German Romanticism and Latin America: New Connections in World Literature is a long-overdue publication in the fields of German Romantic and Latin American Studies. Originating from a two-day workshop in 2021 at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University, this collection of essays by international scholars deals with the core topic through two main approaches: relationality and worlding, charting new horizontal literary connections while addressing pressing issues such as feminism, post-coloniality, and socio-economic critique.

The book showcases its strengths right from the beginning. The insightful introduction by Joanna Neilly and Jenny Haase achieves something that seldom occurs: it not only provides the essential theoretical framework to understand the subsequent chapters fully, but it also stands alone as a valuable scholarly work. This introduction is a must-read and could serve as an excellent resource for German Romanticism and Latin American Literature studies courses.

The first chapter by Carol Tully aims to trace the origins of the reception of German Romantic literature and philosophy in Latin America, tackling a theme that, as the author stresses, has predominantly been inspected in the opposite direction. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of "interanimation," Tully provides a comprehensive genealogy of the cultural relationship between Germany and Latin America, detailing the contributions and involvement of Germans on the continent since the Early Modern period and culminating with a focus on the Romantic era.

One of the main assets of this publication is its ability to transcend the chronological framework typically associated with the European Romantic period (roughly 1750–1850), approaching the topic with greater temporal flexibility. This allows Gesine Müller, for instance, to look at the synergies between German Romantic literature and the Latin American Boom of the 20th century, focusing on authors like Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa. In her chapter, Müller aims to establish a connection that takes into account the extra-literary social contexts, persuasively arguing that the Latin American Boom can be viewed as a form of contemporary Romanticism linked to its German counterpart through a shared quest for national and territorial identities.

Karolina Watroba presents an alternative "Caribbean genealogy" of Romanticism. Starting with an excerpt from Memorias de Mamá Blanca by Teresa de la Parra, which refers to Romanticism as an "indigenous fruit" born in the tropics like "tobacco, pineapple, and sugar cane" (p. 51), Watroba weaves a thought-provoking network of connections with Alexander von Humboldt and the European Enlightenment. She proposes a critical counternarrative to European Romanticism and the Humboldtian model, which called for a holistic (yet Eurocentric) integration of disciplines by uniting the sciences and the arts. Watroba’s analysis is in line with that of scholars like Mary Louise Pratt and Susanne Zantop. This chapter successfully highlights critical responses from late 19th- and early 20th-century Latin American writers such as José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Teresa de la Parra, and contemporary artist José Alejandro Restrepo. It offers a much-needed evaluative revision of Humboldt’s legacy, which, until quite recently, was often viewed through an adulatory lens that overlooked its ties to an imperial gaze radiating from Europe.

In the subsequent chapter, Joanna Neilly addresses the life and work of Johann Moritz Rugendas, a disciple of Humboldt who some scholars have described as "the Alexander von Humboldt of painting in Latin America". Rather than focusing directly on Rugendas’ extensive body of paintings and drawings, Neilly approaches him through the lens of two critical novels about his life: César Aira’s Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero and Carlos Franz’s Si te viera con mis ojos. At one point, Neilly draws attention to how the German translation of Franz’s book, which was sponsored by the cultural division of Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Franz being Chilean), reveals unresolved aspects of the intricate cultural relationship between Germany and Chile, exposing persistent ideas and stereotypes about the role of Romantics in the German imagination of postcolonial Latin America. Neilly also underscores the striking contrast with Aira’s Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero, emphasising how Aira subverts traditional novel structures – incorporating, for instance, elements of the documentary genre – challenging "readers’ expectations of adventure narratives" (p. 83). However, the chapter could benefit from a deeper examination of Rugendas’ role within the Humboldtian network of informants and its "illustrated" imperial logic, which might offer a more cohesive connection to Watroba’s chapter.

Departing from the subject of Humboldt and Romantic traveller painters, Catalina Forttes Zalaquett shifts focus to the reinterpretation of Gothic themes, using Mariana Enriquez’ Nuestra parte de la noche and Samanta Schweblin’s Distancia de rescate as key examples. Her concept of "unspeakable motherhoods" offers an insightful lens through which she dissects how these authors use Gothic elements to defy patriarchal depictions of motherhood and caregiving while confronting lingering feminist concerns related to these themes. Forttes Zalaquett’s contribution stands out in the book for its nuanced exploration of critical issues, including patriarchal capitalism, structural violence, and gender roles. She effectively ties these themes to both the Romantic tradition and contemporary Latin American history, including significant references to the "disappeared" during Latin American dictatorships.

Héctor Hoyos’ chapter offers a distinct and essential perspective that complements the book’s earlier sections. As he notes in the opening lines, his text puts the accent on the "dissonances" between German Romanticism and contemporary Latin America rather than the "resonances". Hoyos builds his argument around the concept of Zivilcourage, engagingly illustrated through a personal anecdote as a pedestrian in Berlin, to shed light on Ariel Magnus’ 2013 Spanish translation of Heinrich von Kleist’s 1810 novella Michael Kohlhaas. Hoyos adeptly explores how Magnus’ translation typifies the adaptation of German Romanticism into a form that makes sense to modern readers, replacing the 19th-century German bureaucratic language with a synthesis that reflects Latin American idiosyncrasies.

Adrian Daub also engages with modern trends, arguing that the legacies of Nazism have always tainted the way Latin American literature has adopted German themes. Through examples from Roberto Bolaño and Jorge Volpi’s essays, novels, and stories, Daub scrutinises how German history and language, sometimes intentionally mistranslated, have infiltrated Latin America’s contemporary literature. His most significant insight is interpreting Bolaño’s fascination with Germanness as an 'extractive process of colonialism,' in which Bolaño 'exploits, circulates, and resituates' (p. 120) elements from German literature and history. Daub also deals with Volpi’s En busca de Klingsor, underlining the nuanced distinctions in how this sort of cultural anthropophagy is undertaken by Bolaño and Volpi. Daub’s subject is pivotal, especially considering how, in the aftermath of post-World War II, Latin America became a Nazi bolthole built upon German Romantic tropes planted in the continent during the 19th century.

Anthony Phelan’s chapter further confirms Roberto Bolaño’s stature as one of the most prominent figures in the contemporary Latin American literary landscape. Phelan devotes his analysis to Bolaño and Andrés Neuman as the heirs of the principle of Romantic irony. The author painstakingly pinpoints elements from E.T.A. Hoffman, the brothers Schlegel, Novalis, and Ludwig Tieck in Neuman’s El viajero del siglo and Bolaño’s 2666, foregrounding the various ways these authors challenge and transform the Romantic model in their works.

In a different vein, Jenny Haase’s final chapter examines Neuman’s El viajero del siglo alongside French writer Mathias Enard’s 2015 novel Boussole, comparing them with Wilhelm Müller’s cycle of poems Die Winterreise (1824) and Franz Schubert’s musical adaptation. Haase presents a well-elaborated analysis, revealing how Neuman and Enard have reappropriated these Romantic works, infusing them with new political and cultural dimensions.

Overall, this book is a valuable addition to the expanding scholarship on cultural exchanges between Germany and Latin America. It offers a timely and intellectually ambitious breakdown of the impact of German Romanticism on local literature, making a significant contribution to various fields of study. Its depth and breadth inspire hope for similar publications that explore other dimensions, such as visual arts, music, and film.

Review written by Miguel Gaete

Die Rezension ist unter dem nachfolgenden Link dauerhaft abrufbar: https://doi.org/10.22032/dbt.62270