Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus(1776-1822) - German writer, composer and artist of the romantic movement, who became famous for his fairy tales that combine mysticism with reality and reflect the grotesque and tragic sides of human nature. The most famous fairy tales of Hoffmann:, and many other fairy tales for children.
Biography of Hoffmann by Ernst Theodor Amadeus
Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus(1776-1822) - - German writer, composer and artist of the romantic movement, who became famous for his stories that combine mysticism with reality and reflect the grotesque and tragic sides of human nature.
One of the brightest talents of the 19th century, a romantic of the second stage, who influenced writers of subsequent literary eras up to the present day
The future writer was born on January 24, 1776 in Königsberg in the family of a lawyer, studied law and worked in various institutions, but did not make a career: the world of officials and activities related to writing papers could not attract an intelligent, ironic and widely gifted person.
The beginning of Hoffmann's independent life coincided with the Napoleonic wars and the occupation of Germany. While working in Warsaw, he witnessed its capture by the French. Their own material disorder was superimposed on the tragedy of the entire state, which gave rise to duality and a tragically ironic perception of the world.
Discord with his wife and love for his student, devoid of hope for happiness, who was 20 years younger than him - a married man - intensified the feeling of alienation in the world of philistines. His feeling for Julia Mark, that was the name of the girl he loved, formed the basis for the most sublime female images of his works.
Hoffman's circle of acquaintances included the romantic writers Fouquet, Chamisso, Brentano, and the famous actor L. Devrient. Hoffmann owns several operas and ballets, the most significant of which are Ondine, written on the plot of Ondine by Fouquet, and the musical accompaniment to the grotesque Merry Musicians by Brentano.
The beginning of Hoffmann's literary activity dates back to 1808-1813. - the period of his life in Bamberg, where he was a bandmaster at the local theater and gave music lessons. The first short story-fairy tale “Cavalier Gluck” is dedicated to the personality of the composer he especially revered; the name of the artist is included in the title of the first collection - “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” (1814-1815).
Among Hoffmann’s most famous works are the short story “The Golden Pot”, the fairy tale “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober”, the collections “Night Stories”, “Serapion’s Brothers”, the novels “The Worldly Views of Murr the Cat”, “The Devil’s Elixir”.
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born in 1776. His place of birth is Koenigsberg. At first, Wilhelm was present in his name, but he himself changed the name because he loved Mozart very much. His parents divorced when he was only 3 years old, and he was raised by his grandmother - his mother's mother. His uncle was a lawyer and a very smart man. Their relationship was quite complicated, but the uncle influenced his nephew and the development of his various talents.
early years
When Hoffman grew up, he also decided that he would become a lawyer. He entered the university in Königsberg, after studying he served in different cities, his profession was a judicial official. But such a life was not for him, so he began to draw and play music, which is how he tried to make a living.
Soon he met his first love Dora. At that time she was only 25, but she was married and had already given birth to 5 children. They entered into a relationship, but gossip began in the city, and relatives decided that they needed to send Hoffmann to Glogau to another uncle.
The beginning of a creative journey
In the late 1790s, Hoffmann became a composer and took the pseudonym Johann Kreisler. There are several works that are quite famous, for example, the opera he wrote in 1812 called “Aurora”. Hoffmann also worked in the Bamberg theater and served as bandmaster and was also a conductor.
As fate would have it, Hoffman returned to civil service. When he passed the exam in 1800, he began working as an assessor at the Poznań Supreme Court. In this city he met Michaelina, with whom he married.
Literary creativity
THIS. Hoffmann began writing his works in 1809. The first short story was called “Cavalier Gluck”, it was published by the Leipzig newspaper. When he returned to law in 1814, he simultaneously wrote fairy tales, including “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” At the time when Hoffmann was creating, German romanticism flourished. If you read the works carefully, you can see the main trends of the school of romanticism. For example, irony, the ideal artist, the value of art. The writer demonstrated the conflict that occurred between reality and utopia. He constantly makes fun of his characters who are trying to find some kind of freedom in art.
Researchers of Hoffman's work are unanimous in their opinion that it is impossible to separate his biography, his work from his music. Especially if you watch short stories - for example, “Kreysleriana”.
The thing is that the main character in it is Johannes Kreisler (as we remember, this is the author’s pseudonym). The work is an essay, their topics are different, but the hero is the same. It has long been recognized that it is Johann who is considered Hoffmann’s double.
