Download or read book Heinrich Von Kleist's Poetics of Passivity (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture) written by Steven R. Huff and published by Studies in German Literature L. This book was released on 2009 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book scrutinizes for the first time a key element in Kleist's thought and poetic process: his obsession with the problem of passivity. Scholars have long been attracted to the dynamic, larger-than-life characters in Kleist's fiction and drama, overlooking the fact that Kleist's works often turn on moments of stasis, as these same protagonists are suddenly and sometimes brutally rendered passive. Through a careful, historically grounded, and original investigation incorporating extensive primary research in late-Enlightenment natural philosophy and eighteenth-century medical practices, the study sheds light on these nodal points in Kleist's work, contending that these structures of passivity are so pervasive and so systematic in his work that they can justifiably and profitably be viewed as constituting a kind of poetics."--BOOK JACKET.