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E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman"

The purpose of this research is to examine E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman" with reference to elements that demonstrate the literary tradition of German Romanticism. The fantasy tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann have been cited as precursors of modern science fiction and fantasy tales. Nicholls cites "The Sandman" as "an important forerunner of robot and android stories" (Nicholls 289). But when Nicholls says that Hoffmann's stories "express a grotesque Romanticism more effectively than those of any other writer of his time [early nineteenth century]," he hints that elements of metaphysical reality and psychopathology in the stories seem far more compelling attributes for investigation and positioning of the significance of the story. "The Sandman" manifests a Gothic environment in such episodes as Nathanael's first glimpse of Coppelius and Nathanael's attempted murder of Klara. But the heart of Gothic horror in "The Sandman" is derived from the filter of Nathanael's perceptions, wherein pathological fantasy achieves the status of reality until it is exposed as pathology. This is a persistent feature of German Romanticism and the darker side of German idealism. Hofrichter sees Hoffmann's preoccupation with fantasy as outside the development of the realistic mainstream of European literary tradition that has significance chiefly as an exemplar of the darker, destructive side of philosophical, intellectual, and literary tradition (Hofrichter, 407, et passim)

Lange says that in Hoffmann's stories, "the pragmatic and the ideal remain . . . radically separate. They are not harmonized in optimistic or utopian schemes; their inexorable confrontation, to the point of improbable exaggeration, is the pervasive tenor of his writing" (Lange xiv). In "The Sandman," the reader is initially drawn into Nathaniel's fantasy and understands his self-assessment as the musings of an intellectual but imaginative personality. This is consistent with--and ...

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E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman". (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:02, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1693188.html