Contagion: Sexuality, Disease, and Death in German Idealism and Romanticism by David Farrell Krell (review)

lections.They may shift the balance from the "Happy Few" to the "Many Happy" readers of Stendhal. '% David Farrell Krell. Contagion: Sexuality, Disease, andDeath in German Idealism andRomanticism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. 243p. Hans Gabriel The North Carolina School of the Arts Krell's studyexamines in admirable detailwhat he repeatedly refers to as the "dire" forces in the nature philosophies ofNovalis, Schelling, and Hegel. His discussion clearly demonstrates what Krell sees as connecting these three thinkers: namely, the acknowledgment of these dire forces and the relation of them to the body's "intercourse" or interaction with the natural world outside itself. At thesame time, the thoughtful conceptual rubrics used in his presentation of these writers also highlight a development, from Novalis through Schelling to Hegel, in how each thinker's work reflects his awareness of these forces. Krell's examination of Novalis' nature philosophy centers on the mouth as a point of exchange or interaction, one that he shows to function for Novalis on both a sexual and a physiological level. Krell locates the mouth as the focal point of Novalis' philosophical yearning for a miraculous reunion of body and nature containing all the purity of a pre-individuated nature. This impossible reunion Krell terms "thaumaturgie" or "magic" idealism, and he demonstrates howNovalis' longing for it is wracked by an awareness of the fact that, as Krell puts it, "The first kiss is always a kiss of death — and aie first thing to die is the concept of 'firstness'" (21). Krell goes on to characterize Schelling's philosophy as a "tormented idealism," one that revolves around the awareness ofan irresolvable natural bifurcation. This division manifests itselfnot only in the differentiation ofthe sexes, but again, as with Novalis, in the irresolvable ironic duplicity of their interaction with each other and with nature: the natural physical interaction ofthe body that supports life — be it breathing, eating, or sexual intercourse — is also the conduit ofdisease and death. As was the case in Novalis' writings, this awareness is apparent in the system in the aberrant, the diseased, the malformed exceptions that always accompany the natural rules. Hegel's philosophy of nature, finally, is for Krell a "triumphant idealism" not because it resolves the duplicity or "contagion" inherent and inevitable in the body's physical existence, but because it refuses to let itselfbe overcome by it. The "contagion" (Krell borrows the term from Schelling) SPRING 2000 *"· IiOCKY MOUNTAIN R E V I E W ¦:¦ I I !> remains in Hegel's system even as the system moves on toward its triumphant conclusion, onewhich, given Krell's interest in the moments of"contagion," Krell aptly describes in his conclusion as a "triumph ofashes" (161). Krell readily acknowledges the debt his study owes to Derrida and the critical tenets ofdeconstruction throughout his notes (see particularly note 10, 170-1), and this dependence on deconstruction proves to be both a blessing and a curse. On the onehand, this approach encourages what is ultimately the book's strength: it permits Krell to delve into otherwise overlooked or underappreciated aspects and passages ofthese three philosophers. His study is most impressive in its revelation ofHegel's "dire romantic" side, in its attention to the sense offailure that inhabits Hegel's "triumphant idealism." On the otherhand and at the same time, however, Krell's deconstructive framework implicitly claims more than his study can deliver. In his opening lines, Krell presents a notion ofGerman Romanticism that is nothing more than a straw man, a target to allow him to set his deconstruction into motion. This only distracts the reader away from the material Krell presents. "Word is," Krell writes, "that the German Idealists and Romantics were dreamy folk whose hearts leapt up when they beheld a rainbow in the sky. So they were__ Yet ... for the so-called Romantics and Idealists ... all the forces of nature were dire forces" (1). Certainly no one at all familiar with German Romanticism (with Hoffmann's DerSandmann, forexample, which Krell also discusses briefly) could possibly hold the one-sided view that Krell posits here as his initial "word" on the German Idealists and Romantics. Ifanything, the "word" on the German Romantics, at least in German-language literature...