Imperfect Simulacra. Mortal Bodies and Immortal Creatures. Heinrich Heine’s “Florentinische Nächte”
Abstract
Between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, science began to investigate the reproducibility of the human being, both biologically (via experiments on electricity, Galvani and Volta) and mechanically (automata, animated dolls). Literature reflects this idea. German literature from the nineteenth century offers many examples of artificial creatures, generally seen as inferior to humans: this inferiority is linked to the fact that they seem to lack an essential part, consisting in something immaterial, namely the soul. Our hypothesis, however, is that behind these imperfect simulacra lies the idea of a new, different perfection. Our specific focus will be on a text by Heinrich Heine, Florentinische Nächte.
Downloads
References
Agazzi, Elena, Il corpo conteso. Rito e gestualità nella Germania del Settecento, Milano, Jaca Book, 2000.
Asimov, Isaac, “Il mito della macchina”, in Guida alla fantascienza, trad. it. di Laura Serra, Milano, Mondadori, 1984.
Caronia, Antonio, Il corpo virtuale. Dal corpo robotizzato al corpo disseminato nelle reti, Padova, Muzzio, 1996.
Covi, Giovanna, “Traduzioni: mostruose interpretazioni”, In forma di parole, terza serie, II-4, 1994: 88-101.
Diderot, Denis, Lettre sur les sourds et muets (1751), trad. it. e cura di Fernando Bollino, Lettera sui sordi e muti, Modena, Mucchi, 1984.
Evans, Arthur B., “Nineteenth-Century Science Fiction”, The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction, Ed. Bould M., London- New York, Routledge, 2009: 88-105.
Heine, Enrico [sic!] “Florentinische Nächte“ (1836), trad. it. di Enrico Rocca “Notti fiorentine”, Il rabbi di Bacharach e altri racconti, Milano, Mondadori, 1970.
Heine, Heinrich, Die Götter im Exil, in Sämtliche Werke II. Dichterische Prosa. Dramatisches, Textrevision von Jost Perfahl, Einf., ZeiXttafel und Anmerkungen von Werner Vordtriede, München, Winkler, 1980; trad. it. e cura di Lia Secci, “Gli spiriti elementari”, in Gli dèi in esilio, Milano, Adelphi, 1978.
Heine, Heinrich, Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland, in Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke, 1973-1997, hrsg. von Manfred Windfuhr in Verbindung mit dem Heinrich-Heine-Institut [Düsseldorfer Ausgabe], Bd. 8/1, Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland. Die romantische Schule, bearbeitet von Manfred Windfuhr, Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe, 1979: 9-120.
Heine, Heinrich, “Deutschland ein Wintermärchen”, Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke, cit., Bd. 4, Atta Troll. Ein Sommernachtstraum / Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen, bearbeitet von Winfried Woesler, Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1985: 89-160.
de La Mettrie, Julien Offroy, L’Homme machine (1747), trad. it. di Giulio Preti L’uomo macchina e altri scritti, Milano, SE, 1990.
Marchesini, Roberto, Post-human. Verso nuovi modelli di esistenza, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2002.
Mumford, Lewis, Technics and Civilization (1934), trad. it. di Ettore Gentilli, Tecnica e cultura, intr. di Salvatore Veca, Il Saggiatore, Milano, 2005.
Rossi, Francesco, “La statua animata e i limiti dell’umano. Una ricognizione sul tema del simulacro”, in Joseph von Eichendorff, La statua di marmo, ed. Hammoud I., Bologna, Elara, 2021: 153-172.
Secci, Lia, “Introduzione” in Heine 1978: 9-28.
Vordtriede, Werner, “Anmerkungen”, in Heine 1980: 915-965.
Walzel, Oskar, “Anmerkungen”, in Heinrich Heine, Sämtliche Werke in zehn Bänden, unter Mitwirk von Jonas Fränkel - Walther Gensel - Albert Leitzmann - Julius Petersen, Ed. Oskar Walzel, Leipzig, Insel, 1910-1920, Bd. 6, 1912.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