In general, the writer is a rather bright person, he is not afraid of difficulties, he is ready to fight the blows of fate in order to achieve a certain goal. And in this case it is art.
"Nutcracker"
This tale was published in a collection in 1716. When Hoffmann created this work, he was impressed by the children of his friend. The children's names were Marie and Fritz; Hoffmann gave their names to his characters. If we read Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” an analysis of the work will show us the moral principles that the author tried to convey to children.
Briefly the story is this: Marie and Fritz are preparing for Christmas. The godfather always makes a toy for Marie. But after Christmas this toy is usually taken away as it is very skillfully made.
The children come to the Christmas tree and see that there is a whole bunch of gifts there, the girl finds the Nutcracker. This toy is used to crack nuts. Once Marie started playing with dolls, and at midnight mice appeared, led by their king. It was a huge mouse with seven heads.
Then the toys, led by the Nutcracker, come to life and enter into battle with the mice.
Brief Analysis
If you analyze Hoffmann's work "The Nutcracker", it is noticeable that the writer tried to show how important goodness, courage, mercy are, that you cannot leave anyone in trouble, you must help, show courage. Marie was able to see his light in the unsightly Nutcracker. She liked his good nature, and she tried with all her might to protect her pet from her nasty brother Fritz, who was always hurting the toy.
Despite everything, she tries to help the Nutcracker, giving sweets to the impudent Mouse King, so long as he does not harm the soldier. Courage and courage are demonstrated here. Marie and her brother, the toys and the Nutcracker team up to achieve the goal of defeating the Mouse King.
This work is also quite famous, and Hoffmann created it when, in 1814, French troops led by Napoleon approached Dresden. At the same time, the city in the descriptions is quite real. The author talks about the life of people, how they rode on a boat, visited each other, held folk festivals and much more.
The events of the fairy tale take place in two worlds, this is the real Dresden, as well as Atlantis. If you analyze the work “The Golden Pot” by Hoffmann, you can see that the author describes a harmony that you cannot find in ordinary life during the day with fire. The main character is the student Anselm.
The writer tried to beautifully tell about the valley, where beautiful flowers grow, amazing birds fly, where all the landscapes are simply magnificent. Once upon a time, the spirit of the Salamanders lived there, he fell in love with the Fire Lily and inadvertently caused the destruction of Prince Phosphorus' garden. Then the prince drove this spirit into the world of people and told him what Salamander’s future would be: people would forget about miracles, he would meet his beloved again, they would have three daughters. Salamander will be able to return home when his daughters find lovers who are ready to believe that a miracle is possible. In the work, Salamander can also see the future and predict it.
Works of Hoffmann
It must be said that although the author had very interesting musical works, nevertheless, he is known as a storyteller. Hoffmann's works for children are quite popular, some of them can be read by a small child, some by a teenager. For example, if you take the fairy tale about the Nutcracker, then it will be suitable for both.
“The Golden Pot” is a rather interesting fairy tale, but filled with allegories and double meanings, which demonstrates the basics of morality that are relevant in our difficult times, for example, the ability to make friends and help, protect, and show courage.
Suffice it to recall “The Royal Bride” - a work that was based on real events. We are talking about an estate where a scientist lives with his daughter.
The underground king rules the vegetables; he and his retinue come to Anna’s garden and occupy it. They dream that one day only human vegetables will live on the entire Earth. It all started with Anna finding an unusual ring...
Tsakhes
In addition to the fairy tales described above, there are other works of this kind by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann - “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober.” Once upon a time there lived a little freak. The fairy took pity on him.
She decided to give him three hairs that have magical properties. As soon as something happens in the place where Tsakhes is located, significant or talented, or someone says something similar, then everyone thinks that he did it. And if the dwarf does something dirty, then everyone thinks about others. Possessing such a gift, the little one becomes a genius among the people, and he is soon appointed minister.
"New Year's Eve Adventure"
One night just before the New Year, a traveling comrade ended up in Berlin, where a completely magical story happened to him. He meets Julia, his beloved, in Berlin.
Such a girl actually existed. Hoffman taught her music and was in love, but her family engaged Julia to someone else.
"The Story of the Missing Reflection"
An interesting fact is that in general, in the author’s works, the mystical appears somewhere every now and then, and it’s not worth talking about the unusual. Skillfully mixing humor and moral principles, feelings and emotions, the real and unreal world, Hoffman achieves the full attention of his reader.
