Between Memory and Forgetting: Metempsychosis, Anamnesis, and Transmigration of Souls; Representations of Memory in the Eighteenth-Century German Literature
Abstract
The article presents the theme of memory and forgetfulness, understood as metaphysical and religious experiences, in the eighteenth-century German literature and philosophy. A particular emphasis has been placed on the influence which the esoteric ideas—popular among authors of that literary period—of metempsychosis, palingenesis, transmigration of souls, and anamnesis exerted on the concepts of the soul and the soul’s memory. In this context, the selected literary works and studies in philosophical aesthetics have been discussed to show the forms, sources, and goals of the different ways of representing the soul’s memory and addressing the problem of forgetting.
Keywords:
reincarnation, anamnesis, memory, Goethe, Schiller, LessingHAAS, A. K. (2021). Między wspomnieniem a zapomnieniem. Metempsychoza, anamneza, wędrówka duszy. Przedstawienia pamięci w niemieckiej literaturze osiemnastego wieku. Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL, 34(3), 166–192. https://doi.org/10.12887/34-2021-3-135-12
