Miracle Tales: Kleist, Lessing, and the Discourse of Wonder

• Other Authors: Weihe, William S (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Germanic literature
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2016SP_Weihe_fsu_0071N_13225

This thesis investigates wondrous events in G.E. Lessing's play Nathan der Weise as well as Kleist's novellas Der Findling and Das Erdbeben in Chili. These textual analyses explore the effects that wonders have on the three narratives as well as literature in general. Several prominent scholars from the mid-eighteenth to early-nineteenth century are engaged for their interpretations of wonder and miracles from religious, philosophical, and aesthetic perspectives, so as to gain a contemporary understanding of the topics. Such interpretations inform the three textual analyses that focus on major ‘wonders' that indicate the crucial role this topic has in literature. This thesis posits wonders and the wondrous to occupy a central discourse in these stories and make up the narrative core not just for literature, but for storytelling in a broader sense. This idea is validated by the ambiguity of the concept of Wunder/wonder, and its movement between the fields of religion and literature. Wonder uncovers an elemental foundation in literature; it reveals the dynamic potential storytelling has on society, while the stories show the ways in which society utilizes stories – and thus the wondrous – to maintain its order. Ultimately, the wonders discussed deal with a rupture, a wound, in the common, established order. The reciprocated sense of wonder leads both characters and readers deeper into the ‘wound,' further into the discourse and to the core of literature, society, religion; that which is based in wondrous narrative. Such discourses, as the stories reveal, base themselves in the struggle between nature and culture. Literature and poetry asserts itself as a medium between nature and culture alternative to reason, religion, myth, and so on through its regenerative display of the wound and thoroughgoing presence of wonder. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. === Spring Semester 2016. === April 1, 2016. === Heinrich von Kleist, Lessing, Miracles, Wonder, Wondrous === Includes bibliographical references. === Christian Weber, Professor Directing Thesis; Alina Dana Weber, Committee Member; Birgit Maier-Katkin, Committee Member.