Dialogic Midwifery in Kleist's Marquise von O and the Hermeneutics of Telling the Untold in Kant and Plato

Abstract

We often speak of a text “pregnant” with meaning. But how does it give birth? Certainly not through the intervention of monologic doctoring but, rather, with the aid of “dialogic midwifery.” In Kleist's Marquise von O, the tale of an unexplained conception and pregnancy, the art of ironic dialogism, though never directly giving expression to the peculiar state of affairs, helps give birth to interpretation and to the genre of the realistic novella. The circuitous narrative technique of telling and untelling, which supplements consciousness as a midwife assists a woman in childbirth, links Kleist's text to a hermeneutic tradition stretching from Plato through Kant (and well beyond).

Language games: Reimagining learning conversations in art education

“…The Socratic method of question and answer continues to be emphasised in Kant's construction of critique, as an approach to teaching (Smith, 1985) ideal for addressing appropriate lines of inquiry and themes. In critique, the image of an elenctic quest for true knowledge is softened by Kant's emphasis on the teaching process as a maieutic facilitation and induction of a student's thoughts.…”

Postclassicism, Disturbed Philology and Kleist’s Fencing Bear

“…The facsimile is reproduced and transcribed in the edition of Kleist's collected works as the so-called Brandenburger Ausgabe, by R. Reuss und P.Staengele (1988Staengele ( - 2010; here cited from volume II/9, pp. 27-32.24 Smith (1995), which deals with the theme of midwifery in the Marquise von O., has traced back the Kantian reference as it appears there (and in the Marionettentheater) not only to Kant's Metaphysics of Morals, but also to his 1803 treatise on pedagogy.25 Kleist matriculated there in the autumn of 1799, and abandoned his studies in spring 1801;Heinrich (1983); Loch (2003: 45-51);Blamberger (2011: 51-84).…”