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60-556: Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 1788 – 26 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic , translator, and anthologist . Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism . Ever since their publication and up to the present day, some of his works have been very popular in German-speaking Europe. Eichendorff first became famous for his 1826 novella Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (freely translated: Memoirs of

120-437: A Good-for-Nothing ) and his poems. The Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing is a typical Romantic novella whose main themes are wanderlust and love. The protagonist, the son of a miller, rejects his father's trade and becomes a gardener at a Viennese palace where he subsequently falls in love with the local duke's daughter. As, with his lowly status, she is unattainable for him, he escapes to Italy – only to return and learn that she

180-411: A cellarman inspired Eichendorff to one of his most famous poems, Das zerbrochene Ringlein ( The Broken Ring ). In his deep desperation over this unhappy infatuation, Eichendorff craved death in military exploits as mentioned in his poem Das zerbrochene Ringlein : Ich möchte’ als Reiter fliegen Wohl in die blut’ge Schlacht, Um stille Feuer liegen Im Feld bei dunkler Nacht. I fain would mount

240-459: A charger And glory seek in fight, By silent camp-fires lying, When falls the dark of night. Although Chase's translation weakens the second line from blut’ge Schlacht ( bloody battle ) to " in fight " this, actually, happens to be much closer to the historical truth, since Eichendorff's participation in the Lützow Free Corps seems to be a myth – in spite of some authorities asserting

300-470: A collection of songs about love, soldiers, wandering, as well as children's songs, was an important source for the Romantic movement. Similar to other early 19th-century anthologists such as Thomas Percy , Arnim and Brentano edited and rewrote the poems in they collected. "Everything in the world happens because of poetry, to live life with an increased sense and history is the expression of this general poetry of

360-428: A dialectical unity of an "unstable equilibrium of homesickness and wanderlust at once". For a long time it had been argued that Eichendorff's view of Romanticism had been subordinate to religious beliefs. More recently, however, Christoph Hollender has pointed that Eichendorff's late religious and political writings were commissioned works, while his poetry represents a highly personal perspective. Eichendorff summed up

420-525: A form of hermeneutics : knowledge via interpretation to understand the meaning of human texts and symbolic expressions – including the interpretation of texts which themselves interpret other texts. In the British and American literary establishment, the New Criticism was more or less dominant until the late 1960s. Around that time Anglo-American university literature departments began to witness

480-571: A leading member of the Heidelberg Romantic group, a "hermitic magician" and "formative impression", as Eichendorff later explained. In 1808 the brothers finished their degrees, after which they undertook an educational journey to Paris, Vienna , and Berlin . In Berlin they came into closer contact with Romantic writers such as Clemens Brentano, Adam Müller , and Heinrich von Kleist . To further their professional prospects, they travelled to Vienna in 1810, where they concluded their studies with

540-617: A rise of a more explicitly philosophical literary theory , influenced by structuralism , then post-structuralism , and other kinds of Continental philosophy . It continued until the mid-1980s, when interest in "theory" peaked. Many later critics, though undoubtedly still influenced by theoretical work, have been comfortable simply interpreting literature rather than writing explicitly about methodology and philosophical presumptions. Today, approaches based in literary theory and continental philosophy largely coexist in university literature departments, while conventional methods, some informed by

600-528: A state examination diploma. Wilhelm procured employment in the Austrian civil service, while Joseph went back home to help his father with managing the estate. From Eichendorff's diaries we know about his love for a girl, Amalie Schaffner, and another love affair in 1807–08 during his student days in Heidelberg with one Käthchen Förster. His deep sorrow about the unrequitted love for the nineteen-year-old daughter of

660-535: A young age, Eichendorff was already well aware of his parents' financial straits. On 19 June 1801, the thirteen-year old noted in his diary: "Father travelled to Breslau , on the run from his creditors," adding on 24 June, "mom become terribly faint." With his brother Wilhelm, Joseph attended the Catholic Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau (1801–1804). While previously preferring chapbooks, he was now introduced to

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720-471: Is a matter of some controversy. For example, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. Literary criticism

780-580: Is often published in essay or book form. Academic literary critics teach in literature departments and publish in academic journals , and more popular critics publish their reviews in broadly circulating periodicals such as The Times Literary Supplement , The New York Times Book Review , The New York Review of Books , the London Review of Books , the Dublin Review of Books , The Nation , Bookforum , and The New Yorker . Literary criticism

