Between Memory and Forgetting: Metempsychosis, Anamnesis, and Transmigration of Souls; Representations of Memory in the Eighteenth-Century German Literature

Agnieszka K. HAAS

Zakład Literatury i Kultury Niemieckiej, Instytut Filologii Germańskiej, Wydział Filologiczny, Uniwersytet Gdański, ul. Wita Stwosza 51, 80-316 Gdańsk, Poland , Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2768-5981



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, Lessing



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Published
2022-03-28


HAAS, A. K. (2022). Między wspomnieniem a zapomnieniem. Metempsychoza, anamneza, wędrówka duszy. Przedstawienia pamięci w niemieckiej literaturze osiemnastego wieku. Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL, 34(3 (135). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.kul.pl/index.php/ethos/article/view/13696

Agnieszka K. HAAS 
Zakład Literatury i Kultury Niemieckiej, Instytut Filologii Germańskiej, Wydział Filologiczny, Uniwersytet Gdański, ul. Wita Stwosza 51, 80-316 Gdańsk, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2768-5981



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