Notes
1. On
Roman notions of the patria, see Kantorowicz
(243-247).
2. Kant
writes about "[d]ie Form der Anschauung, welche, da sie
nichts vorstellt, außer so fern etwas im Gemüte
gesetzt wird, nichts anders sein kann, als die Art, wie das
Gemüte durch eigene Tätigkeit, nämlich
dieses Setzen ihrer Vorstellung, mithin durch sich selbst
affiziert wird" (Kritik 92).
3. In
Schlegel, the consequences of this transformation are
perhaps most evident in the notion of political
representation as a melancholic fiction of surrogacy that
he develops in his "Essay on the Concept of Republicanism."
The extent to which Kantian self-affection invites an
explicit consideration of political affect is even clearer
in Novalis's "Faith and Love," where Liebe names
the condition of possibility and impossibility of a
relationship between a monarch and his or her subjects.
4. See in
particular Kleist's note to his friend Adolfine von Werdeck
in November of 1801 (2: 700).
5. In one
typical letter, Kleist marvels that nobody has put a bullet
in the head of the "evil world spirit," Napoleon (1: 761).
Unsurprisingly, discussions of Kleist's personal history
and his remarks in his private correspondence have led to a
wide range of contradictory conclusions about his positions
on militarism, nationalism, and patriotism. These issues
become more complicated if we ask whether his literary
texts and his life are in some sense "consistent" on these
points. For one of the most far-reaching considerations of
these issues, see Wolf Kittler, Die Geburt des
Partisanen aus dem Geist der Poesie.
6. In his
In Pursuit of Power: Heinrich von Kleist's
Machiavellian Protagonists, William C. Reeve offers a
detailed overview of the critical reception of the play.
Working against the tendency among commentators to
highlight the differences between Hermann and the
later Prince Friedrich, Reeve has also argued that
the former text is a crucial forerunner to the latter. (see
"Die Hermannsschlacht: A Prelude to Prinze
Friedrich von Homburg.")
7. "We are
the people subjugated by the Romans. The plundering of
Europe in order to enrich France is anticipated," wrote
Kleist to his sister Ulrike on October 24, 1806, ten days
after the Prussian army was crushed in the battle of Jena
and Auerstädt (2:771).
8. For an
excellent analysis of the rhetorical structure of the play
and the difficulties that arise in trying to take any given
character "at his or her word," see Jan Plug, "The Borders
of a Lip: Kleist, language, and politics."
9.
Citations from the play (Sämtliche Werke
1:533-628-709) are referenced by line number. All
translations are my own.
10.
Citations from Prince Friedrich von Homburg
(Sämtliche Werke 1:629-709) are referenced by
line number. All translations are my own.
11. More
than half a century after the fall of Nazi Germany, it is
still impossible to discuss the German word heil
without immediately conjuring up thoughts of the infamous
Hitergruß. It could be argued that the
structure of this salute, whereby "Heil Hitler" is
supplemented with a movement of the arm and hand, aims to
mime the iterability internal to any utterance of
heil. This may be an effort to stabilize the
dynamics we have been describing, an attempt to reconfirm
the authority of the verbal utterance by complimenting it
with a physical manifestation of "tribute." From the
perspective of Walter Benjamin's reading of Bertolt
Brecht's Epic Theater as a Theater of Gestus, one
could take this notorious Nazi greeting as an opportunity
to explore the political significance of the body as an
explicitly linguistic problematic. On the asesthetics and
poetics of gesture, see Nägele, esp. 151-158.
12. In
German, heilen means to heal or to cure, not "to
hail," as in English. ("To hail" is zujubeln, bejubeln,
or zurufen.) The German adjective heil means
"unhurt," "uninjured," "undamaged"; wieder heil
werden is "to get better"; heil nach Hause is
"to get home safe and sound"; and heil machen is
"to make better" (reparieren). The noun
Heil means "well-being," "good," or
"salvation."
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