In:
The German Quarterly, Wiley, Vol. 96, No. 1 ( 2023-03), p. 6-21
Abstract:
E. T. A. Hoffmann's Haimatochare , an epistolary fiction set in Hawaii, defamiliarizes the narrative of an erotic colonial fantasy by coaxing the reader into the assumption that its alluring central figure is an Indigenous woman and then revealing her to be an insect. This article studies the dynamics of misapprehension within the text, beginning with Walter Benjamin's misreading of its title as “Heimatochare,” a mistake that has proved strangely persistent in the critical literature. By reading Haimatochare alongside Der Sandmann , the article shows how Haimatochare introduces a web of “Heimat”‐related terms that both solicit the misreading and indicate the insect's identity such that the central revelation is already partially intuited and thus takes on an uncanny aspect. Furthermore, in making “Heimat” present across the narrative and then destabilizing it, the text unfolds an experience of “Heimweh,” where home is both fantasy and sickness at once.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0016-8831
,
1756-1183
Language:
English
Publisher:
Wiley
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2066373-0
detail.hit.zdb_id:
207506-4
SSG:
7,20
