Jelena U. Reinhardt Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (2012) is currently Assistant Professor of German Literature at the University of Perugia. 2018 she obtained the national qualification (ASN) as Associate Professor in German Literature. Her main research areas include modern and contemporary German and Austrian literature. With a strong comparative approach, she focuses on literature, cinema, and theater, exploring especially the intersections between language and pictures. She published several papers on the work of Max Reinhardt, H. v. Hofmannsthal, E. Canetti, Herta Müller, Jura Soyfer and others. Moreover, she has translated literary works from German into Italian.
Die Traumanalyse, die Freud als „Königsweg des Unbewussten“ bezeichnet, ermöglicht die Enthüllung... more Die Traumanalyse, die Freud als „Königsweg des Unbewussten“ bezeichnet, ermöglicht die Enthüllung dessen, was sich hinter der Maske sozialer Konventionen und kultureller Modelle verbirgt, sie erlaubt nämlich den Zugang zu den unbewussten Inhalten der Psyche. Zwischen dem neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert wecken jedoch nicht weniger Interesse die erstaunlichen Ergebnisse von anderen wissenschaftlichen Gebieten, die sich nicht so sehr mit der psychischen Sphäre im engeren Sinn beschäftigen, sondern vielmehr mit der körperlichen. Insbesondere, die zunehmenden Fortschritte der Anatomie und die Entdeckung der Röntgenstrahlen multiplizieren die verfügbaren Szenarien, dank der Möglichkeit einen Einblick in das Innere des menschlichen Körpers zu gewinnen. Die Zentralität der visuellen Dimension, die endlich über die sichtbare Oberfläche hinausgeht, um die tiefsten körperlichen und psychischen Inhalte des Menschen zu erfassen, nährt die Kreativität von Schriftstellern und Malern, vor allem der Wiener Moderne. Die Intensivierung des Blickes durchdringt den Menschen, zeigt sowohl die Skelettstruktur und die nervösen Verbindungen, die unter der Haut kribbeln, als auch seine tiefsten Triebe. Eine der geeignetsten Formen für die Darstellung dieser Realität ist zweifellos der Traum. Freud selbst scheint die körperliche und die psychische Ebene zu vereinigen, vor allem im Lichte eines von ihm in der Traumdeutung geschilderten Traumes, in dem die Vision der Vivisektion am eigenen Leib eine Metapher der Selbstanalyse wird. Mit anderen Worten, der Traum vom offenen, zerstückelten, verstümmelten Körper – oder auch nur tot daliegend aber zur Zergliederung bereitgestellt –, weist einerseits auf das Innere des Körpers zurück, liefert aber andererseits wertvolle Hinweise auf die psychische Innerlichkeit. Angesichts dieser Überlegungen ist es der Zweck meines Beitrags, das Freudsche Modell anhand einiger Traumdarstellungen des verwundeten Körpers bei gewissen Autoren, bei denen sich der anatomische Blick der psychologischen Analyse anschließt, wie zum Beispiel Oskar Kokoschka und Arthur Schnitzler, zu untersuchen. Obwohl diese Autoren sich eindeutig vom Begründer der Psychoanalyse inspirieren lassen, weichen sie doch stark, wenn nicht sogar radikal, von ihm ab und bringen Einflüsse einer älteren Traumtradition zum Vorschein.
Animals are key in understanding Elias Canetti’s idea of man. Many of his well-known themes regar... more Animals are key in understanding Elias Canetti’s idea of man. Many of his well-known themes regarding the human condition, such as death, the dynamics of crowds, the mechanisms of power, can be fully understood only by including a reflection on animals. In his works Canetti points out the mobility of boundaries between human and animal with regard to the concepts of mask, metamorphosis and theater, going beyond the sole visual aspects and focusing on the acoustic ones as well. He indeed seems to recover the ancient function of masks as vocal resonance instruments by introducing, especially in his Viennese production, his so-called acoustic masks. He was obsessed by human voices, but he needed to search for the animal side in them; therefore, he was also interested in listening to sounds produced by the animals themselves. One of the strongest experience ever occurred to him was when, in the twenties and in the thirties in Vienna, he listened to recorded animal voices in which he recognized the features of a drama. Moreover, the author highlights the continuity between the human and the non-human animal world in laughter: it is a hyena who laughs, but it is also the laughter of a madman. Starting from the primitive man and the jungle, the aim of this paper is to follow the animal sounds through their transformation into acoustic masks in which human features appear together with animal ones.
