NERVAL ET LA PATRIE PERDUE. (FRENCH TEXT).
Item
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Title
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NERVAL ET LA PATRIE PERDUE. (FRENCH TEXT).
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Identifier
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AAI8601649
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identifier
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8601649
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Creator
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GUERS, SIMONE.
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Contributor
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Bettina L. Knapp
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Romance | Literature, Germanic | Literature, Comparative
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Abstract
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Nerval and Novalis are most representative of the romantic poet's feeling of exile but the sense of loss of homeland is especially apparent in Nerval. This "lost homeland" theme is studied comparatively in these two poets who not only expressed it in their works, but also lived it. In this respect, primary and secondary sources reveal similarities between them that will be examined in their lived experience and poetry as well as their philosophical and religious ideas. Many affinities and extraordinary coincidences are revealed. Further pursuing previous critics' suggestions and questioning of Nerval's silence concerning Novalis, whereas he mentioned other less well-known German poets of the time, we believe that Nerval deliberately concealed his inner conviction that he was a "double", even a re-incarnation of Novalis. At the same time, Germany became his "lost fatherland". This premise of our study is substantiated by a close examination of the poet's writings and correspondence as well as through external evidences found in other writings of the period. In the light of these findings, we interpret Nerval's journeys to Germany as "pilgrimages to the sources" of his lost fatherland. Through Novalis, Nerval's identification with an earlier poet, Walther von der Vogelweide, is explored in the second part of this thesis. This process of various identifications and this belief in successive identities brought Nerval to the edge of insanity but led him to a deep inner conviction that Matter and Spirit are One.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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French
