, pp. 113-136
  Anna Antonello
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.05
  

  Kurt Tucholsky, the «Ohrenmensch». Traces of an Unexplored Soundscape
  In the 1920s, a large group of authors attempted to rewrite the boundaries between literature and music. Like Brecht, Kurt Tucholsky differentiates his production by writing for both the eye and the ear. On the basis of numerous textual examples from his novels, poems and essays, the following study on the one hand examines how Tucholsky relates to the soundscape of the time and, on the other, analyses his literary reworking of music. In doing so, the writer draws on a rich tradition of songs dating back as far as the Vormärz and also experiments with the expressive possibilities of Verbal Music.

• Muratoris Della forza della fantasia umana (1745) in der Übersetzung durch Georg Hermann Richerz (1785) – zur vergleichenden italienisch-deutschen Kulturgeschichte der Spätaufklärung, pp. 137-191
  Carsten Zelle
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.06
  

  Muratori’s Della forza della fantasia umana (1745) in the Translation by Georg Hermann Richerz (1785) – on the Comparative Italian-German Cultural History of the Late Enlightenment
  The article is devoted to the treatise Della forza della fantasia umana by L.A. Muratori and its translation by the Göttingen university preacher G.H. Richerz. Muratori’s treatise was taken up early on at the Göttingen Reform University as a contribution to a natural history of the imagination (A. v.  Haller,  S.C. Hollmann). Its physiological version as a «potenza materiale» (‘material force’) remained present in the circle of moderate materialist (M. Hißmann, C. Meiners) and experiential philosophical (J.G. Feder) positions of the Göttingen science of man. Within this constellation, Richerz’s 1785 translation helped to position an empiricist concept of knowledge against Kant’s supposed ‘idealism’. However, its favourable reception was pushed back by the increasing influence of Kantian criticism, before a physiological concept of fantasy gained renewed appeal in the scientific-materialistic turn in psychiatry around 1850.

Ricerche

• Walter Markov e la Große französische Revolution. Una storia transnazionale con itinerari italiani, pp. 195-220
  Beatrice Donati
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.07

  Walter Markov and the Große Französische Revolution. A Transnational History with Italian Itineraries
  Following biographical and intellectual itineraries, the essay highlights the East German contribution to the knowledge of the French Revolution, retracing – for the first time in Italy – the scientific and academic activity of Walter Markov. As a part and the result of an extensive network of international collaborations, his research on Jacques Roux and the «far left» prove especially interesting also for their alignment with the «d’en bas» perspective advocated by Georges Lefebvre, which enabled a novel interpretation of the revolutionary process from the perspective  of the popular masses. Significant attention is devoted to reconstructing the connections that linked Markov to the Italian cultural world and, in particular, to Armando Saitta, one of the leading figures in the renewal of Italian historiography in the post-war period. A transnational circulation of knowledge, consisting of the exchange of letters, editorial projects, and scientific meetings, both within the DDR and abroad.

• Philosophische Gruppe Berlin (1927-1932). Una primissima introduzione, pp. 221-243
  Giulia Iannucci
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.08

  Philosophische Gruppe Berlin (1927-1932). A Preliminary Introduction
  The activities of the Philosophische Gruppe officially began with the conference given by Adolf Caspary on Das Proletariat als ökonomisches Hindernis der Weltrevolution on 15 November 1927. This important cultural ‘salon’ was organized in Berlin by the philosopher Erich Unger, together with the economist and jurist Adolf Caspary and under the spiritual aegis of the philosopher of religion and medical doctor Oskar Goldberg. Various scholars, intellectuals, artists, and politicians, many of Jewish origin, met regularly within this philosophical circle to discuss the most current philosophical and scientific ideas from diametrically opposed political-ideological positions, often with original and radical theoretical viewpoints. The aim of this investigation is thus the historiographical reconstruction of the meetings and exoteric intents of the group through the analysis of the archival material that has been collected so far within the research project carried out at the of the Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici titled The «Philosophische Gruppe Berlin» (1927-1932). Members, Program, Relevance.

• Nimbi, vapori e frattali: (dis)continuità di forme e modelli nella produzione lirica di Marion Poschmann, pp. 245-265
  Matteo Iacovella
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.09

  Nimbi, Vapours, and Fractals: (Dis)Continuities of Forms and Patterns in the Lyrical Production of Marion Poschmann
  This paper examines the lyrical work of Marion Poschmann, focusing on how her poetry engages in dialogue with the German lyrical tradition through classical metrical forms, such as the elegy, didactic poem, sonnet, and ode. Poschmann’s ‘post-Romantic’ poetics weaves intertextual references to canonical authors with aesthetic and ecological insights connected to contemporary debates on the Anthropocene and to modern perceptions of the natural world. Her use of traditional metric-rhythmic patterns enables Poschmann to probe and reinterpret the complex relationship between self and nature, grounding her observations of reality in precise formal structures that merge poetic language with scientific understanding. This article aims to show how Poschmann uses form as a cognitive tool to draw on tradition, voicing concerns that resonate directly with the reader’s own experiences and perspectives.

