Philosophy and the Fairy Tale: Ernst Bloch as Narrator Author(s): Liliane Weissberg Source: New German Critique,

No. 55 (Winter, 1992), pp. 21-44 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/488287 Accessed: 02/08/2010 11:23
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and Philosophy the Fairy Tale: Ernst Blochas Narrator

Liliane Weissberg
I

In his "Von den Lebensaltern einer Sprache," an essay included in die Literatur: the collection Ober neueredeutsche Fragmente, published in 1766 and 1767 and revised in 1768,Johann GottfriedHerder describes the development of language by comparing its early stage to that of human childhood. Herder does not have any individualgrowth to maturity in mind, however. Language in its childhood is like a nation in its youth; it is of "wild origin": A languagein its childhoodbreaksforth in sounds [Tdne] one of ones and high ones, like a child does. A nationin syllable,rough its firstwild originstares[starrt] all objectslikea child does;terat sensationsof which both are only capable,and the languageof these sensationsare sounds - and gestures.' To terror and fear, Herder adds wonder or admiration, and the tragic sequence of emotions makes room for a language of sentiments, an
* A first version of this paper was delivered at "The Playground of Textuality," a conference organized by Alan Udoff and Robert Mandel at Wayne State University in 1988. I would like to thank the organizers for their invitation to speak, and the participants for a stimulating discussion. 1. Johann Gottfried Herder, Werke Herder derSturmundDrang1764-1774,ed. 1. und Wolfgang Prog (Munich: Hanser, 1984) 145.

ror [Schrecken], [Furcht], then wonder [Bewunderung] the fear and are

21

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and Philosophy theFairyTale

idea that Herder may have conceived from Locke or Condillac.2Sentiments become a language of sounds and gestures. The range of sentiments that Herder describes follows a moment of Medusa-like silence: the child's stare is fixed. This is a stillness other than that of beauty or great art. Starren turns the child into stone, but the stable glance does not produce the stilleGrofie (silent nobility) that Johann Joachim Winckelmann had promoted just a few years earlier.3 and Schrecken not suggest a pleasurable beginning for do Starren, Furcht, but rather a trauma from which the human being has to relanguage, cover. It is imperative to look for a civilizing function, a rescue as and in change, much as Bewunderung receives the transformingprefix "Ver" to change into Verwunderung: Just as the child or nation changes- languagechangeswith it.
Horror [Entsetzen], fear [Furcht], and wonderment [Verwunderung]

one disappeared slowlyas one learnedto knowobjectsbetter; bewith them and gavethem names:names thatwere came familiar takenfrom nature,and thattriedto imitateit as much as possible
in its sounds. (146)

The uncanny objects become canny ones; they become heimlich and move close to home. Language evolves with the child's or nation's development, and objects are named as they grow increasingly familiar. The human being's knowledge of these objects, and his trust in them, provoke names. These names, in turn, are able to tame the objects by attributing sounds to them that imitate those of nature. In his later Abhandlung den Ursprung Sprache 1771, Herder der of iiber revises his concept of language by cautiously separating the language of emotions from that of articulated speech. Only the second belongs to the human being, and indeed defines it. Herder has not put aside Furcht and Schrecken, however. In the second volume of Adrastea, dated he evokes fear once again. Here, it appears in reference to the 1801, fairy tale, a genre that may be associated with childhood or literature's
2. See Hans Aarsleff, "The Tradition of Condillac: The Problem of the Origin of Language in the Eighteenth Century and the Debate in the Berlin Academy before Locke Saussure: to on and Herder," From Essays theStudy Language Intellectual of History (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1982) 146-69. 3. Johann Joachim Winckelmann,Gedancken dieNachahmung griechischen iiber der Werke in derMalerei Bildhauerkunst und Litteraturdenkmale 18. und 19. des (1755). Rpt. in Deutsche 20, Jahrhunderts ed. BernhardSeuffert(1885; Nendeln/Liechtenstein:Kraus,1968) 24-25.

