»Nachdenklichkeit bleib stets bei mir«

Since ancient times, the melancholy of thinkers, writers and artists has been declared as both a thorn in their side and a source of their creative inspiration. This book reveals that, in his works, Hugo von Hofmannsthal draws on representations and evaluations of this phenomenon, which stem from a historical discourse that lasted over 2500 years. This collection of depictions and appraisals sheds light on the idea of melancholy being both inspirational and destructive in terms of artistic output. This study focuses on groundbreaking texts by Robert Burton, John Milton and Walter Benjamin as well as melancholic protagonists and peripheral characters, who appear in the guise of Hamlet, Pierrot and misanthropes. Melancholy can also be found in pictures and gestures, which Hofmannsthal’s texts, particularly his numerous textual fragments, draw on. Consequently, this study highlights a network of cross-medium and intertextual relations between literature, the fine arts and dance, which convey the ambiguous nature of melancholy.

This book was awarded the Gerhart Baumann Prize in 2019.