Romantic Inscriptions of the Female Body in German Night and Fantasy Pieces

Abstract

Romantic Inscriptions of the Female Body in German Night and Fantasy Pieces'' explores the grotesque and arabesque as a means of comprehending a unique constellation of female figures around 1800. An investigation of texts written by Ludwig Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Clemens Brentano, and Achim von Arnim reveals that female figures, whose bodies are constructed as grotesque or arabesque, include three predominant types: the Romantic hag, the fatal woman, and the arabesque fragile woman. These three fictional female figures omit the historical reality of women's lives.Some of the most intriguing literary figures exist in the German night and fantasy pieces published around 1800. Feminist critics suggest that the witch and maiden appear as a paradigm in these Romantic tales. 1 Literary critics, influenced by Wolfgang Kayser's The Grotesque in Art and Literature, have noted their grotesque elements. 2 It is difficult to understand the popularity of these figures without realizing the importance of the grotesque and arabesque as a creative principle, as a literary style that left inscriptions on the fictional female body that coincide with three literary types: the hag, the fatal woman, and the fragile woman. The following four sections investigate grotesque and arabesque female figures in a representative sample of texts: Ludwig Tieck's Der Runenberg (1804), E.