Carlo Michelstaedter

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Carlo Michelstaedter (self-portrait)

Carlo Raimondo Michelstaedter (born June 3, 1887 in Gorizia ( Austria-Hungary ), † October 17, 1910 ibid) was an Italian writer , philosopher and painter .

life and work

As the fourth and youngest child of a wealthy Italian family of German - Jewish origin, Carlo Michelstaedter grew up in an educated middle class . His father Alberto ran an insurance office and, as chairman of the Gabinetto di Lettura in Görz / Gorizia , encouraged him to study literature ; his mother Emma Luzzatto Coen gave him a strong bond with the family and the Italian homeland. During his training at the municipal high school in Gorizia, he became aware of the most important representatives of classical philosophy from the philosophy teacher Richard von Schubert-Soldern and, with his friends Enrico Mreule and Nino Paternolli, began extensive readings and debates about the tragic poets , the pre-Socratics , Plato , the New Testament , the Upanishads and Schopenhauer . In late medieval and modern literature, he was particularly interested in Petrarch , Leopardi , Tolstoy and the highly valued Ibsen .

After leaving school, he first studied mathematics in Vienna in 1905 , before going to Florence in the autumn of the same year and enrolling at the Istituto di Studi Superiori to study philosophy and literature. With this decision for the Italian-speaking area - Michelstaedter was enthusiastic about Florence and took an active part in the city's cultural life - as well as for the fine arts, he consciously turned away from the Austrian culture and from a middle-class career. While majoring in Greek and Latin , writing (including letters and theater reviews) became his obsession . He made fruitful friendships ( Aldo Oberdorfer , Vladimiro Arangio Ruiz , Gaetano Chiavacci and others), worked on various translations ( Niccolò Machiavelli , Henri Lavedan ) and discovered his passion for painting .

On February 14, 1909 , his brother Gino , who was ten years his senior and who had emigrated to New York City , died, probably by suicide , which was to be a decisive event in Michelstaedter's life. His lover and Italian student, the Russian Nadja Baraden, had already committed suicide in April 1907. When his friend Enrico Mreule left for Argentina in November 1909, for example, he had his pistol given to him - to prevent him from committing an ill-considered act. In order to write his thesis on a philosophical topic ( La Persuasione e la Rettorica ; Eng. Conviction and rhetoric ), he had retired to his parents' house in Gorizia from September 1909, where there were also numerous poems (especially dedicated to his last love, Argia Cassini) and philosophical Dialogues ( Dialogo della salute ; Eng . Dialogue about health , with Mreule and Paternolli as protagonists ) emerged.

After the tragic escalation of his argument with his parents, Carlo Michelstaedter shot himself with the borrowed pistol on October 17, 1910, his mother's 56th birthday. The immediate trigger for his act was undoubtedly the mother's accusation that he had forgotten her birthday, while in reality he had made a picture for her and completed his dissertation the day before. In addition, a number of other reasons may have led to his suicide: In addition to his unresolved grief for his deceased brother and an increasing loneliness as he feverishly finished his work - apart from his parents, he only got his cousin Emilio, his sister Paula and occasionally To see her girlfriend Argia Cassini - his extremely tense relationship with his parents, especially his mother, played a decisive role: his parents had successfully prevented Carlos from getting engaged to Iolanda De Blasi, a fellow student ; and instead of, as suggested by his father, embark on a career as a teacher straight away after graduation, Carlo Michelstaedter had insisted on relaxing by the sea first.

Michelstaedter's numerous writings, pictures and drawings were collected and published by friends and relatives after his death. His estate is in the Biblioteca Civica in Gorizia.

