"Hoffmann’s complex" in Edgar Allan Poe’s story "Loss of Breath"

Abstract

In the article, based on the theory of intertextuality (Roland Barth, Julia Kristeva), the question of the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on the formation of the satirical style of Edgar Allan Poe in the cycle of stories Grotesques and Arabesques (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1839)). The author argues that Hoffmann’s recognizable plots (“The Sandman”, “Princess Brambilla”, “Elixirs of Satan”, etc.), which were popular during this period in Europe, as well as the relevance of the problems of his works and the original style, could become a source of not only satire (the story “Loss of Breath” is written as a parody of works from Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, where Hoffmann was also published during this period), but also samples for the early works of Poe. The hypothesis of the article is the statement about the possibility of applying in American literature, on the example of Poe’s story “Loss of Breath”, the previously developed methodology of “Hoffmann’s complex” (characterized by the integrity of the reproduced content, the unity of issues, images and stylistic techniques), which allows highlighting the traditions of the German romantic in Poe’s works, where they are not obvious. The features of Hoffmann’s poetics are considered in Poe’s “Loss of Breath” (1832) in the form of “Hoffmann’s complex”, which includes the following components. Firstly, it is the transformation of the romantic plot (Hoffmann’s “Adventure on New Year’s Eve”), which Poe reinterprets ironically, depriving it of an infernal context. He rethinks the idea of a two-world and mixes the real-life and theatrical narrative planes by combining the puppet element with the human one, by characters’ behaving theatrically, by acting out the roles that are imposed by society (a corpse, a criminal), by replacing household details with theatrical attributes (a false jaw, two buslles, a false eye). Secondly, it is the actualization of the problem of mechanization of life and man, which is realized in the opposition of the living – the inanimate (“The Sandman”, “Princess Brambilla’) and is aimed at criticizing society, which devalues a person and turns him into a “living” corpse, a doll. In contrast, objects come to life, and abstract concepts (breath) become materialized. Another manifestation of the problem of mechanization of life and man is the comparison of a man with an animal, and an animal with a man. Thirdly, it is the use of stylistic techniques characteristic of Hoffmann (“The Golden Pot”, “Little Zaches Called Cinnabar”, “Princess Brambilla”, etc.): hyperbole, self-explanatory names, romantic irony and grotesque, which are characterized by a sharp change of the serious and the frivolous, a combination of the objective and the subjective, a continuous parody, as well as the use of alogism – reasoning that violates the laws of logic, when something terrible (execution, autopsy of the body) is described as funny, etc.