The Kampaner valley

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Jean Paul (1763-1825)

The Kampaner Valley is a short story by Jean Paul that was written in the first quarter of 1797 and published by August Hennings in Gera in May 1797. Jean Paul mainly took details of the Campan Valley from the description of a trip Arthur Young took to the French Pyrenees ten years earlier . The appendix, a commentary on ten woodcuts from the “ small Lutheran catechism for Baireuth and Ansbach ”, has nothing to do with the story.

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The first-person narrator Jean Paul accompanies Baron Wilhelmi and his dear bride Gione on their “ Arcadian wedding celebration” in the Kampaner Valley. In the wake are Gione's sister Nadine, the house chaplain and the cavalry captain Karlson. The chaplain is a critical philosopher who is scolded by the narrator Phylax. The Rittmeister is a friend of Jean Paul's. The first-person narrator reports about the trip to his friend Viktor in a letter. The goal of this hike through the “wonderful valley” on a “lovely day” is a rented estate at the end of the valley near the Kampan stalactite cave. On the one-day walk you are among yourself. Most of the campanians work in Spain.

For Jean Paul, traveling means a walk into freedom: "... when we fly over new stages easily and freely as if in dreams with broken neck and chest irons and broken chains of tight conditions - then it's no wonder that a person gets up feet, and that he always wants to go on. ”The narrator knows what the German wants:“ Initially, people want to go to the next city - then to the university - then to a royal seat of importance - then (if they only have 24 lines written) to Weimar - and finally to Italy or to heaven. "

The text is only incidentally about a wedding. Actually, Jean Paul chats about the immortality of the soul. So the philosophers are tried; more precisely, the Kantians . The latter are defined as people who “don't read, just study”. Kant himself gets off well. He differentiates between philosophers and artists. Kant only concedes genius to the artist. The ball is thrown back by the artist Jean Paul. The praised one considers Leibniz's monadology to be a “pure radiant emanation of genius” - just as luminous as the best characters in “ Shakespeare or Homer ”. Starting from Leibniz's body-soul problem , the above-mentioned interlocutors come to the point on their hike through the Kampaner Valley via detours; So to the question: What happens to the souls after death? Wilhelmi begins with the dying creatures with the flowers. The baron imagines it - in harmony with his bride Gione - as follows: “The lily souls probably go into female foreheads, hyacinths - and forget-me-not souls into female eyes and rose souls in lips ... It is very useful to the hypothesis that a girl is in the minute it stoops and breaks or kills a rose, it becomes noticeably redder from the transgressing soul. ”Breaking flowers is one of those things. The bride Gione breaks fluttering roses on the way. Jean Paul, who is closely observing the process, warns in one of his numerous footnotes: “ Scolopender or fire wood stick glow at night; one must be careful not to pull them out of the flower cups with the scents into the brain. "

On the evening of the beautiful day of hiking, when the sun is "already red on the mountains", Gione seizes one last good opportunity; climbs an "eastern Montgolfiere " and rises above the Kampaner valley. The bride finally lands with eyes - red with satisfied tears. Then Nadine and the author follow the example of the courageous Gione. Jean Paul describes the start: “... now the suns pulled us up. The heavy earth sank back like a past - wings, like man moves in happy dreams, rocked us upwards - the sublime emptiness and silence of the seas rested before us up to the stars - as we rose, the black forests lengthened to thunderclouds and the snow-covered mountains to light snow clouds - the floating ball flew with us in front of the mute flashes of the moon, which stood like an Elysium in the sky, and in the blue wasteland we were, as it were, from a gurgling storm into the closer shimmering world of the moon blinded ... and then the lighter heart, beating high above the heavy haze, felt as if it were fluttering in the ether and had been pulled out of the earth without throwing back the shell. "

shape

Jean Paul hardly misses an opportunity when it comes to turning the reader against him. First and foremost, there are his notorious leaps of thought - of course also here in abundance. When Jean Paul has returned from the thicket, he again speaks cheerfully past the topic. Actually, this text is completely indigestible, but the intrepid further reading is rewarded with the occasional pearl finds in that text mess: "... thin lightning bolts gushed from the night haze, the flowers smoked from covered goblets, and the nightingales beat louder under the deeper thunderstorm , ... "In other words - the beauty of the text lies deeply hidden and can be discovered:" We went towards the Pyrenees - corn corridors - waterfalls - alpine huts - marble quarries - groves - grottos, animated by the beating vein system of the many-branched Adours , before us shining and open, and we had to go through them like wonderful youthful years transformed into dreams .... Oh Viktor, only travel is life, how conversely life is travel ... How do you shine, how poetry, how invent and one philosophizes when one walks along, like Montaigne , Rousseau and the sea ​​nettles only shine when they move! "

Jean Paul reaches the peak of his nonchalance in the appendix. The ten commandments that are at stake are also ignored, with the flimsy justification that Lorenz Krönlein, the creator of the woodcuts, also missed the biblical theme.

reception

In his review from 1798, the Göttingen aesthetician Friedrich Bouterwek cannot make friends with “chaotic creation” at all and has to distance himself. More than two weeks after the poet's funeral on December 2, 1825, Börne is more sympathetic in the famous “Speech on Jean Paul”, which begins with “A star has gone down ...”. The great author expressed his hopes in the "Kampaner Tale". On his 150th birthday on March 21, 1913, Johannes Nohl honors the unforgettable poet in “Jean Paul the Aviator” with a reference to his visions in the “Kampaner Valley”.