Philosophical thinking

The philosophical vision of the 23-year-old deceased represents a massive social and cultural criticism and essentially revolves around the two key terms of his dissertation: conviction and rhetoric . Based on Aristotle 's “betrayal” of the pure Platonic doctrine through the development of rhetoric as a “shortcut” in the metaphysical search for truth , Michelstaedter criticizes the rhetoric and thus the entire modern civilization based on it as ultimately misleading from the actual truths distracting deception. Instead of the individual with the linguistic and artistic mechanisms of culture to a superficial and illusory pleasure to persuade , he demands the return to the very own, unadulterated and only in the here and now experiential beliefs, d. H. also to the painful insight and acceptance of the tragic finitude of its existence.

In his radical adherence to the Platonic world of knowledge , Michelstaedter turns out to be a consistent student of Schopenhauer's pessimism and opponent of Nietzsche's idea of ​​a superhuman “will to power”. He regards any adaptation of the individual to social life and its predetermined role structures as an act of self-alienating resignation, as a "death in life", which he himself - in the conflict of autonomy with his own family - had to experience painfully and himself therefore fled to suicide. In his strictly solipsistic worldview, he refused any attempt at dialectical mediation between the cognitive processes of the ego and the outside world; In any case, he denies the possibility of showing a generally applicable , canonized “royal road” to knowledge: “The path to conviction is not followed by everyone, it has no characteristics or instructions that can be communicated, learned or followed. Nevertheless, everyone has the need to find it in himself and his own pain as a guide; everyone has to open up the path all by themselves, because everyone is alone and can only hope for help from themselves: The path to conviction has only one instruction: Do not submit to contentment with what has been given to you. "

Literature and painting

In search of individual, self-determined means of expression, Michelstaedter discovered not only philosophical thinking, but also literature and painting for himself. Especially in his most productive phase in Florence (1905–1909) he was enthusiastic about Tolstoy and Ibsen's plays , to which he pays his attention in witty reviews . He founded the student magazine Gaudeamus igitur with fellow students in 1907 , and contributed numerous caricatures to its first and only issue . In it he criticizes bourgeois academic life, the rationalization of which he perceives as the highest expression of a purely “rhetorical” culture of knowledge. The subject of his poems , however, are mostly his three love affairs (Nadja, Iolanda and Argia). In his expressionistic embossed paintings and drawings he portrayed several times himself and provides contemporaries from all walks of life to an unadorned sober manner represents. Family members, professors, bathers, fishermen, ordinary people in everyday life (see Opera grafica e pittorica . Ed .: Sergio Campailla. Gorizia: ICM, 1975).

swell

  1. ^ "La via della persuasione non è corsa da 'omnibus', non ha segni, indicazioni che si possano comunicare, studiare, ripetere. Ma ognuno ha in sé il bisogno di trovarla e nel proprio dolore l'indice, ognuno deve nuovamente aprirsi da sé la via, poiché ognuno è solo e non può sperar aiuto che da sé: la via della persuasione non ha che questa indicazione: non adattarti alla sufficienza di ciò che t'è dato. » In: Carlo Michelstaedter: La persuasione e la rettorica. (PDF; 373 kB). Milano 1999, p. 77.

Works

Original editions

  • La Persuasione e la Rettorica . (Ed .: Vladimiro Arangio-Ruiz). Formiggini , Genoa 1913.
  • Opera . (Ed .: Gaetano Chiavacci). Sansoni, Florence 1958.
  • Scritti scolastici . (Ed .: Sergio Campailla). Gorizia, Istituto per gli Incontri Culturali Mitteleuropei, Gorizia 1976.
  • Epistolario . (Ed .: Sergio Campailla). Adelphi, Milan / Istituto per gli Incontri Culturali Mitteleuropei, Gorizia 1983.
  • Poetry . (Ed .: Sergio Campailla). Milan / Gorizia 1987.
  • Dialogo della salute e altri dialoghi . (Ed .: Sergio Campailla). Milan / Gorizia 1988.
  • La Persuasione e la Rettorica . (Ed .: Sergio Campailla). Milan / Gorizia, 1995.
  • Parmenide ed Eraclito. Empedocle. Appunti di filosofia . (Eds .: A. Cariolato, E. Fongaro). SE, Milan 2003.
  • L'anima ignuda nell'isola dei beati. Scritti su Platone . (Ed .: D. Micheletti). Diabasis, Reggio Emilia 2005.