840-647: Is speaking" us. But before it can happen, the wonderful song sleeping in each thing must be woken up by the poet's word: One notable example used by Eichendorff is the Zauberwort (magic word) – and one of Eichendorff's most celebrated poems, the four-line stanza Wünschelrute (divining rod), is about finding such a Zauberwort : Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen, die da träumen fort und fort, und die Welt hebt an zu singen, triffst du nur das Zauberwort. A song sleeps in all things around Which dream on and on unheard, And

900-415: Is the duke's adopted daughter, and thus within his social reach. With its combination of dream world and realism, Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing is considered to be a high point of Romantic fiction. One critic stated that Eichendorff's Good-for-Nothing is the "personification of love of nature and an obsession with hiking." Thomas Mann called Eichendorff's Good-for-Nothing a combination of "the purity of

960-428: Is the study, evaluation , and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory , which is the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists. Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary theory

1020-681: Is thought to have existed as far back as the classical period. In the 4th century BC Aristotle wrote the Poetics , a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms of contemporary works of art. Poetics developed for the first time the concepts of mimesis and catharsis , which are still crucial in literary studies. Plato 's attacks on poetry as imitative, secondary, and false were formative as well. The Sanskrit Natya Shastra includes literary criticism on ancient Indian literature and Sanskrit drama. Later classical and medieval criticism often focused on religious texts, and

1080-463: Is to long for, the inner emotion of melancholy is to mourn. As an expression of deep reflection, longing corresponds with intuition ( Ahnen ), grieving with memory." Theodor W. Adorno , who set out to rescue Eichendorff from his misled conservative admirers, attested: "He was not a poet of the homeland, but rather a poet of homesickness". In sharp contrast, Natias Neutert saw in Eichendorff's nostalgia

1140-473: The Fichtel Mountains in 1793, an event that began the Romantic movement. Travels through Germany, Austria, and France rounded off Eichendorff's education, however, he himself was not much of a hiker. Apart from some extensive marches on foot during his school and college days (for example from Halle to Leipzig, to see popular actor Iffland ), he only undertook one lengthy tour, traversing for seventeen days

1200-541: The Harz mountains with his brother in 1805, a trip partly undertaken using the stagecoach, as witnessed by his diary. Eichendorff was less of a romantic wanderer, but rather displaced again and again by changes of location necessitated by his official activities. The following trips, mainly undertaken by coach or boat, are documented: Eichendorff worked in various capacities as Prussian government administrator. His career began in 1816 as unpaid clerk in Breslau. In November 1819, he

1260-572: The Kingdom of Prussia . His parents were the Prussian officer Adolf Freiherr von Eichendorff (1756–1818) and his wife, Karoline née Freiin von Kloche (1766–1822), who came from an aristocratic Roman Catholic family. Eichendorff sold the family estates in Deutsch-Krawarn , Kauthen, and Wrbkau and acquired Lubowitz Castle from his mother-in-law. The castle's Rococo reconstruction, which was begun by her,

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1320-738: The New Critics , also remain active. Disagreements over the goals and methods of literary criticism, which characterized both sides taken by critics during the "rise" of theory, have declined. Some critics work largely with theoretical texts, while others read traditional literature; interest in the literary canon is still great, but many critics are also interested in nontraditional texts and women's literature , as elaborated on by certain academic journals such as Contemporary Women's Writing , while some critics influenced by cultural studies read popular texts like comic books or pulp / genre fiction . Ecocritics have drawn connections between literature and

1380-462: The history of the book is a field of interdisciplinary inquiry drawing on the methods of bibliography , cultural history , history of literature , and media theory . Principally concerned with the production, circulation, and reception of texts and their material forms, book history seeks to connect forms of textuality with their material aspects. Among the issues within the history of literature with which book history can be seen to intersect are:

1440-494: The 9th century, notably by Al-Jahiz in his al-Bayan wa-'l-tabyin and al-Hayawan , and by Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz in his Kitab al-Badi . The literary criticism of the Renaissance developed classical ideas of unity of form and content into literary neoclassicism , proclaiming literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preservation of a long literary tradition. The birth of Renaissance criticism

1500-459: The Enlightenment theoreticians so that the business of Enlightenment became a business with the Enlightenment. This development – particularly of emergence of entertainment literature – was addressed through an intensification of criticism. Many works of Jonathan Swift , for instance, were criticized including his book Gulliver's Travels , which one critic described as "the detestable story of

1560-576: The Foreign Ministry until his retirement in 1844. Eichendorff's brother Wilhelm died in 1849 in Innsbruck . That same year, there was a Republican uprising and the Eichendorffs fled to Meißen and Köthen , where a little house was purchased for his daughter Therese (now a von Besserer-Dahlfingen) in 1854. In 1855, he was much affected by the death of his wife. In September he traveled to Sedlnitz for