Liliane Weissberg

23

"youth." This time, however, terror can be overcome more easily and is relegated to the background. Wonder, a category already developed in 18th-century aesthetics in relationship to the new,4 is reintroduced to the discussion of literature in this text, and it is accompanied by curiosity and astonishment: With astonishment [Staunend] awaken into the world; our first we curiossentiment is, if not fear [Furcht], wonder [Verwunderung], then astonishment [Staunen]."What is all of this that ity [Neugierde], surrounds me? How did it come into being? It goes and it comes; who is pulling the stringsof its appearance?What ties the changing characters together?" Thus asks itself, unconsciously, [wandelnde] the childlike sense; from whom does it receive the answer? Not from silent nature; nature lets appear and disappear, and remains in its dark ground, what it was, what it is, what it will be. But then, they approach us, they who sense us from nature's womb and once had asked the same; as they had been taught, they ... taught us, by - sagas[Sagen]. Thus derive the oldest, the cosmoloof tales [kosmogonischen gical fairy Mdhrchen] all nations: they were exof nature, of what one saw every day or every year beplanations fore one's eyes. Where one did not know, one composed poetry man and narratives[dichtete und erzihlte].5 Astonishment, curiosity, wonder - Staunen, Neugierde,Verwunderung accompany the human being's awakening into the world. Sagen and the Miihrchen, saga and the fairy tale, are genres that are put together here because of their common origin, and they take the place of language itself in their taming function of explanation. The tragedy seems banned. Herder introduces the fairy tale as a necessary creation following the genesis of the human being itself. Its enlightening purpose, captured in Dichtung and Erzdhlung, defines its peculiar account as that of true Zahlen, cosmological numbers. It leads the human being out of that realm marked by the questions of astonishment or even fear and answers these questions with familiarity. The fairy tale itself is thus placed
4. I am thinking in particularof the aesthetic concepts of Breitinger and Bodmer, but a discussion of this category can be found in many other texts following Baumgarals For ten's Aesthetica. a general survey, see Karl-Heinz Stahl, Das Wunderbare Problem des und Gegenstand 17. und 18.Jahrhunderts, Athenaion, 1975). (Frankfurt/Main: und 5. Johann Gottfried Herder, "MWihrchen Romane," Adrastea Drittes Stfick. 2, Werke ed. Bernhard Suphan (Berlin:Weidmannsche Buch1801 (1802). Sdmmtliche 23, handlung, 1885) 274.

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and Philosophy the FairyTale

in the context of the first questions addressed to the world, as well as of the discussion that pertains to the formulation of these questions, the problem of the origin of language. II Ernst Bloch does not often referto Herder'sworks,and when he does so, he expresses reservationsabout Herder's general philosophy. Bloch does praise some of his insights, however. He quotes Herder in his discussion of Storm and Stressin "Aus der Begriffsgeschichte (doppeldes for example. Herder provides an "astonishing sinnig) 'Unbewul'ten,"' on a notion Bloch himself elaboapergu" the waking dream (Wachtraum), rates on, using the term Tagtraum (daydream)in answer to and as a criBloch distique of Freud's concept of dreams.6In Das Prinzip Hoffnung, cusses the fairy tale in the context of such a Tagtraum the unconand scious formulation of man's wishes.7Throughout his work, and without reference to Herder's attempt at reevaluatingthe genre, Bloch is con-

cernedwith the fairytale.

one. Consciously from a discussionof Bloch'sworkwithin abstaining the Marxist and Hegeliantradition that he himselfhas stressed, us let followa line from Herderto Bloch,takingthe fairytale "literally" and on of model. Can reflecting the consequences choosingit as a narrative Herder'sown placementand description the fairytale elucidate of the of Bloch'swritings,8 similarities the betweenthe opening passageof
6. Ernst Bloch, Philosophische Phantasie. Gesamtausgabe 10 Aufsiitzezur objektiven (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985) 97, 105-06. Compare the sections on "TagtrAume" in Das Prinzip Hoffnung1 (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1974) esp. 86-128. See the discussion of Bloch and Freud in Arno Muinster,Utopie, Messianismus Apokalypse und im von Friihwerk ErnstBloch(Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1982) 21-26. Note also the brief und Literatur Sprache: passage on Herder and Lessing in GuinterWitschel, ErnstBloch: und Theorie Leistung (Bonn: Bouvier Herbert Grundmann, 1978) 78; Witschel does not discuss the relationship between Bloch and Herder, however. 7. See, for example, Bloch, "Bessere Luftschl6sser in Jahrmarkt und Zirkus, in Marchen und Kolportage,"Das Prinzip Hoffnung1: 409-28. 8. See, for example, Burghart Schmidt, ErnstBloch,(ser.) Sammlung Metzler 222 and Metzler, 1985) 62; or FredricJameson, Marxism Form (Stuttgart: (Princeton:Princeton UP, 1971) 156.

