Premium
ALLA TURCA VERSUS THE ROMANTIC EAST: E.T.A. HOFFMANN AND ORIENTAL‐STYLE MUSIC *
Author(s) -
Neilly Joanna
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/glal.12036
Subject(s) - orientalism , romance , orient , assertion , german , romanticism , art , literature , style (visual arts) , aesthetics , philosophy , history , far east , computer science , linguistics , archaeology , programming language
In the field of German Romantic Orientalism, E.T.A. Hoffmann represents a unique voice. He not only employs oriental imagery in his fiction, but also comments on the cultural production of the Orient within the German states. Following Friedrich Schlegel's assertion that the truly Romantic was to be sought in the East, Hoffmann questions the ways in which the Orient was constructed in German art, assessing its Romantic credentials. One example of this is found in his response to popular alla turca music. As the presentation of the Orient by composers such as Mozart and Gluck influenced literary depictions of the East, Hoffmann examines the means by which such music was produced and shows that attempts to mimic the Orient can be anti‐Romantic. His music reviews and his stories Ritter Gluck (1809) and Das Sanctus (1816) reveal an ambiguous response to alla turca music on the grounds that it did not always satisfy Romantic aesthetics. Looking East is therefore not always a Romantic undertaking. Hoffmann's critical reponse to alla turca is part of an aesthetic guide for modern artists wishing to profit from the Romantic potential of the Orient, and provides a new angle from which to consider Romantic Orientalism.