The Nature of the Muses: The Poetics of Loreley in Works by Franz Josef Czernin, Ulla Hahn, Uwe Kolbe, and Peter Rühmkorf

Abstract

Loreley, a natural-born femme fatale from German mythology, has inspired poets since Romanticism. From a contemporary perspective, however, this character has simply lost her magical qualities and, at the same time, been transformed into a gatekeeper and an advocate for nature under threat in the Anthropocene. This article concerns the poetics surrounding Loreley – including the use of irony, role report, metamorphosis, and inspiration – in Franz Josef Czernin’s sonnet, „nach loreley“, Ulla Hahn’s „Ars poetica“ and „Meine Loreley“, Uwe Kolbe’s „Halle-Lureley“, and Peter Rühmkorf’s „Hochseil“. Loreley’s broken modernity does not only re veal her own abused nature. She is also promoted to a postmodern ‚Zudichterin‘ (Ernst Robert Curtius), reading the book of nature through semiotics rather than in terms of originality and creation