This fact can be seen in the interesting work “The Story of the Missing Reflection.” Erasmus Speaker really wanted to visit Italy, which he was able to achieve, but there he met a beautiful girl, Juliet. He committed a bad act, as a result of which he had to go home. Telling everything to Juliet, he says that he would like to stay with her forever. In response, she asks him to give his reflection.
Other works
It must be said that Hoffmann’s famous works are of different genres and for different ages. For example, the mystical "Ghost Story".
Hoffmann is very drawn to mysticism, which can be seen in stories about vampires, about a fatal nun, about a sandman, as well as in a series of books called “Night Studies”.
An interesting fairy tale about the lord of fleas, where we are talking about the son of a rich merchant. He doesn't like what his father is doing, and he doesn't intend to go down the same path. This life is not for him, and he is trying to escape from reality. However, he is unexpectedly arrested, although he does not understand why. The Privy Councilor wants to find a criminal, but he is not interested in whether the criminal is guilty or not. He knows for sure that every person can have some kind of sin.
Most of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's works contain a lot of symbolism, myths and legends. Fairy tales are generally difficult to divide by age. For example, take “The Nutcracker”, this story is so intriguing, filled with adventures and love, events that happen to Mary, that it will be quite interesting for children and teenagers, and even adults will re-read it with pleasure.
Cartoons are made based on this work, plays, ballets, etc. are repeatedly staged.
The photo shows the first performance of "The Nutcracker" at the Mariinsky Theater.
But other works by Ernst Hoffmann may be a little difficult for a child to understand. Some people come to these works quite consciously to enjoy Hoffmann's extraordinary style, his bizarre mixture.
Hoffman is attracted to the theme when a person suffers from madness, commits some kind of crime, and has a “dark side.” If a person has imagination, has feelings, then he can fall into madness and commit suicide. In order to write the story "The Sandman", Hoffman studied scientific works on diseases and clinical components. The novella attracted the attention of researchers, among them was Sigmund Freud, who even dedicated his essay to this work.
Everyone decides for themselves at what age they should read Hoffmann’s books. Some people don't quite understand his overly surreal language. However, as soon as you start reading the work, you are inevitably drawn into this mixed mystical and crazy world, where a gnome lives in a real city, where spirits walk the streets, and lovely snakes are looking for their handsome princes.
From the pen of the German writer Ernst Hoffmann came pretentious short stories and novels that amaze with Gothic images. His Little Tsakhes is ugly and rude, but has extraordinary talent, and the unfortunate man is forced to crush nuts with his teeth until the end of time. Given the terrifying outline of the story, Hoffmann knew how to create beautiful, sensual fairy tales, but not at all for children.
Childhood and youth
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was born on January 24, 1776 in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). In the family of Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann and Lovisa Albertina Doffer, the boy became the last of three children.
2 years after the birth of Hoffman Jr., the parents separated. Christoph, taking his son John Ludwig, left for Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk, a city in the Kaliningrad region), and his mother and Ernst remained in Königsberg. The middle son died in infancy.
Hoffmann showed great talent for playing the piano, writing and drawing, but development in these skills was not expected - the institution was located in the provinces, where extensive knowledge of classical art forms and new artistic ideas of Prussia did not reach.
In 1781-1792 the boy studied at the Lutheran school Burgschule. The boy independently studied the works of Stern and Jean Paul.
Around 1787, Ernst became friends with Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, a future politician, who introduced him to creativity. In 1792, Hoffmann listened to several lectures by the philosopher.
Creation
In the 1790s, the writer moved a lot: first to Glogow, then to Dresden, where Hoffmann was struck by the paintings and Correggio, then to Berlin.
Symphony by Ernst HoffmannThis was the first time in Hoffmann's biography that he found himself away from his relatives. The young man began to become “what school principals, priests, uncles and aunts call depraved” - a quote from the author himself. The depravity consisted in the fact that the German was seriously involved in creativity, but in a humorous, not academic way.
In 1802, while at a ball, Hoffmann, out of boredom, drew caricature portraits of Prussian officers. Unnoticed by the young man, the drawings were distributed among the guests. When the authorship became known, complaints began to pour in against Ernst. The Berlin authorities, who were well acquainted with the Hoffmann family, did not dare to punish the “criminal”; instead, they exiled him to Plock (the former capital of Poland).
“Exile” undermined the author’s mental health. In cartoons, he depicted himself drowning in the mud next to uneducated villagers. Nevertheless, the seclusion that haunted Hoffmann during his years in Plock had a positive impact on his creativity. The German sent his notes about the theater to a literary competition in the newspaper “Die Freimüthige”. Although none of the 14 works received the main prize, Hoffmann was awarded 100 friedrichsdors (gold coins) for his talented performance.
