Im Schacht des Textes: Diskursive Schichten in E. T. A. Hoffmanns „Die Bergwerke zu Falun"

Already the title of E. T. A. Hoffmann's „Die Bergwerke zu Falun" (1818) highlights the structural composition of this novella as a mine consisting of ethnologic, alchemistic, chemical, psychoanalytical and transcendental-philosophical layers that this interpretation highlights. Ultimately caught in vitriol, the text's protagonist Elis serves as the symbol of the blundering reader: Surrounded by layers of meaning, he is incapable of recognizing and interpreting them successfully. However, a reading that follows Hoffmann's Serapiontic principle can identify Elis's fate as the novella's aesthetic and poetic guideline about how one should not read. Such a reading will be able to reconstruct the text's hermeneutic mine creatively and effectively.