1620-429: The Romantic epoch stating that it "soared like a magnificent rocket sparkling up into the sky, and after shortly and wonderfully lighting up the night, it exploded overhead into a thousand colorful stars." While other authors (such as Ludwig Tieck , Caroline de la Motte Fouqué , Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim ) adapted the themes and styles of their writing to the emerging realism , Eichendorff "stayed true to

1680-544: The Yahoos". The British Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century introduced new aesthetic ideas to literary studies, including the idea that the object of literature need not always be beautiful, noble, or perfect, but that literature itself could elevate a common subject to the level of the sublime . German Romanticism , which followed closely after the late development of German classicism , emphasized an aesthetic of fragmentation that can appear startlingly modern to

1740-498: The adherents of Görres became mainly known as writers of poetry and stories. Both movements, however, greatly influenced intellectual life in Germany by emphasising the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental over classical precepts. One of their fundamental ideas was the "unity of poetry and life". Eichendorff shared Schlegel's view that

1800-514: The author's psychology or biography, which became almost taboo subjects) or reader response : together known as Wimsatt and Beardsley's intentional fallacy and affective fallacy . This emphasis on form and precise attention to "the words themselves" has persisted, after the decline of these critical doctrines themselves. In 1957 Northrop Frye published the influential Anatomy of Criticism . In his works Frye noted that some critics tend to embrace an ideology, and to judge literary pieces on

1860-516: The basis of their adherence to such ideology. This has been a highly influential viewpoint among modern conservative thinkers. E. Michael Jones, for example, argues in his Degenerate Moderns that Stanley Fish was influenced by his own adulterous affairs to reject classic literature that condemned adultery. Jürgen Habermas , in Erkenntnis und Interesse [1968] ( Knowledge and Human Interests ), described literary critical theory in literary studies as

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1920-574: The christening of his grandchild. Shortly after he made his very last trip, dying of pneumonia on 26 November 1857 in Neiße . He was buried the next day with his wife. The two writers who had the greatest early influence on Eichendorff's artistic development were Friedrich Schlegel , who established the term romantisch (romantic) in German literature, and Joseph Görres . While the writers who gathered around Schlegel inclined more to philosophy and aesthetic theory,

1980-446: The contrary. In 1813, when conflict flared up again, Eichendorff tried to join the struggle against Napoleon , however he lacked the funds to purchase a uniform, gun, or horse, and, when he finally managed to get the money necessary, the war was all but over. His parents, to save the indebted family estate, hoped that Eichendorff would marry a wealthy heiress, however he fell in love with Aloysia von Larisch (1792–1855), called 'Luise',

2040-450: The development of authorship as a profession, the formation of reading audiences, the constraints of censorship and copyright, and the economics of literary form. Lauchst%C3%A4dt Lauchstädt was a popular watering-place in the 18th century, the dukes of Saxe-Merseburg often making it their summer residence. From 1789 to 1811 the Weimar court theatrical company gave performances here of

2100-1007: The emblematic universe of his literary Romanticism right through to the 1850s," Adorno stated: "Unconsciously Eichendorff's unleashed romanticism leads right up to the threshold of modernism ". With approximately 5000 musical settings, Eichendorff is the most popular German poet set into music. "The magical, enchanting lyricism of his poetry almost seems to be music itself," as it is praised. His poems have been set to music by many composers, including Schumann , Mendelssohn , Max Bruch , Johannes Brahms , Hugo Wolf , Didia Saint Georges , Richard Strauss , Hans Pfitzner , Pauline Volkstein , Hermann Zilcher , Alexander Zemlinsky , Max Reger , and even Friedrich Nietzsche . His poems also inspired orchestral music, such as Reger's Eine romantische Suite as well as electronic arrangements by Qntal . Institut für Germanistik, D-93040 Regensburg [REDACTED] Category Literary critic A genre of arts criticism , literary criticism or literary studies

2160-452: The final loss of all the family's estates in Silesia. During the period, infant mortality was very high. Both Eichendorff's brother Gustav (born 1800) and his sister Louise Antonie (born 1799) died in 1803 at a very young age, as did two of Eichendorff's daughters between 1822 and 1832. The poet expressed the parental sorrow after this loss in the famous cycle "Auf meines Kindes Tod". One of

2220-406: The first full-fledged crisis in modernity of the core critical-aesthetic principles inherited from classical antiquity , such as proportion, harmony, unity, decorum , that had long governed, guaranteed, and stabilized Western thinking about artworks. Although Classicism was very far from spent as a cultural force, it was to be gradually challenged by a rival movement, namely Baroque, that favoured