The long collaboration of Max Reinhardt with Hugo von Hofmannsthal was essential for their artist... more The long collaboration of Max Reinhardt with Hugo von Hofmannsthal was essential for their artistic development: a considerable part of Hofmannsthal's plays would be unthinkable without the impulse and the influence of the theatre director, as well as some of the most brilliant moments in Reinhardt's repertoire are marked by works created by the playwright. Moreover, this partnership has given rise to a significant renewal of theatrical language, which starts from the shared background of Vienna and then develops, at least in a first phase, in Berlin. By analysing their common work and reflections on theatre, it can be shown, how this radical change mainly takes place on a visual level, within which the ideas of truth and lies, inevitably perceived in a different way in the two cities, assume a very peculiar role. Since ancient times, the metaphor of truth is connected to light, however, the introduction of electric lighting in theatres, redefining the gestures of seeing, consequently modifies the concept of truth and revolutionises the forms of its representation. In particular, Reinhardt proposes a mainly visual style: he moves from the supposed true copy of reality, which portrays the world as a black and white picture in the manner of naturalists, to a reality that contemplates also dreams and imagination, whose truth is depicted through the language of colours.
Kokoschka’s first literary work The Dreaming Youths (Die träumenden Knaben) was published in 1908... more Kokoschka’s first literary work The Dreaming Youths (Die träumenden Knaben) was published in 1908. The work includes a poem with eight colored and two black and white lithographs. Although the young artist was commissioned by the Wiener Werkstätte to make a children’s picture book, the end result seemed quite different: a sort of personal tale of self-discovery and sexual awakening during puberty placed in a dream scenario. Kokoschka himself remembers in his autobiography only following the task in the first lithograph. The aim of this paper is to show how Kokoschka actually continued to draw on the language of fairy tales, although apparently taking distance from it. The crucial role of children’s literature in adult life emerges especially within the process of shaping childhood memories and approaching traumatic experiences. The use of fairy tales becomes, therefore, an autobiographical urge and a means to tell personal experience through a universal language.
For Elias Canetti comedy was always an important tool to express himself. But in his works, besid... more For Elias Canetti comedy was always an important tool to express himself. But in his works, besides the link to comic, laughter has also a terrible, uncanny and creepy appearance. This disquieting side of laughter often leads to unheard of violence on the edge of madness. Canetti goes back to the archaic essence of laughter and shows the deep similarities with the act of eating. He considers the gesture of gulping down food as an act of incorporation, that is the first form of power and oppression. This type of humor finds an expression in different stylistic features of the grotesque. Through the analysis of some of his works, especially of his theatre plays and his novel Auto da fe , it clearly appears that the grotesque of Canetti is closely linked to the idea of mask. In this regard, Canetti’s definition of "acoustic mask" is by now well known. However, of great interest is the study of his literary production in the light of a more complex meaning of the term mask, a...