Categorization

For Schulz, “Das Kampaner Tal” is something like a “small philosophical-religious discussion”; more precisely - a discussion about “ finitude and eternity ”. Sprengel does not deviate very far from it with “ideal dispute about death and immortality”. Ueding calls the text a conversation idyll that ends with an air journey. The reader must confirm this assessment. The whole thing vanishes into thin air. De Bruyn speaks of a "morally edifying treatise " to which "a very tired satire ... is attached". According to Ortheil, there is simply a treatise. This category doesn't sound like prose at all.

philosophy

Schulz sees Kant and Fichte as Jean Paul's opponents . Jean Paul polemizes against critical philosophy and rejects the mechanistic worldview .

Love triangle

What almost goes under despite all the philosophizing, but is noticed by Zeller: Rittmeister Karlson is in love with Baron Wilhelmi's bride Gione. But already at the beginning of the hike he gets a basket from the beautiful bride: “Suddenly Gione walked more slowly to Karlson's arm and said warmly, without stuttering: 'I love the truth warmly everywhere, even at the expense of theatrical surprises: I have to tell you to discover in the name of the Baron that he and I will be bound together tomorrow forever. You must forgive your friend for not wanting to celebrate this festival without his. '”Of course, the reader observes that Karlson likes to stay close to Gionen:“ Karlson stood still at Gionen to let us in ... ”

reader

Novalis already got to know Jean Paul's pictures from the "Kampaner Tal" in June 1797. Perhaps “ Hymns to the Night ” could be partially based on one of these poetic paintings . The Günderrode have the conclusion of Jean Paul's text - that aviation - estimated.

literature

Text output

Used edition
  • The Campan Valley or about the immortality of the soul, along with an explanation of the woodcuts under the 10 commandments of the catechism. S. 561-716 in: Norbert Miller (Ed.): Jean Paul. Complete Works. Section I. Fourth Volume. Smaller narrative writings 1796–1801 (still contains: Life of Quintus Fixlein , Biographical Amusements, The Jubelsenior , Palingenesia, Letters and Upcoming CV , The Secret Lament). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2000 (licenser: Carl Hanser, Munich 1962 (4th edition 1988)). Without ISBN (order number 14965-3, 1263 pages)

Secondary literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The term “narrative” was borrowed from the “smaller narrative writings” - that is the subtitle of the edition used. Other categorizations are listed under “Reception”. Jean Paul tells with a wink. In addition, he happily hands out swipes. In particular, he is targeting Weimar, which he first visited in the early summer of 1796 (edition used, p. 1191, entry 629.13): “It is not the place here, of Weimar, this literary palatinate and municipal town, where a Trinity of three greater sages [meaning Goethe , Herder and Wieland (edition used, p. 1191, entry 633,22)] shimmers as a star led from the Orient, from this island of Barataria , into which every Sancho Panza rides only experienced a second edition once, ... "(Edition used, p. 633, 20. Zvo)
  2. ↑ In the edition used, all ten woodcuts are shown on pages 637–695.
  3. ↑ Viktor from Hesperus (Debold, p. 91, 1. Zvu)
  4. ↑ Already in ancient times people walked in philosophizing (Debold, p. 93, 5th Zvu).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 1185 below - 1186, 15. Zvo
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 1187, 7. Zvo
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 634, 4th Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 607, 24. Zvo and p. 597, 21. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 585, 1. Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 586, 7. Zvo
  7. ↑ Edition used, pp. 590, 33. Zvo
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 625, 19. Zvo
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 578, 6. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 585, 15. to 31. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 636, 1. Zvo
  12. ↑ Sprengel, p. XXXIII, 8.Zvo and p. 24 below, entry 12
  13. ↑ Sprengel, p. 105, 5th Zvu
  14. ↑ Sprengel, p. 232, 22. Zvo
  15. ↑ Schulz, p. 360, 13. Zvu
  16. ↑ Schulz, p. 626, 4th Zvu
  17. ^ Sprengel, p. XXVII, 22. Zvo
  18. ↑ Ueding, p. 183, 6. Zvo
  19. ↑ Ueding, p. 77, 9. Zvu
  20. ↑ see also Görres in: Sprengel, p. 89, 12. Zvo
  21. ↑ de Bruyn, p. 194, 6. Zvo
  22. ^ Ortheil, p. 78, 15. Zvu
  23. ↑ Schulz, p. 211, 14th Zvu
  24. ↑ Schulz, p. 212, 5. Zvo
  25. ↑ Schulz, p. 212, 11. Zvo
  26. ↑ Zeller, p. 188, 11. Zvo
  27. ↑ Edition used, p. 578, 10. Zvo
  28. ↑ Edition used, p. 591, 18. Zvo
  29. ^ Schulz, p. 626, 3rd Zvu
  30. ↑ Schulz, p. 645, middle