In 1804 he received a post in Warsaw. On the way, Ernst stopped by Königsberg. The writer was not lucky enough to find himself in his hometown again.
The years spent in Poland were considered by Hoffmann to be the happiest. Here he met his future biographer Julius Eduard Hitzig. He was a member of the Northern Stars literary society and was well versed in books. It was Hitzig who introduced Hoffmann to the works of Novalis, Ludwig Tieck, Achim von Arnim and other German writers who had a significant influence on his style.
Inspired by his acquaintances with people of art, the young man composed a two-act singspiel “The Merry Musicians” (1804) based on the songs of Clemens Brentano. On the cover, the composer used his pseudonym for the first time - Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, or E. T. A. Hoffmann. The German assigned the name Amadeus in memory of the maestro of organ music.
The young man's happiness did not last long - in November 1806, during the War of the Fourth Coalition, troops captured Warsaw, and Prussian bureaucrats lost their jobs. Hoffmann ended up in occupied Berlin. He was hungry, homesick for his family, and in these conditions one of his best musical works, “Song Six,” was born. Later, the authorship will be attributed to Johannes Kleisler, the main character of the novel “The Worldly Views of Cat Murr.”
Hoffmann's literary breakthrough occurred in 1809 with the publication of his debut short story "Cavalier Gluck." According to the plot, the man allegedly meets the deceased composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. This work is a tribute to Jean Paul’s term “doppelganger”, in the literature of the Romantic era meaning the “dark” personality of a person.
Since the release of Gluck's Cavalier, golden times have come in Hoffmann's work. In 1814, the story “The Golden Pot” was published, and the composition of the opera “Ondine” was completed. At the same time, the author began to write “The Elixir of Satan” (1815), which he called to himself “the elixir of life” - he hoped that the success of the novel would bring profit. Hopes turned into reality. The short stories collected in the collection “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” were received favorably by society.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), conceived as a fairy tale for a friend's children, has become a cult work. The proof is ballet, numerous film adaptations and animations.
The fairy tale tells the story of a toy man who only knows how to crack hard nuts. One day, the girl Marie, who was given the Nutcracker, watches a picture of the little man fighting against the Mouse King. It turns out that the Nutcracker is a young man enchanted by Queen Myshilda. To return to his former appearance, he needs to defeat the king and find his beautiful lady.
The Nutcracker story is suitable for children to read, unlike other horror-inducing works by Hoffmann. For example, the collection “Night Studies” contains evil mystical beliefs: “Sandman”, “Majorate”, “Jesuit Church in Germany”.
In 1819, the ugly and cynical “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober,” was “born.” After the good fairy's spell, those around him stop noticing the external imperfection of the dwarf Tsakhes. On the contrary, his evil ideas seem brilliant, his greasy jokes the height of wit. Student Balthazar and other creative people see Tsakhes as before.
Balthazar is in love with Candida, the daughter of a scientist. The freak, understanding the desires of the young man, charms the unsuspecting girl. To prevent a fatal mistake, Balthazar enters into a fight with Tsakhes.
In the same year, 1819, the first volume of “The Everyday Views of Cat Murr” was published. The story is told from the perspective of an animal that lives at the court of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler. Periodically, passages are woven into the story that have nothing to do with the content. It turns out that the cat, in a fit of creative torment, tore out pages from the biographies of its owner, a brilliant composer.
The images of the main characters are autobiographical: Kreisler is Hoffmann himself, and Murr is the kitten of the writer to whom the novel is dedicated. The animal died of illness at the end of the second volume. The book concludes:
“The intelligent, highly enlightened, philosophical and poetic cat Murr, in the midst of his brilliant career in life, was overtaken by an inexorable death.”
The second volume was published in 1821.
Personal life
In 1794, Hoffmann began an affair with Dora Hutt, a married woman to whom he gave music lessons. She was 10 years older and had 6 children. In February 1796, Ernst's family opposed their son's love interest and allegedly sent Ernst to Glogow with good intentions.
Around 1801, the man married Marianna Tekla Mihalina Rorer, nicknamed Misha. Four years later, their secluded personal life was disrupted by the birth of their daughter Cecilia. Her life was short - the child died at the age of 2 years.