Die Traumanalyse, die Freud als „Königsweg des Unbewussten“ bezeichnet, ermöglicht die Enthüllung... more Die Traumanalyse, die Freud als „Königsweg des Unbewussten“ bezeichnet, ermöglicht die Enthüllung dessen, was sich hinter der Maske sozialer Konventionen und kultureller Modelle verbirgt, sie erlaubt nämlich den Zugang zu den unbewussten Inhalten der Psyche. Zwischen dem neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert wecken jedoch nicht weniger Interesse die erstaunlichen Ergebnisse von anderen wissenschaftlichen Gebieten, die sich nicht so sehr mit der psychischen Sphäre im engeren Sinn beschäftigen, sondern vielmehr mit der körperlichen. Insbesondere, die zunehmenden Fortschritte der Anatomie und die Entdeckung der Röntgenstrahlen multiplizieren die verfügbaren Szenarien, dank der Möglichkeit einen Einblick in das Innere des menschlichen Körpers zu gewinnen. Die Zentralität der visuellen Dimension, die endlich über die sichtbare Oberfläche hinausgeht, um die tiefsten körperlichen und psychischen Inhalte des Menschen zu erfassen, nährt die Kreativität von Schriftstellern und Malern, vor allem der Wiener Moderne. Die Intensivierung des Blickes durchdringt den Menschen, zeigt sowohl die Skelettstruktur und die nervösen Verbindungen, die unter der Haut kribbeln, als auch seine tiefsten Triebe. Eine der geeignetsten Formen für die Darstellung dieser Realität ist zweifellos der Traum. Freud selbst scheint die körperliche und die psychische Ebene zu vereinigen, vor allem im Lichte eines von ihm in der Traumdeutung geschilderten Traumes, in dem die Vision der Vivisektion am eigenen Leib eine Metapher der Selbstanalyse wird. Mit anderen Worten, der Traum vom offenen, zerstückelten, verstümmelten Körper – oder auch nur tot daliegend aber zur Zergliederung bereitgestellt –, weist einerseits auf das Innere des Körpers zurück, liefert aber andererseits wertvolle Hinweise auf die psychische Innerlichkeit. Angesichts dieser Überlegungen ist es der Zweck meines Beitrags, das Freudsche Modell anhand einiger Traumdarstellungen des verwundeten Körpers bei gewissen Autoren, bei denen sich der anatomische Blick der psychologischen Analyse anschließt, wie zum Beispiel Oskar Kokoschka und Arthur Schnitzler, zu untersuchen. Obwohl diese Autoren sich eindeutig vom Begründer der Psychoanalyse inspirieren lassen, weichen sie doch stark, wenn nicht sogar radikal, von ihm ab und bringen Einflüsse einer älteren Traumtradition zum Vorschein.
Animals are key in understanding Elias Canetti’s idea of man. Many of his well-known themes regar... more Animals are key in understanding Elias Canetti’s idea of man. Many of his well-known themes regarding the human condition, such as death, the dynamics of crowds, the mechanisms of power, can be fully understood only by including a reflection on animals. In his works Canetti points out the mobility of boundaries between human and animal with regard to the concepts of mask, metamorphosis and theater, going beyond the sole visual aspects and focusing on the acoustic ones as well. He indeed seems to recover the ancient function of masks as vocal resonance instruments by introducing, especially in his Viennese production, his so-called acoustic masks. He was obsessed by human voices, but he needed to search for the animal side in them; therefore, he was also interested in listening to sounds produced by the animals themselves. One of the strongest experience ever occurred to him was when, in the twenties and in the thirties in Vienna, he listened to recorded animal voices in which he recognized the features of a drama. Moreover, the author highlights the continuity between the human and the non-human animal world in laughter: it is a hyena who laughs, but it is also the laughter of a madman. Starting from the primitive man and the jungle, the aim of this paper is to follow the animal sounds through their transformation into acoustic masks in which human features appear together with animal ones.
The long collaboration of Max Reinhardt with Hugo von Hofmannsthal was essential for their artist... more The long collaboration of Max Reinhardt with Hugo von Hofmannsthal was essential for their artistic development: a considerable part of Hofmannsthal's plays would be unthinkable without the impulse and the influence of the theatre director, as well as some of the most brilliant moments in Reinhardt's repertoire are marked by works created by the playwright. Moreover, this partnership has given rise to a significant renewal of theatrical language, which starts from the shared background of Vienna and then develops, at least in a first phase, in Berlin. By analysing their common work and reflections on theatre, it can be shown, how this radical change mainly takes place on a visual level, within which the ideas of truth and lies, inevitably perceived in a different way in the two cities, assume a very peculiar role. Since ancient times, the metaphor of truth is connected to light, however, the introduction of electric lighting in theatres, redefining the gestures of seeing, consequently modifies the concept of truth and revolutionises the forms of its representation. In particular, Reinhardt proposes a mainly visual style: he moves from the supposed true copy of reality, which portrays the world as a black and white picture in the manner of naturalists, to a reality that contemplates also dreams and imagination, whose truth is depicted through the language of colours.
