Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:21:18.495Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Wunderblume and Her Friends: How Bettina Brentano-von Arnim Develops Individuality Through Dialogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2022

Anne Pollok Open the ORCID record for Anne Pollok [Opens in a new window]
Anne Pollok*
Affiliation:
Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany apollok@uni-mainz.de
Get access

Abstract

Bettina Brentano-von Arnim (1785–1859) is one of the most fascinating writers of German Romanticism. After a late, but spectacular start to her career as an author with the biographically inspired Goethe's Correspondence with a Child (1835) that boldly claims the legacy of Germany's most admired poet, Bettina continues to explore the realm of biography, but also widens her perspective to the pressing social questions of her time. Her message is entertaining, yet clear: we need a new way of thinking that engages the whole human being who understands and accepts her rational as well as sensible side, who is situated in a society and engages in dialogue with others. Accordingly, her work is an apt example of the practice of symphilosophy in late German Romanticism. This paper will concentrate on the notion of self-formation through dialogue in her letter books, and the political-aesthetic idea of a ‘king for the people’ that guided Brentano-von Arnim's political engagement in the 1840s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hegel Bulletin , Volume 43 , Special Issue 3: Women Philosophers in Hegel's Time , December 2022 , pp. 418 - 437
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Hegel Society of Great Britain

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnim, B. von (1959), Gespräche mit Dämonen, in B. von Arnim, Werke und Briefe, vol. 1, ed. Konrad, G.. Frechen: Bartmann.Google Scholar
Arnim, B. von (1986–2004), Werke und Briefe, ed. Schmitz, W. and von Steinsdorff, S., 4 vols. Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.Google Scholar
Bäumer, K. (1986), Bettine, Psyche, Mignon. Bettina von Arnim und Goethe. Stuttgart: Akademischer Verlag.Google Scholar
Bäumer, K. (1992), ‘Interdependenzen zwischen mündlicher und schriftlicher Expressivität’, in Schmitz, W. and von Steinsdorff, S. (eds.), ‘Der Geist muss Freiheit genießen!’ Studien zu Werk und Bildungsprogramm Bettine von Arnims. Berlin: Albin.Google Scholar
Bäumer, K. and Schultz, H. (1995), Bettina von Arnim. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker-Cantarino, B. (2019a), ‘Bettina von Arnim in ihrer Zeit: Clemens und die Geschwister’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110260939CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker-Cantarino, B. (2019b), ‘Literatur und Kulturpolitik: Friedrich Schleiermacher’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker-Cantarino, B. (2019c), ‘Literatur und Kulturpolitik: Briefkultur, Briefwechsel, Briefbücher’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker-Cantarino, B. (2019d), ‘Literatur und Kulturpolitik: Gespräch, Geselligkeit, Salon’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker-Cantarino, B. (2019e), ‘Das literarische Werk: Clemens Brentano's Frühlingskranz (1844)’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunzel, W. (2004), ‘Von Herz zu Herz? Zum textologischen Status und sozialhistorischen Kontext der Familienbriefe Bettine von Arnims’, in Landfester, U. and Schultz, H. (eds.), Dies Buch gehört den Kindern. Achim und Bettine von Arnim und ihre Nachfahren. Berlin: Albin.Google Scholar
Bunzel, W. (2019), ‘Das literarische Werk: Die Briefwechsel’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Daley, M. (1998), Women of Letters. A Study of Self and Genre in the Personal Writings of Caroline Schlegel-Schelling, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, and Bettina von Arnim. Rochester: Camden House.Google Scholar
Drewitz, I. (1984), Bettine von Arnim: Romantik, Revolution, Utopie. Berlin: Bertelsmann.Google Scholar
Frederiksen, E. and Goodman, K. (1995), ‘“Locating” Bettina Brentano-von Arnim, a Nineteenth Century German Woman Writer’, in Frederiksen, E. and Goodman, K. (eds.), Bettina Brentano-von Arnim: Gender and Politics. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
French, L. (1995), ‘Strategies of Female Persuasion: The Political Letters of Bettina Brentano-von Arnim’, in Frederiksen, E. and Goodman, K. (eds.), Bettina Brentano-von Arnim: Gender and Politics. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Fuchs, R. (2016), ‘“I drink love to get strong”: Bettina Brentano-von Arnim's Romantic Philosophy and Dialogue in Die Günderode‘, in Women in German Yearbook 32: 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gjesdal, K. and Nassar, D. (2021), ‘Introduction’ and ‘Introduction to Bettina von Arnim’, in Gjesdal, K. and Nassar, D. (eds.), Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century: The German Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, K. (1986), Dis/Closures: Women's Autobiography in Germany between 1790 and 1914. New York: Lang.Google Scholar
Goodman, K. (1995), ‘Through a Different Lens: Bettina Brentano-von Arnim's Views on Gender’, in Frederiksen, E. and Goodman, K. (eds.), Bettina Brentano-von Arnim: Gender and Politics. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Hilmes, C. (2019), ‘Das literarische Werk: Die Günderode (1840)’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Holm, C. (2006), Amor und Psyche: die Erfindung eines Mythos in Kunst, Wissenschaft und Alltagskultur (1765–1840). Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag.Google Scholar
Landfester, U. (2000), Selbstsorge als Staatskunst. Bettine von Arnims politisches Werk. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann.Google Scholar
Lauer, G. (1997), ‘Der rothe Sattel der Armuth: Talmudische Gelehrsamkeit oder die Grenzen der poetischen Technik bei Bettine von Arnim’, in Wolfgang Bunzel et al. (eds.), Schnittpunkt Romantik. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Lewald, F. (1849), ‘Der Cultus des Genius. Ein Brief an Bettina von Arnim’, in Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung Nos. 171–74, 18–21 July 1849: 681–83, 685–87, 689–90, 694–95.Google Scholar
Liebertz-Grün, U. (1989), Ordnung im Chaos. Studien zur Poetik der Bettine Brentano-von Arnim. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Loster-Schneider, G. (2019), ‘Das literarische Werk: Gespräche mit Dämonen (1852)’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Maisak, P. (2019), ‘Das bildkünstlerische und musikalische Werk: Bettina von Arnim als bildende Künstlerin’, in Becker-Cantarino, B. (ed.), Bettina von Arnim Handbuch. New York: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Ockenfuß, S. (1992), Bettine von Arnims Briefromane: Literarische Erinnerungsarbeit zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollok, A. (2021), ‘On Self-Formation: The Role of Writing and Sociability for the Philosophy of Henriette Herz, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, and Bettina von Arnim’, in Dyck, C. (ed.), Women and Philosophy in 18th Century Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schormann, S. (1993), Bettine von Arnim. Die Bedeutung Friedrich Schleiermachers für ihr Leben und Werk. Tübingen: Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafi, M. (1995), ‘The Myth of Psyche as Developmental Paradigm in Bettine Brentano-von Arnim's Epistolary Novels’, in Frederiksen, E. and Goodman, K. (eds.), Bettina Brentano-von Arnim: Gender and Politics. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Stone, A. (2021), ‘Bettina von Arnim's Romantic Philosophy in Die Günderode‘, Hegel Bulletin. Online: Doi:10.1017/hgl.2021.19.Google Scholar
Varnhagen, K.A. (1865), Briefe, ed. Ludmilla Assing, vol. 1, Leipzig: Brockhaus.Google Scholar
Waldstein, E. (1988), Bettine von Arnim and the Politics of Romantic Conversation. Columbia: Camden House.Google Scholar