In 1810, being a married man, he fell in love with a young student, Julia Mark. Hoffmann's feelings were so obvious that the parents hastened to marry off their daughter, and the writer almost took his own life out of grief. The short story “Don Juan” (1813) is dedicated to the failed novel.
Death
In 1819, the health of 43-year-old Hoffmann was undermined. Life's difficulties turned a talented man into a drunkard; syphilis caused weakening of the limbs, and from the beginning of 1822, paralysis down to the neck. Despite this, Ernst continued to create: he dictated his final works to his wife or secretary.
Simultaneously with his approaching death, Hoffmann fought against judicial injustice. In the novel “The Lord of the Fleas” (1822), the writer had the imprudence to recreate a caricature of Commissar Kampets.
When he was made chairman of the commission of political dissent established by the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, he decided to take revenge on Hoffmann, that is, to arrest him. The king ordered the author to be reprimanded and The Lord of the Fleas to be censored.
Ernst Hoffmann died of syphilis on June 25, 1822 at the age of 46. The grave is located in the Jerusalem Cemetery in Berlin. The tombstone shows the writer’s name at birth and his regalia:
"Counselor of the court, excellent in his eloquence, poet, musician, artist, devoted to his friends."
Quotes
Judging by what I know and read about love, it is, strictly speaking, a kind of mental illness, which in the human race is expressed in special attacks of madness; they take some creature for something completely different from what it really is; for example, they consider an ordinary short fat woman darning stockings to be a goddess.
Wise fathers sometimes give birth to stupid sons.
It often happens in life that this or that person seems especially honest and virtuous to others just at the time when he is starting some kind of fraudulent trick.
Is there a more pleasant state than being content with yourself?
Bibliography
- 1814 – “Fantasies in the manner of Callot”
- 1815 – “Elixir of Satan”
- 1816 – “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”
- 1817 – “Night Studies”
- 1819 – “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober”
- 1819-1821 – “Serapion’s brothers”
- 1819-1821 – “The worldly views of Kota Murr, coupled with fragments of the biography of bandmaster Johannes Kreisler, which accidentally survived in waste paper sheets”
- 1922 – “Lord of the Fleas”
Musical works
- 1804 – “The Merry Musicians” (Singspiel)
- 1808 – “Harlequin” (ballet)
- 1809 – “Dirna” (melodrama)
- 1812 – “Aurora” (opera)
- 1816 – “Ondine” (opera)
The works of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822)
One of the brightest representatives of late German romanticism - THIS. Hoffman, who was a unique personality. He combined the talents of a composer, conductor, director, painter, writer and critic. A.I. described the biography of Hoffman in a rather original way. Herzen in his early article “Hoffmann”: “Every single day a man appeared late in the evening in a wine cellar in Berlin; I drank one bottle after another and sat until dawn. But don't imagine an ordinary drunkard; No! The more he drank, the higher his fantasy soared, the brighter, the more fiery the humor poured out on everything around him, the more abundantly his witticisms flared up.”About Hoffmann’s work itself, Herzen wrote the following: “Some stories breathe something dark, deep, mysterious; others are pranks of unbridled imagination, written in the fumes of bacchanalia.<…>Idiosyncrasy, convulsively entwining a person’s entire life around some thought, madness, overthrowing the poles of mental life; magnetism, a magical force that powerfully subordinates one person to the will of another, opens up a huge field of Hoffmann’s fiery imagination.”
The basic principle of Hoffmann's poetics is the combination of the real and the fantastic, the ordinary with the unusual, showing the ordinary through the unusual. In “Little Tsakhes,” as in “The Golden Pot,” treating the material ironically, Hoffmann places the fantastic in a paradoxical relationship with the most everyday phenomena. Reality, everyday life becomes interesting for him with the help of romantic means. Hoffmann was perhaps the first among the romantics to introduce the modern city into the sphere of artistic reflection of life. His high opposition of romantic spirituality to the surrounding existence occurs against the background and on the basis of real German life, which in the art of this romantic turns into a fantastically evil force. Spirituality and materiality come into conflict here. With enormous force, Hoffmann showed the deadening power of things.
