Cyclic Vitalism: The Dialectics of Life and Death in German Poetry around 1900*

Sven Halse

Dept. of Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

DOI: 10.4236/als.2014.21004                

Abstract

Over the past decade, Scandinavian and German scholars have been active in the redefinition of the terms “Vitalism” and “Vitalist” as descriptive categories for analytical purposes in the fields of literary and cultural history. In this context,“Vitalism”has primarily been used to describe an enthusiastic worshipping of life, one that holds youth, health, strength and beauty as its primary attributes, which was prevalent in all aspects of cultural life around 1900. But even the post war founders of the Vitalist re-conceptualisation of this era, Wolfdietrich Rasch and Gunter Martens, warned of taking such a unilateral view ofwhat constituted a Vitalist concept of life. It could lead to a misunderstanding of Vitalist way of thinking, Rasch said, if the focus wasonly set upon the enthusiastic surplus, the worshipping of youth and health. To Vitalists, life is more than that. It is a totality that also encompasses notions of destruction, decay and death. “All life symbols in literature around 1900 are at the same time symbols of death” (Rasch, 1967:24).Through the analyses of three poems, this article aims to show concrete examples of how cyclic Vitalist thinking is embedded in poetry of the era. The analyses include a further sub-categorisation to capture the different types of Life Force dealt with in the texts. By way of an introduction, Vitalism is discussed within the context of the scientific and social developments of the 19th Century.

Keywords

Vitalism; German Literature; German Poetry; Life Reform Movement; Life Force

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Andersen, L. P. (2011). The Advent of the natural woman. In G. Hvid- bjerg-Hansen, & G. Oelsner (Eds.), The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890-1940 (pp. 198-217). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.
[2]	Benzmann, H. (1903). Moderne deutsche Lyrik. Mit einer literaturge- schichtlichen Einleitung und biographischen Notizen herausgegeben von Hans Benzmann. Leipzig: Philipp Reclam Junior.
[3]	De Bruyn, G. (ed.) (1992). Friedrichshagen und seine Dichter. Arkadien in Preu?en. Berlin: Verlag Morgenbuch.
[4]	Bühler, B. (2004). Lebende Korper. Biologisches und anthropologisches Wissen bei Rilke, Doblin und Jünger. Dissertation, Würzburg.
[5]	Dam, A. E. (2010). Den Vitalistiske str?mning i dansk litteratur omkr- ing 1900. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
[6]	Dam, A. E. (2011). Music is life. Carl Nielsen’s Vitalistmusical philosophy. In G. Hvidbjerg-Hansen, & G. Oelsner (Eds.), The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890-1940 (pp. 276-285). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.
[7]	Driesch, H. (1922). Geschichte des Vitalismus. Leipzig: Verlag von Hans Ambrosius Barth.
[8]	Halse, S. (2011). Wide-ranging vitalism: On the concept and phenomenon of vitalism in philosophy and art. In G. Hvidbjerg-Hansen, & G. Oelsner (Eds.), The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890-1940 (pp. 46-57). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.
[9]	Halse, S. (2013). Zyklischer Vitalismus. Die Dialektik von Tod und Leben in der deutschen Lyrik um 1900. In Sandbjerg/Paulsen (Ed.), Natur und Moderne. Raume, Reprasentationen, Medien (pp. 203- 218). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
[10]	Hein, H. (1972). The Endurance of the mechanism-vitalism controversy. Journal of the History of Biology, 5, 159-188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02113490
[11]	Hvidberg-Hansen, G., & Oelsner, G. (2011). Thetriumph of life. The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890- 1940. 10-45.
[12]	Munch, A. V. (2011). Framing the life-rhythm.On the vitalization of architecture. In G. Hvidbjerg-Hansen, & G. Oelsner (Eds.), The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890-1940 (pp. 106-125). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.
[13]	Norlyng, O. (2011). Dancing Life Iteself. In G. Hvidbjerg-Hansen, & G. Oelsner (Eds.), The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890-1940 (pp. 250-275). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.
[14]	Oelsner, G. (2011) Healthy Nature. In G. Hvidbjerg-Hansen, & G. Oelsner (Eds.), The spirit of vitalism. Health, beauty and strength in Danish art 1890-1940 (pp. 158-197). Copenhagen: Museum Tuscu- lanum.
[15]	Rasch, W. (1967). Aspekte der deutschen Literatur um 1900. Zur deuts- chen Literatur seit der Jahrhundertwende. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
[16]	Riedel, W. (1996). Homo natura. Literarische Anthropologie um 1900. Berlin, N.Y.: de Gruyter. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110812404