2280-479: The folk song and the fairy tale." Many of Eichendorff's poems were first published as integral parts of his novellas and stories, where they are often performed in song by one of the protagonists. The novella Good-for-Nothing alone contains 54 poems. Eichendorff, a descendant of an old noble family, was born in 1788 at Schloß Lubowitz near Ratibor (now Racibórz , Poland) in Upper Silesia , at that time part of

2340-417: The human race, the fate performs this great spectacle," is what Arnim said in a letter to Brentano (9 July 1802). Although Eichendorffs poetry includes many metric forms ranging from very simple elegiac couplets and stanzas to sonnets , his main artistic focus was on poems imitating folk songs. A comparison of forms shows that Eichendorff's lyricism is "directly influenced by Brentano and Arnim". Following

2400-475: The model of Des Knaben Wunderhorn , Eichendorff uses simple words ('naturalness'), adding more meaning ('artificiality') than dictionary definitions would indicate. In this sense, "His words are rich in connotative power, in imaginative appeal and in sound." Certain expressions and formulas used by Eichendorff, which are sometimes characterised by critics as pure cliché, actually represent a conscious reduction in favour of emblematics . In Görres' poetology "nature

2460-406: The more controversial criteria of the author's religious beliefs. These critical reviews were published in many magazines, newspapers, and journals. The commercialization of literature and its mass production had its downside. The emergent literary market, which was expected to educate the public and keep them away from superstition and prejudice, increasingly diverged from the idealistic control of

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2520-399: The natural sciences. Darwinian literary studies studies literature in the context of evolutionary influences on human nature. And postcritique has sought to develop new ways of reading and responding to literary texts that go beyond the interpretive methods of critique . Many literary critics also work in film criticism or media studies . Related to other forms of literary criticism,

2580-630: The new direction taken in the early twentieth century. Early in the century the school of criticism known as Russian Formalism , and slightly later the New Criticism in Britain and in the United States, came to dominate the study and discussion of literature in the English-speaking world. Both schools emphasized the close reading of texts, elevating it far above generalizing discussion and speculation about either authorial intention (to say nothing of

2640-624: The other hand, evokes the impression that "all nature had been created just in this very moment," while the evening often acts as a mysterium mortis with the persona pondering transience and death. Eichendorff's other main motif, nostalgia, is described by some critic as a phenomenon of infinity. However, there is a number of different interpretations. According to Helmut Illbruck: The "simple-minded Taugenichts (...) feels continually homesick and can never come to rest." Katja Löhr distinguishes between nostalgia as an emotion consisting of two components — longing and melancholy: "The inner emotion of longing

2700-410: The plays of Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , an attraction which greatly contributed to the well-being of the town. During the 19th century, its industries included malting, vinegar-making and brewing. In January 2008, Bad Lauchstädt incorporated the former municipalities Schafstädt , Delitz am Berge and Klobikau . On 1 January 2010 Milzau was also incorporated, disbanding

2760-649: The poems in this series conveys an especially powerful sense of loss in this era: Die Winde nur noch gehen Wehklagend um das Haus, Wir sitzen einsam drinnen Und lauschen oft hinaus. Only the winds are wandering Around the house and moan, And by the window harking We sit inside, alone. With his literary figure of the Good-for-Nothing Eichendorff created the paradigm of the wanderer. The motif itself had been central to romanticism since Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and Ludwig Tieck undertook their famous Pfingstwanderung (Whitsun excursion) in

2820-656: The poetry of Matthias Claudius and Voltaire 's La Henriade , an epic poem about the last part of the wars of religion and Henry IV of France in ten songs. In 1804 his sister Luise Antonie Nepomucene Johanna was born (died 1883), who was to become a friend of Austrian writer Adalbert Stifter . After their final exams, both brothers attended lectures at the University of Breslau and the Protestant Maria-Magdalena-Gymnasium. Eichendorff's diary from this time shows that he valued formal education much less than

2880-447: The reader of English literature, and valued Witz – that is, "wit" or "humor" of a certain sort – more highly than the serious Anglophone Romanticism. The late nineteenth century brought renown to authors known more for their literary criticism than for their own literary work, such as Matthew Arnold . However important all of these aesthetic movements were as antecedents, current ideas about literary criticism derive almost entirely from

2940-456: The seventeen-year-old daughter of a prominent, yet impoverished Catholic family of nobles. The betrothal took place in 1809, the same year Eichendorff went to Berlin to take up a profession there. In 1815, the couple was married in Breslau's St. Vinzenz church and that same year Eichendorff's son Hermann was born, followed in 1819 by their daughter Therese. In 1818, Eichendorff's father died and in 1822 his mother. The death of his mother resulted in

