Heine

Summary

Dominique Pagani presents Heine as "the most French of the German poets" and as Nerval's Parisian friend, whom he treats as his counterpart1. What he mainly retains is his corrosive humour. He describes him as the only German Romantic capable of such humour, which mocks those who take Romanticism at face value and marks the end of a cycle, that of German Romanticism23. Most often he calls this irony and contrasts Heine with Hölderlin on this point. On one occasion, however, he specifies that it is self-mockery rather than irony4. He often returns to "Die Lorelei", which every German schoolchild knows, and remarks that it took a Jew to sing the most Germanic essence5. He also recalls that Heine attended Hegel's lectures. He mentions "On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany" (De l'Allemagne depuis Luther), in which Heine sets the stages of the Revolution alongside the German philosophical systems, a parallel D'Hondt considered adventurous. He further stresses the esteem Marx had for him, and the poem of the grenadiers, which he reads as a provocation under the Restoration.

1. 1#2.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Mar 2016 · 10:19
2. 2#16 Return to the logics of the subject30 Jul 2020 · 1:12:33
3. 3#9 Pictures at an Exhibition: art, seen from here or from the other side?10 Feb 2022 · 59:30
4. 4#9 Romantic irony and the Vinteuil sonata15 Jan 2021 · 36:11
5. 5#18 What is musical in music25 Mar 2021 · 42:47

Summary produced automatically from 20 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.