Kokoschka’s first literary work The Dreaming Youths (Die träumenden Knaben) was published in 1908... more Kokoschka’s first literary work The Dreaming Youths (Die träumenden Knaben) was published in 1908. The work includes a poem with eight colored and two black and white lithographs. Although the young artist was commissioned by the Wiener Werkstätte to make a children’s picture book, the end result seemed quite different: a sort of personal tale of self-discovery and sexual awakening during puberty placed in a dream scenario. Kokoschka himself remembers in his autobiography only following the task in the first lithograph. The aim of this paper is to show how Kokoschka actually continued to draw on the language of fairy tales, although apparently taking distance from it. The crucial role of children’s literature in adult life emerges especially within the process of shaping childhood memories and approaching traumatic experiences. The use of fairy tales becomes, therefore, an autobiographical urge and a means to tell personal experience through a universal language.
For Elias Canetti comedy was always an important tool to express himself. But in his works, besid... more For Elias Canetti comedy was always an important tool to express himself. But in his works, besides the link to comic, laughter has also a terrible, uncanny and creepy appearance. This disquieting side of laughter often leads to unheard of violence on the edge of madness. Canetti goes back to the archaic essence of laughter and shows the deep similarities with the act of eating. He considers the gesture of gulping down food as an act of incorporation, that is the first form of power and oppression. This type of humor finds an expression in different stylistic features of the grotesque. Through the analysis of some of his works, especially of his theatre plays and his novel Auto da fe , it clearly appears that the grotesque of Canetti is closely linked to the idea of mask. In this regard, Canetti’s definition of "acoustic mask" is by now well known. However, of great interest is the study of his literary production in the light of a more complex meaning of the term mask, a...
U. Treder - J. Reinhardt (a cura di), Sorelle di Saffo sorelle di Shakespeare, Morlacchi, Collana «Goethe&Company», Perugia , 2012
I saggi di questo volume collettaneo trattano delle difficoltà di affermarsi, ma anche della gra... more I saggi di questo volume collettaneo trattano delle difficoltà di affermarsi, ma anche della grande originalità di scrittrici nel campo della poesia, della prosa e del teatro in un arco di tempo e di culture che va dalla Grecia di Saffo alla Roma antica, dal Cinquecento francese al Seicento spagnolo, dal Settecento inglese all’Otto e Novecento tedesco e americano, presentando un quadro di letterature comparate al femminile quanto mai interessante, variegato e di rara competenza.
G.L. Grassigli - J. Reinhardt (a cura di), Liguori, Napoli , 2013
"Fellini-Satyricon" è un film che sfugge alle consuete categorie di classificazione. Questo volum... more "Fellini-Satyricon" è un film che sfugge alle consuete categorie di classificazione. Questo volume, pertanto, frutto di un convegno tenuto in occasione del quarantesimo anno dalla sua uscita, lo interroga incrociando diverse prospettive d'indagine, nel tentativo di superare le spiegazioni di comodo offerte dal regista, per portarne alla luce il sostrato nascosto. Giocando sul paradosso espresso da Fellini di aver girato un "film di fantascienza", gli autori s'interrogano sul suo rapporto col passato, vissuto come possibilità di liberare la realtà dell'inconscio. Incrociando le parole del regista e le scene del film, storici della letteratura, comparatisti e antichisti riflettono sui significati della narrazione e sulla peculiarità dei suoi sviluppi formali. Mentre alcuni interventi hanno ridefinito il senso del film anche attraverso l'indagine delle reazioni suscitate alla sua uscita, altri percorrono la via interna all'opera costituita dalla poetica del dettaglio, suggerita obliquamente da Fellini stesso. Emerge così, a dispetto delle molteplici dichiarazioni del regista, un film profondamente intimo e vissuto, dall'intensa tonalità affettiva, espressa anche mediante lo spazio concesso alle dinamiche dell'inconscio, la cui operazione artistica consiste nella libera ricomposizione dei frammenti emersi dal sottosuolo dell'anima e della storia. Proprio da tale ricomposizione nasce la possibilità di raccontare, unica eventualità di eludere illusoriamente la morte.