3000-416: The several long religious traditions of hermeneutics and textual exegesis have had a profound influence on the study of secular texts. This was particularly the case for the literary traditions of the three Abrahamic religions : Jewish literature , Christian literature and Islamic literature . Literary criticism was also employed in other forms of medieval Arabic literature and Arabic poetry from

3060-607: The theatre of Lauchstädt , 13 km where the Weimar court theatrical company performed plays by Goethe . In October 1806 Napoleon 's troops took Halle and teaching at the university ceased. To complete their studies, Wilhelm and Joseph went to the University of Heidelberg in 1807, another important centre of Romanticism . Here Eichendorff befriended romantic poet Otto Heinrich von Loeben (1786–1825), met Achim von Arnim (1781–1831) and possibly Clemens Brentano (1778–1842). In Heidelberg, Eichendorff heard lectures by Joseph Görres ,

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3120-545: The theatre, recording 126 plays and concerts visited. His love for Mozart also goes back to these days. Joseph himself seems to have been a talented actor and his brother Wilhelm a good singer and guitar player. Together with his brother Wilhelm, Joseph studied law and the humanities in Halle an der Saale (1805–1806), a city near Jena , which was a focal point of the Frühromantik (Early Romantics). The brothers frequently attended

3180-608: The transgressive and the extreme, without laying claim to the unity, harmony, or decorum that supposedly distinguished both nature and its greatest imitator, namely ancient art. The key concepts of the Baroque aesthetic, such as " conceit ' ( concetto ), " wit " ( acutezza , ingegno ), and " wonder " ( meraviglia ), were not fully developed in literary theory until the publication of Emanuele Tesauro 's Il Cannocchiale aristotelico (The Aristotelian Telescope) in 1654. This seminal treatise – inspired by Giambattista Marino 's epic Adone and

3240-521: The work of the Spanish Jesuit philosopher Baltasar Gracián – developed a theory of metaphor as a universal language of images and as a supreme intellectual act, at once an artifice and an epistemologically privileged mode of access to truth. In the Enlightenment period (1700s–1800s), literary criticism became more popular. During this time literacy rates started to rise in the public; no longer

3300-450: The world begins to resound, If you hit the magic word. The titles of Eichendorff's poems show that, besides the motif of wandering, the two other main motifs of his poetry were the passing of time (transience) and nostalgia. Time, for Eichendorff, is not just a natural phenomenon but, as Marcin Worbs elaborated: "Each day and each of our nights has a metaphysical dimension." The morning, on

3360-464: The world was a naturally and eternally "self-forming artwork", Eichendorff himself used the metaphor that "nature [was] a great picture book, which the good Lord has pitched for us outside." Arnim's and Brentano's studies and interpretations of the Volkslied (folk song) deeply influenced Eichendorff's own poetry and poetology. Arnim's and Brentano's anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder ,

3420-563: Was appointed assessor and in 1820 consistorial councilor for West and East Prussia in Danzig , with an initial annual salary of 1200 thalers. In April 1824, Eichendorff was relocated to Königsberg as "Oberpräsidialrat" (chief administrator) with an annual salary of 1600 thalers. In 1821, Eichendorff was appointed school inspector and, in 1824, "Oberpräsidialrat" in Königsberg. In 1831, he moved his family to Berlin, where he worked as Privy Councilor for

3480-434: Was in 1498, with the recovery of classic texts, most notably, Giorgio Valla 's Latin translation of Aristotle 's Poetics . The work of Aristotle, especially Poetics , was the most important influence upon literary criticism until the late eighteenth century. Lodovico Castelvetro was one of the most influential Renaissance critics who wrote commentaries on Aristotle's Poetics in 1570. The seventeenth-century witnessed

3540-407: Was reading exclusive for the wealthy or scholarly. With the rise of the literate public, the swiftness of printing and commercialization of literature, criticism arose too. Reading was no longer viewed solely as educational or as a sacred source of religion; it was a form of entertainment. Literary criticism was influenced by the values and stylistic writing, including clear, bold, precise writing and

3600-443: Was very expensive and almost bankrupted the family. Young Joseph was close to his older brother Wilhelm (1786–1849). From 1793 to 1801, they were home-schooled by tutor Bernhard Heinke. Joseph began writing diaries as early as 1798, witnesses to his budding literary career. The diaries present many insights into the development of the young writer, ranging from simple statements about the weather to notes about finances to early poems. At

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