The acuteness of the feeling of contradiction between ideal and reality was realized in Hoffmann's famous dual worlds. The dull and vulgar prose of everyday life was contrasted with the sphere of high feelings, the ability to hear the music of the universe. Typologically, all of Hoffmann's heroes are divided into musicians and non-musicians. Musicians are spiritual enthusiasts, romantic dreamers, people endowed with internal fragmentation. Non-musicians are people at peace with life and with themselves. The musician is forced to live not only in the realm of the golden dreams of a poetic dream, but also constantly face non-poetic reality. This gives rise to irony, which is aimed not only at the real world, but also at the world of poetic dreams. Irony becomes a way to resolve the contradictions of modern life. The sublime is reduced to the ordinary, the ordinary rises to the sublime - this is seen as the duality of romantic irony. For Hoffmann, the idea of a romantic synthesis of arts, which is achieved through the interpenetration of literature, music and painting, was important. Hoffmann's characters constantly listen to the music of his favorite composers: Christoph Gluck, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and turn to the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Jacques Callot. Being both a poet and a painter, Hoffmann created a musical, pictorial and poetic style.
The synthesis of arts determined the originality of the internal structure of the text. The composition of prose texts resembles a sonata-symphonic form, which consists of four parts. The first part outlines the main themes of the work. In the second and third parts there is a contrast between them, in the fourth part they merge, forming a synthesis.
There are two types of fiction presented in Hoffmann's work. On the one hand, joyful, poetic, fairy-tale fantasy, going back to folklore (“The Golden Pot”, “The Nutcracker”). On the other hand, dark, gothic fantasy of nightmares and horrors associated with human mental deviations (“Sandman”, “Elixirs of Satan”). The main theme of Hoffmann's work is the relationship between art (artists) and life (philistines).
We find examples of such a division of heroes in the novel “Everyday views of the cat Murr”, in short stories from the collection “Fantasies in the manner of Callot”: "Cavalier Gluck", "Don Juan", "Pot of Gold".
Novella "Cavalier Gluck"(1809) - Hoffmann's first published work. The novella has the subtitle: “Memories of 1809.” The dual poetics of titles is characteristic of almost all of Hoffmann's works. It also determined other features of the writer’s artistic system: the two-dimensional nature of the narrative, the deep interpenetration of the real and the fantastic. Gluck died in 1787, the events of the novella date back to 1809, and the composer in the novella acts as a living person. The meeting of the deceased musician and the hero can be interpreted in several contexts: either it is a mental conversation between the hero and Gluck, or a play of imagination, or the fact of the hero’s intoxication, or a fantastic reality.
At the center of the short story is the contrast between art and real life, the society of art consumers. Hoffmann seeks to express the tragedy of the misunderstood artist. “I gave away the sacred to the uninitiated...” says Cavalier Gluck. His appearance on Unter den Linden, where ordinary people drink carrot coffee and talk about shoes, is blatantly absurd, and therefore phantasmagorical. Gluck in the context of the story becomes the highest type of artist, who continues to create and improve his works even after death. His image embodied the idea of the immortality of art. Music is interpreted by Hoffmann as a secret sound recording, an expression of the inexpressible.
The short story presents a double chronotope: on the one hand, there is a real chronotope (1809, Berlin), and on the other hand, this chronotope is superimposed on another, fantastic one, which expands thanks to the composer and music, which opens all spatial and temporal restrictions.
In this short story, the idea of a romantic synthesis of different artistic styles is revealed for the first time. It is present due to the mutual transitions of musical images into literary and literary into musical ones. The entire novel is filled with musical images and fragments. “Cavalier Gluck” is a musical short story, an artistic essay about Gluck’s music and about the composer himself.
Another type of musical novel - "Don Juan"(1813). The central theme of the novel is the staging of Mozart's opera on the stage of one of the German theaters, as well as its interpretation in a romantic way. The novella has a subtitle: “An Unprecedented Incident That Happened to a Certain Traveling Enthusiast.” This subtitle reveals the uniqueness of the conflict and the type of hero. The conflict is based on the collision of art and everyday life, the confrontation between the true artist and the average person. The main character is a traveler, a wanderer, on whose behalf the story is told. In the perception of the hero, Donna Anna is the embodiment of the spirit of music, musical harmony. Through music, a higher world opens up to her, she comprehends the transcendental reality: “She admitted that for her all life is in music, and sometimes it seems to her that she comprehends something forbidden, which is locked in the recesses of the soul and cannot be expressed in words, when she sings " For the first time, the emerging motive of life and play, or the motive of life creativity, is comprehended in a philosophical context. However, the attempt to achieve the highest ideal ends tragically: the death of the heroine on stage turns into the death of the actress in real life.
