Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:28:09.598Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Writing War and the Aesthetics of Political Literature in the 1790s: Daniel Jenisch's (Un)timely Seven Years' War Epic Borussias

from Part I - War and Enlightenment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Johannes Birgfeld
Affiliation:
University in Saarbrücken
Elisabeth Krimmer
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Patricia Anne Simpson
Affiliation:
Montana State University
Get access

Summary

IN 1794 DANIEL JENISCH, a proponent of the late Enlightenment who is largely unknown today, published what must be called one of the most unique books of eighteenth-century German literature. A versatile writer, Jenisch was well acquainted with many respected authors but by and large had remained at the margins of the literary republic. In a time of political crisis, with a literary market dominated by topical, short-lived news in broadsheets, pamphlets, and newspapers, Jenisch offered readers a two-volume epic in twelve cantos entitled Borussias. The text is not only the longest and most elaborate literary treatment of the Seven Years' War (1756–63) in eighteenth-century German literature, but proves on closer examination to be highly complex and innovative. Among other features, it combines detailed battle scenes with long lamentations for the victims of war; it contrasts a king's soliloquy on suicide with a dying soldier's heavenly revelations about the true nature of the universe; and it juxtaposes reports of plots against Frederick with a eulogy of his political achievements. Past interpretations of the text have found it inconclusive. In contrast, this chapter maintains that the epic constructs a coherent argument: to Jenisch, the Seven Years' War served as a Trojan Horse that allowed him to participate in the 1790s debate on Europe's political future despite censorship and the anti-Enlightenment campaign initiated by the Prussian government under Johann Christoph von Wöllner.

Type
Chapter
Information
Enlightened War
German Theories and Cultures of Warfare from Frederick the Great to Clausewitz
, pp. 41 - 72
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×