German translations

  • Poems . Edited and translated by Laura Furlan. Ed. della Laguna, Monfalcone 1996.
  • Conviction and rhetoric . Translated by Federico Gerratana and Sabine Mainberger. New Critique Publishing House , Frankfurt am Main 1999.

literature

Essays
  • Valerio Cappozzo: La passione di Carlo Michelstaedter (1887-1910). In: Les Cahiers d'Histoire de l'Art. Volume 2, 2004, pp. 69-77 ISSN  1763-0894 .
  • Biagio Marin: Ricordo di Carlo Michelstaedter. In: Studi Goriziani. Volume 32, 1962, p. 4f.
Non-fiction
  • Antonia Acciani: Il maestro del deserto. Carlo Michelstaedter . Progedit, Bari 2005, ISBN 88-88550-61-5 .
  • Giuseppe D'Acunto: La parola nuova. Momenti della riflessione filosofica sulla parola nel Novecento . Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2004, ISBN 88-498-1465-8 .
  • Alessandro Arbo: Carlo Michelstaedter. (= Civiltà della memoria. 20). Studio Tesi, Pordenone 1996, ISBN 88-7692-361-6 .
  • Giuseppe Auteri: Metafisica dell'inganno . Università degli Studi, Catania 2002.
  • Aurelio Benevento: Scrittori giuliani. Michelstaedter, Slataper , Stuparich . Otto / Novecento, Azzate 1992.
  • Giorgio Brianese: L'arco e il destino. Interpretation di Michelstaedter . Editorial Mimesis, Milan 2010, ISBN 978-88-575-0001-0 . (Reprint of Abano Terme 1985 edition).
  • Giuseppe A. Camerino: La persuasione ei simboli. Michelstaedter e Slataper. (= Critica e letteratura. 57). Liguori, Naples 2005, ISBN 88-207-3754-X .
  • Sergio Campailla (ed.): Dialoghi intorno a Michelstaedter . Biblioteca Statale Isontina, Gorizia 1988.
  • Sergio Campailla: A ferri corti con la vita . Comune di Gorizia, Gorizia 1981.
  • Sergio Campailla: Pensiero e poesia di Carlo Michelstaedter . Patron, Bologna 1973.
  • Marco Cerruti: Carlo Michelstaedter con alcuni testi. (= Civiltà letteraria del novecento. Profili. 14). 2nd Edition. Mursia, Milan 1987. (Civiltà letteraria del '900. Sez. Italiana)
  • Nicola Cinquetti: Michelstaedter. Il nulla e la folle speranza. (= Tracce del sacro nella cultura contemporanea. 25). Edizioni Messaggero, Padua 2002, ISBN 88-250-1197-0 .
  • Paola Colotti: La persuasione dell'impersuadibilità. Saggio su Carlo Michelstaedter . FERV, Rome 2004.
  • Silvio Cumpeta, Angela Michelis (ed.): Eredità di Michelstaedter . Forum Edizioni, Udine 2002, ISBN 88-8420-096-2 .
  • Daniela De Leo: Michelstaedter filosofo del "frammento" con Appunti di filosofia di Carlo Michelstaedter . Milella, Lecce 2004, ISBN 88-7048-415-7 .
  • Daniela De Leo: Mistero e persuasione in Carlo Michelstaedter. Passando da Parmenide ed Eraclito . Milella, Lecce 2001, ISBN 88-7048-378-9 (L'uomo e la città; 12).
  • Laura Furlan: Carlo Michelstaedter. L'essere straniero di un intellettuale moderno. (= Vie di fuga. 6). Lint, Triest 1999, ISBN 88-8190-088-2 .
  • Antonella Gallarotti (Ed.): L'immagine irraggiungibile. Dipinti e disegni di Carlo Michelstaedter . Edizioni della Laguna, Mariano del Friuli 1992, ISBN 88-85296-28-9 .
  • Yvonne Hütter (Ed.): Carlo Michelstaedter. Art - Poetry - Philosophy . Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8233-6892-2 .