, a cura di J. Reinhardt, con introduzione di H. Dorowin, Liguori, Napoli, 2015
È sorprendente la modernità dell’operazione compiuta nelle Satire d’immagine e poesia. Si tratta ... more È sorprendente la modernità dell’operazione compiuta nelle Satire d’immagine e poesia. Si tratta di 21 satire scritte a commento di altrettante fotografie e pubblicate nel corso del 1933 sul settimanale illustrato dei socialisti austriaci, «Der Kuckuck». Jura Soyfer, ispirandosi ad alcuni illustri predecessori come Karl Kraus e Kurt Tucholsky, e inserendosi nel dibattito delle Avanguardie degli anni Venti (Heartfield, Tretiakov, Brecht e Aragon) intorno alle applicazioni della fotografia, dà vita a un prodotto artistico unitario, che può essere considerato nel suo insieme come un fotomontaggio. Le parole intervengono sul senso delle immagini e viceversa, mostrando la complessità del reale come atto d’interpretazione. La capacità di saper cogliere i fermenti in atto è il tratto che più caratterizza questo giovane autore teatrale, romanziere, giornalista e poeta satirico, nato nel 1912 da genitori ebrei a Charcov in Ucraina e trasferitosi ancora bambino a Vienna. Dopo anni di militanza politica e un’intensa attività letteraria, catturato dai nazisti, morì a Buchenwald all’età di soli 26 anni.
Con questo volume Jelena Reinhardt propone una lettura originale e dalle mille sfaccettature dell... more Con questo volume Jelena Reinhardt propone una lettura originale e dalle mille sfaccettature dell’opera complessiva di Herta Müller, vincitrice del Premio Nobel per la Letteratura (2009). Affrontando il lavoro di Müller da prospettive diverse, sempre comunque interne alla sua stessa scrittura, Reinhardt scava a fondo nella poetica dell’Autrice portando in luce una fitta trama di relazioni tese e non prive di contraddizioni tra vicenda biografica, assunta da certa critica a paradigma della liberazione politica dal comunismo, rapporti familiari, condizione di multilinguismo, corporeità, questioni di genere, dinamiche della percezione e della memoria, senza trascurare la dimensione ideologica dell’opera di Müller. L’esercizio ermeneutico di Reinhardt offre al lettore la possibilità di cogliere la densa complessità della figura di Müller, una certa forza della sua scrittura, così come, a tratti, l’ombra di un’indubbia ambiguità.
Elettra di Hugo von Hofmannsthal andò in scena per la prima volta il 30 ottobre del 1903 al Klein... more Elettra di Hugo von Hofmannsthal andò in scena per la prima volta il 30 ottobre del 1903 al Kleines Theater di Berlino per la regia di Max Reinhardt: il successo fu strepitoso e ancor più clamoroso lo scandalo che ne scaturì, amplificato dalla versione operistica realizzata a distanza di qualche anno dal compositore Richard Strauss.In una libera reinterpretazione del mito di Elettra in chiave moderna, che si distacca dal modello sofocleo, il poeta evoca una Grecia fortemente anticlassica, arcaica e barbarica (“Siamo più in Oriente che in Occidente”). È un mondo misterioso, a tratti inquietante, fatto di passioni irrefrenabili e nervi frementi. Altrettanto irriconoscibile appare Elettra, definita all’epoca come sadica, lesbica e psicopatica. In lei la baccante dionisiaca arcaica convive con la donna isterica moderna: in questo modo Hofmannsthal fonde insieme mito e psicoanalisi e getta un ponte fra l’uomo moderno e le sue antiche origini pre-greche e orientali.
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