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Hölderlin (1770–1843) is the magnificent writer whom Nietzsche
called ‘my favourite poet’. His writings and poetry have been formative
throughout the twentieth century, and as influential as those of Hegel,
his friend. At the same time, his madness has made his poetry infinitely
complex as it engages with tragedy, anger and mourning, and with irrec-
oncilable breakdown, both political and personal.
This study gives a detailed approach to Hölderlin’s writings on Greek
tragedy, especially Sophocles, whom he translated into German, and
gives close attention to his poetry, which is never far from an engage-
ment with tragedy. Hölderlin’s writings, always fascinating, enable a
consideration of the various meanings of tragedy, and allow for a new
reading of Shakespeare, appearing here in studies of Julius Caesar,
Hamlet and Macbeth, as well as of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. Since
Hölderlin was such a decisive figure for Modernism, to say nothing of
modern Germany, he matters intensely to such differing theorists and
philosophers as Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Martin Heidegger,
Maurice Blanchot and Jacques Derrida, all of whose views are discussed
herein.
Drawing upon the insights of Hegelian philosophy and psycho-
analysis, Hölderlin and the Poetry of Tragedy gives the
English-speaking reader ready access to a magnificent body of poetry
and to the poet as a theorist of tragedy and of madness. Hölderlin’s
poetry is quoted freely, with translations and commentary provided.
This book is the first major account of Hölderlin in English to offer the
student and general reader a critical account of a vital body of work
which matters to any study of poetry and to all who are interested in
poetry’s relationships to madness. It is essential reading in the under-
standing of how tragedy pervades literature and politics, and how
tragedy has been regarded and written about, from Hegel to Walter
Benjamin.
Cover illustration: Reproduction of portrait of Hölderlin, pastel by Franz
Karl Hiemer (1792), courtesy of Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Marbach.
Jeremy Tambling is Professor of Literature at the University of
Manchester. His most recent books are On Reading the Will: Law and
Desire in Literature and Music (Sussex Academic Press 2012), and
Literature and Psychoanalysis (Manchester University Press 2013).
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tambling - 2 - index 10/12/2013 12:42 Page iii
HÖLDERLIN and the
POETRY of TRAGEDY
Readings in Sophocles, Shakespeare,
Nietzsche and Benjamin
J E R E M Y TA M B L I N G
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Copyright © Jeremy Tambling, 2014.
Published in the Sussex Academic e-Library, 2014.
SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS
PO Box 139
Eastbourne BN24 9BP, UK
and simultaneously in the United States of America and Canada
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tambling, Jeremy.
Hölderlin and the Poetry ofTragedy : Readings in Sophocles, Shakespeare,
Nietzsche and Benjamin / Jeremy Tambling.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84519-587-8 (h/b : acid-free paper)
ISBN 978-1-78284-130-2 (e-pub)
ISBN 978-1-78284-131-9 (e-mobi)
ISBN 978-1-78284-132-6 (e-pdf)
1. Hölderlin, Friedrich, 1770–1843—Criticism and interpretation.
2. Literature—Philosophy. I. Title.
PT2359.H2T36 2014
831’.6—dc23
2013031913
This e-book text has been prepared for electronic viewing. Some features, including
tables and figures, might not display as in the print version, due to
electronic conversion limitations and/or copyright strictures.
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Contents
Notes on Hölderlin’s texts, and other abbreviations vii
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Hölderlin’s Nachtgesänge 1
1 Voyaging Out: Going Astray 14
I BIOGRAPHY 18
II THE CAESURA 21
III ‘ANDENKEN’ 28
2 Tragedy and Trauerspiel: Madness and Mourning 35
I TRAGEDY AND MADNESS 37
II ‘MNEMOSYNE’ AND THE BACCHAE 43
III ‘MNEMOSYNE’ AND AJAX 51
3 Hölderlin and Greece 58
I HYPERION 58
II HÖLDERLIN ON TRAGEDY 68
III EMPEDOCLES: THIRD VERSION 76
4 Elegies, Odes, Hymns and Aphorisms 84
I ‘BROD UND WEIN’ 84
II ‘DICHTERBERUF’ 90
III ‘WIE WENN AM FEIERTAGE’ 92
IV ‘PATMOS’ 97
V ‘DER RHEIN’ AND ‘IN LIEBLICHER BLÄUE’ 102
VI ‘WENN ABER DIE HIMMLISCHEN’ 109
5 Tuchéand Automaton: Hölderlin and Oedipus 115
I HÖLDERLIN ON OEDIPUS 118
II CHANCE ENCOUNTERS 126
v
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Contents
6 Antigone 141
I POST-HEGELIAN READINGS 144
II HEIDEGGER AND TRANSLATION 151
III LACAN: ANTIGONE 160
IV HÖLDERLIN’S ANTIGONE 165
V APPENDIX: OEDIPUS AT COLONUS 175
7 Nietzsche, Tragedy, Shakespeare 182
I THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY 183
II ‘DIE TITANEN’ AND ‘DER EINZIGE’ 192
III ON THE GENIUS 198
8 The Origin of German Tragic Drama 219
Conclusion: ‘Friedensfeier’ 241
Notes 248
Bibliography 281
Index of Holderlin’s Works 302
Index of Names and Subjects 304
vi
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Notes on Editions of
Hölderlin
I quote the German of the Stuttgart edition ed. Friedrich Beissner and
Adolf Beck (see below); Beissner’s text is contested by D.E. Sattler’s
Frankfurt edition, unquestionably the edition for advanced textual work
on Hölderlin:
Friedrich Beissner, ed. Hölderlin: Sämtliche Werke (Stuttgart: Kohl-
hammer 1943–1985). (Bplus volume, page and line number).