  • Francesco Innella: Michelstaedter. Frammenti da una filosofia oscura . Ripostes, Salerno 1995 (I tascabili).
  • Claudio La Rocca: Nichilismo e retorica. Il pensiero di Carlo Michelstaedter. (= Biblioteca di "Teoria". 2). ETS, Pisa 1984.
  • Aldo Marroni: Filosofie dell'intensità. Quattro maestri occulti del pensiero italiano contemporaneo . Mimesis, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-85889-81-6 (Itinerari filosofici).
  • Angela Michelis: Carlo Michelstaedter. Il coraggio dell'impossibile. (= Idea. 113). Città Nuova, Rome 1997, ISBN 88-311-0113-7 .
  • Francesco Muzzioli: Michelstaedter . Milella, Lecce 1987, ISBN 88-7048-134-4 .
  • Antimo Negri: Il lavoro e la città. Un saggio su Carlo Michelstaedter. (= I grandi piccoli. 11). Lavoro, Rome 1996, ISBN 88-7910-689-9 .
  • Luca Perego, Erasmo S. Storare, Roberta Visone (Eds.): Carlo Michelstaedter. Un'introduzione . Albo Versorio, Milan 2005, ISBN 88-89130-07-5 .
  • Piero Pieri: La differenza ebraica. Grecità, tradizione e ripetizione in Michelstaedter e in altri ebrei della modernità. (= Le sfere. 68). Pendragon, Bologna 2002, ISBN 88-8342-158-2 .
  • Piero Pieri: Il pensiero della poesia. Carlo Michelstaedter e il Romanticismo della tragedia . Nautilus, Bologna 2001, ISBN 88-86909-32-2 .
  • Antonio Piromalli: Michelstaedter. (= Il castoro. 19-20). 2nd Edition. La Nuova Italia, Florence 1974.
  • Paolo Pulcina: Carlo Michelstaedter. Estetica. L'illusione della retorica, le ragioni del suicidio . Atheneum, Florence 2004, ISBN 88-7255-250-8 .
  • Giuseppe Pulina: L'imperfetto pessimista. Saggio sul pensiero di Carlo Michelstaedter . Lalli, Poggibonsi 1996 (Pedagogia, filosofia, sociologia).
  • Maria A. Raschini: Michelstaedter . Marsilio, Florence 2000, ISBN 88-317-7598-7 .
  • Maria A. Raschini: Michelstaedter. La disperata devozione . Cappelli, Bologna 1988.
  • Laura Sanò: Le ragioni del nulla. Il pensiero tragico nella filosofia italiana tra Ottocento e Novecento . Città aperta, Troina (EN) 2005, ISBN 88-8137-196-0 .
  • Licia Semeraro: Lo svuotamento del futuro. Note below Michelstaedter . Milella, Lecce 1986, ISBN 88-7048-131-X .
  • Vittorio Stella: Carlo Michelstaedter . FERV, Rome 2002, ISBN 88-88187-07-3 .
  • Giovanna Taviani: Michelstaedter. (= La scrittura e l'interpretazione. 17). Palumbo, Palermo 2002, ISBN 88-8020-488-2 .
  • Thomas Vašek : Appearance and Time. Martin Heidegger and Carlo Michelstaedter. On the trail of expropriation. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95757-638-5 .
  • Antonio Verri: Michelstaedter e il suo tempo. (= Il portico. 21). Longo Angelo, Ravenna 1969.
Novels

Web links

Commons : Carlo Michelstaedter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Michelstaedter, Carlo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Michelstaedter, Carlo Raimondo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian writer, philosopher and painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Gorizia
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1910
Place of death Gorizia