Rassegne

• Testi del Medioevo germanico, pp. 269-298
  Renato Gendre
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.10  
  

  A Review of Germanic Medieval Texts
  The paper presents an analysis, with interventions and bibliographical references, of the first four volumes of the series «Testi del Medioevo germanico», edited by our esteemed colleague Alessandro Zironi, published by the renowned Meltemi publishing house in Milan. The titles are as follows: Alessandro Zironi, Il Carme di Ildebrando, 2019; Maria Grazia Cammarota – Gabriele Cocco, Le elegie anglosassoni, 2020; Davide Bertagnolli, I Nibelunghi, 2020; Marco Battaglia, Snorri Sturluson. Edda, 2021. A brief presentation has also been devoted to the fifth volume – Fulvio Ferrari, Le saghe nordiche, 2022 – which we received after the work was completed.

• Prospettive per una letteratura europea,  pp. 299-308
  Aldo Venturelli
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.11

  Perspective for a European Literature
  The review considers four volumes, which are linked by the aim to investigate a potential European dimension of German literature and culture in the period between 1870 and 1950. Of these volumes, and of the approximately sixty contributions collected therein, a transversal reading is proposed, organised through certain key thematic cores. These are mainly identified in Nietzsche’s conception of ‘good Europeans’, in the positions towards Europe held by Thomas Mann (often in response to those held by his brother Heinrich and son Klaus), and, lastly, in the essayistic and scholarly production of Ernst Robert Curtius. Although in different ways, these thematic cores nevertheless refer to a more general Weimar Workshop.

Hanno collaborato

• Le autrici e gli autori, pp. 309-311

________________________

English Texts

• «My Father Passed away a Couple of Weeks Ago». On Boris Nikitin’s Hamlet, pp. 313-328
  Annalisa Sacchi
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.12
  
  The essay delves into Boris Nikitin’s Hamlet with Julia*n Meding, centring on the theme of mourning and its portrayal within a radical reconfiguration of the ‘documentary theatre’ genre. Set against the backdrop of the ‘reality turn’ that has seen significant growth over the past two decades, particularly in German-speaking theatrical landscapes, Nikitin’s stage critically interrogates the power asymmetries inherent in documentary theatre. He introduces an artistic format that denaturalizes the concept of ‘reality,’ presenting it as a constantly evolving horizon shaped by constructs. In doing so, he forges a form of ‘queer documentary’ that resonates deeply with Saidiya Hartman’s notion of «critical fabulation». The essay argues for recognising fiction not as an antithesis to reality, but rather as a vital tool to dismantle dominant narratives and to initiate alternative modes of knowing and analysis. This approach invites a critical examination of the boundaries between history and imagination, exploring the potential to reconstruct scenes of subjugation without perpetuating the grammar of violence.

• Poetry and Atmosphere. Prolegomena to a Philology of Air, pp. 329-351
  Federico Italiano
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.13

  The essay explores the relationship between atmosphere and poetry, highlighting the phenomenality of air as a crucial element for understanding the world and human dynamics. As an integral part of the atmosphere, air eludes traditional linear models, requiring a volumetric and transdisciplinary approach. From a geo-poetic perspective, the concept of atmosphere is examined through the works of Rainer Maria Rilke and Gottfried Benn, two central figures in the literary modernity of the 20th century. The thesis argues that their poetics represent the shift in atmospheric paradigms at the dawn of the 20th century: from the symbolic-therapeutic view of air, typical of the late 18th century and still influential before the First World War, to a world shaped and traumatised by the technological malleability and adaptability of air.

• The Residue and the Dust. Nelly Sachs and Jacques Lacan, pp. 353-370
  Felice Cimatti
  DOI: 10.82007/SG.2024.26.14
  

  The Residue and the Dust. Nelly Sachs and Jacques Lacan
  In this paper, we aim to identify in the theme of «dust» – the discarded and unburned residue (though itself the result of a terrible combustion) – the «paradigm» – in the sense that Agamben speaks of it in Signatura rerum: sul metodo – that can hold together the otherwise distant figures of Nelly Sachs and Jacques Lacan. The problem they both face is imagining how to do something with what remains. The «dust» of a people for Nelly Sachs, the «mark» of a body for Jacques Lacan. What to do with the end? What to do with the mark that never stops causing pain? What to do with death? The traditional answer is to celebrate the memory of this end; it is to preserve the memory of the trauma so that the suffering of those who have been exterminated is not erased. From this imperative follows the idea that the only permissible use of language is that of re-enactment and remembrance. But then comes Nelly Sachs’s poem, which calls instead for the use of language not to remember, but to pave the way for what is new, and thus to forget. Because death, incredibly, is not the end, but only «a whirling passage» from which new stars can be born.

Ultimo aggiornamento 9 Aprile 2025 a cura di Luisa Giannandrea