But perhaps the constellation of Herder and Bloch is an illuminating

importance that Ernst Bloch has given to this literarygenre? While much has been written on the expressionistic or biblical tone

LilianeWeissberg 25 Das PrinzipHoffnungand Herder's passage on the fairy tale quoted above have gone unnoticed. Bloch, too, introduces his magnum opus with questions. He implicates the reader, however, by posing those questions that should concern us all: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Whatare we waitingfor?Whatawaitsus? Manyjust feel confused.The ground is shaking,they do not when knowwhyor whatthe reasonis. Theirstateis one of anxiety,
it becomes more definite, then it is fear [Furcht].

was mastered in a terrible way [entsetzlich]. Now, however, as one

far Once upon a time, a man traveled to learnfear.In the time thathasjust passed,this was easierdone and came closer,this art

of takesaccountof the originators fear,another,more timelyfeelis due. ing It is importantto learnhope.9

Bloch's questions, asking for us what before Herder's "child" had asked itself, delineate moments of fear. It is not the fairy tale that resolves these feelings for us now, but hope. Hope itself, however, is introduced as a linguistic change, the exchange of words marking different goals of learning:"Once upon a time, a man traveledfar to learn change of words is, at the same time, a change of title. Bloch refers to a specific text, the "Mairchenvon einem, der auszog, das Fiirchten zu lernen," and renames it. The fairytale of the man who traveledfar to learn fear is, in its earliest version, noted down as number four in the first volume of the Kinderund Hausmdirchen, published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.10 It tells the story of a simple and poor young man who is curious to know what fear is. He spends three nights in a ghostly castle, but learns about fear only at the very end when, afterhaving married the king's daughter, his wife disturbs an idyllic scene at home by pouring a bucket of cold water on him, fish included. This tale is transmitted in other versions in the subsequent Grimm collections;the laterversions add, and elaborateon,
9. Bloch, Das Prinzip Hoffnung1: 1. 10. In regard to the traditionof this tale, see Heinz Rolleke, "'Mirchen von einem, und der auszog, das Fiirchtenzulernen': Zu OUberlieferung Bedeutung,"'Nebeninschriften' Studien(Bonn: Literarhistorische BriiderGrimm- Arnimund Brentano Droste-Hiilshoff Bouvier Herbert Grundmann, 1980) 37-49.

fear. .... It is important to learn hope." The change of goals and the

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and Philosophy theFairyTale

the comedic ending that seems so much at odds with the story'sgeneral tone. While bringing fear home, the fairy tale changes into an uncanny burlesque. A Freudiananalysismay save the tale as a contemplation of the notion of fear, but this contemplation curiously disturbs the structure of the fairy tale itself. Heinz R61oecke speculates that the later versions attemptto save the integrityof the narrative while tryingto come to terms with its paradoxicaltheme and structure:"the theme of learning fear is a downright challenge to the 'fairytale' genre" (49). Unlike the sagas, to which Herder also refers, the plots of the fairy tales provide examples of the longing for a happy ending." The fairy tale's hero, moreover, is the common, even the underprivileged man who receives his chance to rise above his fate. The happy ending of the tale of fear is a rather ambivalent one, however. By replacing fear with hope in the passage above, Bloch ironically puts into place what the fairy tale should rather be about. Stressing our current needs, Bloch returns the tale to its proper subject before claiming it for his own discussion in the third part of Das Prinzip entitled "WunschbilHoffnung der im Spiegel: Auslage, Mairchen, Reise, Film, Schaubuihne" (395522). In the process of this correction, Bloch performs a double exchange. Fear, thus eliminated, is no longer a primary experience but the result of a lesson, and it is already transmitted in the lesson of the fairy tale itself that is in turn reduced to its very title.

Grimm's tale of the study of fear and cites other tales by the Brothers Grimm as well. Referring Cinderella's to golden slipper,12 he describes the specialattraction the fairytale as its golden shine: "The fairytale alof is ways becomes golden at the end, enough luck [Gliick] there. The small heroes and the poor alwaysreach this place there, where life has become luck" (pltzliche Verdnderung&fjihe[s] (414) - of a positiveturn of fate. Gliick) This turn of fate is prefiguredby the hero's longings and representedby the tale's structurethat incorporatesa moment of change. Staunen,astonishment and surprise, and Verwunderung, transforming

In the chapter DasPrinzip of Hoffnung quotedabove,Blochsummarizes

The momentof wonderin the firstconfrontation with good" (410-11). the worldturnsintothe momentof wonder- "sudden sudden change,

11. See Hermann Wiegmann,Ernst asthetische und interpretative FunkKriterien ihre Blochs tionin seinenliterarischen (Bonn: Bouvier Herbert Grundmann, 1976) 143-46. Aufsdtzen 12. German versions of "Aschenputtel" cite a golden, not a glass slipper; see the 1819 rendering of the tale in Briider Grimm, Kinder- Hausmarchen und (1949; Munich: Winkler, 1978) 616.

