Resumen de Poetik der Illumination. Hugo von Hofmannsthals Bildreflexionen im Gespräch über Gedichte
A study of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's reflections upon the nature of the image in his text Gespräch über Gedichte. In this text on poetry, but also in other texts by Hofmannstahl, overt contradictions within a poetics of illumination open up a fundamental impasse of inquiry inherent in the question of the nature of the image in the (poetic) language, which continues to leave us displaced even today. The complex of associations conjured up by the visual is ultimately about the utopia of personified presence and image-magical participation—a performative dimension of the power of the image. Hofmannstahl conjures up the power of the image as a poetics of illuminated, elevated moments; in Gesprach über Gedichte, simultaneity and presence-making illumination come together. This article is a slightly revised version of a public lecture delivered at the international Summer School of the NFS Project eikones/Bildkritik in Basel, Switzerland, on September 7, 2007.