Friedrich Hölderlin: Sämtliche Werke, Frankfurter Ausgabe, ed. D.E. Sattler,
20 vols, Frankfurt: Roter Stern 1975–2008. (FA plus volume and
page reference)
Sattler’s major difference from Beissner is the concept behind it: that
there is no final text, nor discrete poems, but only stages of working
towards poems. Beissner tends to prefer earlier versions of texts, Sattler
later, giving later dates, extending into Hölderlin’s madness. Beissner
gives the sense that we have complete poems, which can be treated in
isolation, in new-critical mode; the reader must be aware that much in
what editors present as a unified, complete poem is conjectural in order,
and completeness; what seem discrete poems might all be read as frag-
ments of one incomplete poem. Something of the debate can be seen
from articles referenced in the Bibliography: Rainer Nägele (1976),
Emery George (1978), Charlie Louth (2003).
I have made my own translations of Hölderlin’s poetry, sometimes
adding square brackets to catch ambiguities. For the Anglophone reader
wanting to start with Hölderlin, my advice is to use Hamburger, though
he provides few notes or annotations, unlike Sieburth, who translates,
however, only the late hymns. Hoff translates earlier poetry in some-
thing of Sieburth’s spirit. Emery George is very complete, but there is
room for a good dual-language version with comprehensive comments:
ideally, good prose translations,with the German also given.
vii
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Notes on Editions of Hölderlin
The list below combines all the poetry and prose editions I have
consulted, and recommend:
Poems and Fragments, trans. Michael Hamburger (London: Anvil Press
2004) (appears as PFin the text plus page reference).
Selected Poems and Fragments, trans. Michael Hamburger, ed. Jeremy
Adler (London: Penguin 2007).
Hymns and Fragments, trans. Richard Sieburth (Princeton: Princeton
University Press 1984) (Splus page number).
Christopher Middleton, trans. Friedrich Hölderlin and Eduard Mörike:
Selected Poems (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1972) (M plus
page number).
Selected Poems, trans. David Constantine (Newcastle: Bloodaxe 1996)
(Cplus page number).
What I Own: Versions of Hölderlin and Mandelshtam, trans. John Riley and
Tim Longville (Manchester: Carcanet 1998).
Odes and Elegies, trans. Nick Hoff (Middletown: Wesleyan University
Press 2008).
Friedrich Hölderlin: Selected Poems, bilingual edition with introduction
and notes ed. and trans. Emery George (Princeton: Kylix Press 2012).
(Gplus page-reference).
Hölderlin’s Sophocles, trans. David Constantine (Newcastle: Bloodaxe
2001) (CSplus page number).
With Hölderlin’s prose I have followed translations listed below, indi-
cating where I have given my own:
Thomas Pfau (ed.), Essays and Letters on Theory(New York: SUNY 1988)
(Pplus page number).
Jeremy Adler and Charlie Louth, Essays and Letters (London: Penguin
2009) (Aplus page number).
The Death of Empedocles: A Mourning Play,trans. David Krell (New York:
SUNY 2008).
Hyperion, trans. Willard Trask (New York: Signet 1965).
Hyperion, trans. Ross Benjamin (New York: Archipelago Books 2008)
(Hplus page number).
OTHER FREQUENTLY USED ABBREVIATIONS
Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, 14 vols, ed. Rolf Tiedemann and
Hermann Schweppenhäuser (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag 1974) (GS
plus volume, part, and page-number).
viii
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Notes on Editions of Hölderlin
The Origin of German Tragic Drama, trans. John Osborne (London: Verso
1977) (Oplus page-number).
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 1: 1913–1926, ed. Marcus
Bullock and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press 1996) (SW1).
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 2: 1927–1934, ed. Marcus
Bullock, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press 1999) (SW2).
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 3: 1935–1938, ed. Howard
Eiland and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press 2002) (SW3).
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 4: 1938–1940, ed. Howard
Eiland and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press 2003) (SW4).
The Arcades Project, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1999) (AP plus page-
number).
Understanding Brecht, trans. Anna Bostock, intro. Stanley Mitchell
(London: Verso, 2003) (UBplus page-number).
Freud, The Standard Edition trans. James Strachey and others, 24 vols
(London: Hogarth Press 1953–1974) (SE plus volume and page-
number).
Martin Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy (from Enowning) trans.
Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press 1999) (CPplus page-number).
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: W.W. Norton
2005) (Eplus page-number).
The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954–
1955: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, ed. Jacques Alain-Miller, Book 2,
trans. Sylvana Tomaselli, with notes by John Forrester (New York:
W.W. Norton 1991) (EF plus page-number).
The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: 1959–1960: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, ed.
Jacques Alain-Miller Book 7, trans. Dennis Porter (London:
Routledge 1992) (EPplus page-number).
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, trans. Douglas Smith (Oxford: Oxford
University Press 2000) (BTplus section and page-number).
Pindar, The Complete Odes, trans. Anthony Verity (Oxford: Oxford
University Press 2008) (Vplus page number).
Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, trans. M. L. West (Oxford: Oxford
University Press 2008) (Wplus page number).
Translations from Loeb editions for Aeschylus (3 vols, trans. Alan H.
ix