Hoffmann creates his literary myth about Don Juan. He refuses the traditional interpretation of the image of Don Juan as a tempter. He is the embodiment of the spirit of love, Eros. It is love that becomes a form of communion with the higher world, with the divine fundamental principle of existence. In love, Don Juan tries to manifest his divine essence: “Perhaps nothing here on earth elevates a person so much in his innermost essence as love. Yes, love is that powerful mysterious force that shakes and transforms the deepest foundations of existence; What a marvel if Don Juan, in love, sought to satisfy that passionate melancholy that oppressed his chest.” The tragedy of the hero is seen in his duality: he combines the divine and satanic, creative and destructive principles. At some point, the hero forgets about his divine nature and begins to mock nature and the creator. Donna Anna was supposed to save him from the search for evil, since she becomes an angel of salvation, but Don Juan rejects repentance and becomes the prey of hellish forces: “Well, what if heaven itself chose Anna, so that it was in love, the machinations of the devil that destroyed him, to reveal to him the divine essence of his nature and save him from the hopelessness of empty aspirations? But he met her too late, when his wickedness had reached its peak, and only the demonic temptation to destroy her could awaken in him.”
Novella "Pot of Gold"(1814), like those discussed above, has the subtitle: “A Tale from Modern Times.” The fairy tale genre reflects the artist’s dual worldview. The basis of the tale is the everyday life of Germany at the end XVIII– started XIXcentury. Fantasy is layered onto this background, and due to this, a fairy-tale-everyday worldview of the short story is created, in which everything is plausible and at the same time unusual.
The main character of the tale is student Anselm. Everyday awkwardness is combined in him with deep dreaminess and poetic imagination, and this, in turn, is complemented by thoughts about the rank of court councilor and a good salary. The plot center of the novella is associated with the opposition of two worlds: the world of ordinary philistines and the world of romantic enthusiasts. In accordance with the type of conflict, all characters form symmetrical pairs: Student Anselm, archivist Lindgorst, snake Serpentine - hero-musicians; their counterparts from the everyday world: registrar Geerbrand, rector Paulman, Veronica. The theme of duality plays an important role, since it is genetically connected with the concept of duality, the bifurcation of an internally united world. In his works, Hoffmann tried to present a person in two opposing images of spiritual and earthly life and to depict an existential and everyday person. In the emergence of doubles, the author sees the tragedy of human existence, because with the appearance of a double, the hero loses his integrity and falls apart into many separate human destinies. There is no unity in Anselm; he simultaneously lives with love for Veronica and for the embodiment of the highest spiritual principle - Serpentine. As a result, the spiritual principle wins, with the power of his love for Serpentina the hero overcomes the fragmentation of the soul and becomes a true musician. As a reward, he receives a golden pot and settles in Atlantis, the world of endless topos. This is a fabulously poetic world ruled by an archivist. The world of the final topos is connected with Dresden, where dark forces rule.
The image of a golden pot in the title of the short story takes on a symbolic meaning. This is a symbol of the hero’s romantic dream, and at the same time a rather prosaic thing necessary in everyday life. From here arises the relativity of all values, which helps, together with the author’s irony, to overcome the romantic dual world.
Novels of 1819-1821: “Little Tsakhes”, “Mademoiselle de Scudery”, “Corner Window”.
Based on a fairy tale novella "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober" (1819) lies a folklore motif: the plot of the appropriation of a hero’s feat by others, the appropriation of one person’s success by another. The novella is distinguished by complex socio-philosophical issues. The main conflict reflects the contradiction between the mysterious nature and the laws of society hostile to it. Goffman contrasts personal and mass consciousness, pitting individual and mass man against each other.
Tsakhes is a lower, primitive creature, embodying the dark forces of nature, the elemental, unconscious principle that is present in nature. He does not seek to overcome the contradiction between how others perceive him and who he really is: “It was reckless to think that the external beautiful gift with which I endowed you, like a ray, would penetrate your soul and awaken a voice that would tell you : “You are not the one for whom you are revered, but strive to become equal to the one on whose wings you, weak, wingless, fly upward.” But the inner voice did not awaken. Your inert, lifeless spirit could not perk up; you did not keep up with stupidity, rudeness, and obscenity.” The death of a hero is perceived as something equivalent to his essence and his whole life. With the image of Tsakhes, the problem of alienation enters into the short story; the hero alienates all the best from other people: external characteristics, creative abilities, love. So the theme of alienation turns into a situation of duality, the hero’s loss of inner freedom.
The only hero who is not subject to the fairy's magic is Balthazar, a poet in love with Candida. He is the only hero who is endowed with personal, individual consciousness. Balthazar becomes a symbol of the inner, spiritual vision, which everyone around him is deprived of. As a reward for exposing Tsakhes, he receives a bride and a wonderful estate. However, the hero’s well-being is shown at the end of the work in an ironic way.
Novella "Mademoiselle de Scudery"(1820) is one of the earliest examples of a detective story. The plot is based on a dialogue between two personalities: Mademoiselle de Scudery, a French writerXVIIcentury - and Rene Cardillac - the best jewelry maker in Paris. One of the main problems is the problem of the fate of the creator and his creations. According to Hoffmann, the creator and his art are inseparable from each other, the creator continues in his work, the artist in his text. Alienation of works of art from the artist is tantamount to his physical and moral death. A thing created by a master cannot be an object of purchase or sale; the living soul dies in the product. Cardillac, through the murder of clients, regains his creations.
Another important theme of the novel is the theme of duality. Everything in the world is dual, and Cardillac leads a double life. His double life reflects the day and night sides of his soul. This duality is already present in the portrait description. The fate of man also turns out to be dual. Art, on the one hand, is an ideal model of the world; it embodies the spiritual essence of life and man. On the other hand, in the modern world art becomes a commodity and thereby it loses its uniqueness, its spiritual meaning. Paris itself, in which the action takes place, also turns out to be dual. Paris appears in day and night images. The day and night chronotope become a model of the modern world, the fate of the artist and art in this world. Thus, the motif of duality includes the following issues: the very essence of the world, the fate of the artist and art.
Hoffmann's last novella - "Corner window"(1822) - becomes the writer’s aesthetic manifesto. The artistic principle of the short story is the principle of the corner window, that is, the depiction of life in its real manifestations. The life of the market for the hero is a source of inspiration and creativity, it is a way of immersion in life. Hoffmann was the first to poetize the physical world. The principle of the corner window includes the position of an artist-observer who does not interfere with life, but only generalizes it. It imparts to life the features of aesthetic completeness and internal integrity. The short story becomes a kind of model of a creative act, the essence of which is to record the artist’s life impressions and refuse to evaluate them unambiguously.
Hoffmann's general evolution can be represented as a movement from the depiction of an unusual world to the poeticization of everyday life. The type of hero also undergoes changes. The hero-enthusiast is replaced by the hero-observer; the subjective style of image is replaced by an objective artistic image. Objectivity presupposes that the artist follows the logic of real facts.
Brief biography of Hoffmann outlined in this article.
Hoffmann biography briefly
Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus- German writer and composer.
Was born January 24, 1776 in Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad). The son of an official. The parents separated when the boy was three years old; he was raised by his uncle, a lawyer by profession.
In 1800, Hoffmann completed a course in law at the University of Königsberg and connected his life with public service. Until 1807, he worked in various ranks, studying music and drawing in his free time. After university, he received a position as an assessor in Poznań, where he was warmly received in society. In Poznan, the young man became so addicted to carousing that he was transferred to Polotsk with a demotion. There Hoffmann married a Polish woman from a respectable bourgeois family and settled down.
For several years the family was poor; Hoffmann periodically worked as a conductor, composer and decorator in theaters in Berlin, Bamberg, Leipzig and Dresden, and wrote articles about music for magazines.
After 1813, his affairs went better after receiving a small inheritance. The position of conductor in Dresden briefly satisfied his professional ambitions.
He was one of the founders of romantic aesthetics, representing music as an “unknown kingdom” that reveals to man the meaning of his feelings and passions.
He wrote the romantic opera “Ondine” (1813), symphonies, choirs, chamber works, etc.
During the Battle of Waterloo, the Hoffmanns ended up in Dresden, where they experienced all the hardships and horrors of the war. It was then that Hoffmann prepared for publication the collection “Fantasies in the Spirit of Callot” (in four volumes, 1815), which included the short stories “Cavalier G’luk”, “The Musical Suffering of Johann Kreisler, Kapellmeister”, “Don Juan”.
In 1816, Hoffmann received a position as a legal adviser in Berlin, which provided a solid income and allowed him to devote time to art. In his literary work he showed himself as a classic romantic.
In the short stories, the stories “The Golden Pot” (1814), “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” (1819), the novel “The Devil’s Elixir” (1816), the world is presented as if visible in two planes: real and fantastic, and the fantastic constantly invades the real (fairies drink coffee, witches sell pies, etc.).
The writer was attracted to the realm of the mysterious, the transcendental: delirium, hallucinations, unaccountable fear - his favorite motives.