LilianeWeissberg 27 amazement and wonder, are terms Herder uses to describe the origin of language and the origin of the fairy tale. Bloch uses the notions of astonishment, amazement, and wonder in his description of the fairy tale as well, but develops them into important terms for his philosophy. His move elucidatesand repeats Herder's own gesture of establishing a literature; he recaptures the Platonic and Aristotelian idea of wonder as the beginning of philosophical thought and as the origin of questioning itself.'s Philosophical questioning and the fairy-talequest meet in Bloch to produce a philosopher-hero who asks questions to familiarize himself with the world.'4 Each notion is thus advanced and familiarized by way of traditional narrative;and narrative,rather than his rewritingof philosophical concepts, is at the center of our investigation of Bloch's reception of the fairy tale. for At the end of his book Spuren, example, Bloch introduces a section named "Das Staunen" with an epigraph taken from Knut Hamsun's novel Pan. A man and a woman comment on the simple fact that it is raining. This observation is expressed in simple sentences, but it elicits wonder and brings forth questions. Bloch writes: Yes, only imagine,it is raining.She who has felt this, wondered was about it suddenly[pMtzlich staunte], far behind, far addariiber she her vanced.Littlereallyattracted attention,and nevertheless of was suddenlycarriedto the origin [Keim] all questioning.'s
13. Bloch refersto this traditionand KnutHamsun'snovel Panin an interview Francesco der of withthe Italiantranslator Geist Utopie, 1 Coppellotti, Sept.1974.Arno Bloch mit Interviews Ernst ed. vom (Frankfurt/ Muinster, Tagtriiume auftechten Sechs Gang. 164-65. Main:Suhrkamp, 1977) 14. This philosophershould not lose the nalvett of the "littleman." Compare Bloch'sown notes on Aristotle: we and Insteadof pondering [Griibeln] questioning [Erfragen], meet now a viewturnedto the outerworld,whichdoes not meanthatit is not likewise Aristotle havehad and Otherwise, may veryfullof pondering questioning. but breadth He, [Weite], no depth[Tiefe]. who only pondersand questions, and he cannotbe a philosopher, does not own breadth.Pondering the for the of breadth viewtogether, wayto makeit difficult oneselfand not to not lose, at the sametime,one'snaivete, to removeoneselffromthe naive of realism the commonmanto followsome esoteric thought [Spintisieren] canand this is just whatmakeshealthy classical philosophy. Questioning of one otherwise of the mostimportant not be absent, however, ingredients wouldbe missing. VorlesunAntike Philosophie. Leipziger (Bloch, philosophizing der 1 [Frankfurt/Main: 1985]210.) Suhrkamp, genzurGeschichtePhilosophie 15. Bloch,Spuren. 1 (Frankfurt/Main: 1985)216. Suhrkamp, Werkausgabe

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and Philosophy theFairyTale

What seems to be unimportant, "the incidental particular,"suddenly bears general importance.16Language, seemingly incidental (beililufig) as well, relates a new meaning that was already inherent in the everyday word: word and object share this experience. To reach a general meaning, the viewer approaches the object while it is moving away. What seems to be well known and familiar becomes visible in a glance that draws upon estrangement, the defamiliarization of rain as well as that of the objects seen in this weather. This closer study of the rain reenacts the wonder for which the "proper words" (216) have not yet been found. Bloch describes this moment as one of darkness, where being and nothingness meet. It is also, however, a situation of anticipation, of experiencing the utopian Noch-Nicht yet) of what may still come to (not pass. Bloch reflects on the process of contemplating a branch in the rain and continues: Doesn'tit carryoverwith its "being"[Sein] well into the "nothas in which it would not be or would not be this ingness"[Nichts] Does way, and which makes it doubly strange[befremdend]? this of simple wonder [schlichten not carryover as question Staunens] well into this "nothingness," whichit hopes to find its universe in cosmos:All]?- withthe shock[Chok] how insecure of [everything, and darkthe world'sgroundis, withthe hope thateverything can still "be" different because of it, namely so very much our just own "being,"that a questionis no longer needed, but that it is and posing itselfcompletelyin this wonderment[Staunen] finally
becomes "luck," a being like luck [einSein wie Gliick]. (217)

Bloch's Nichtsdoes not just imply an apocalyptic ending; next to the there is the sudden realization of hope. Darkness can be followed Chok, a new beginning. by This passage on "Das Staunen" is preceded by a passage called "Motive des weissen Zaubers," a section on the fairy tale.7 The "simStaunen(214), ple wonder," described in this section too as schlichtes
16. Helmuth Arntzen, ZurSprache kommen (Miinster:Aschendorff, 1983) 326. 17. Indeed Bloch discusses Chok elsewhere in relationship to a fairy tale, namely vu," Literarische Ludwig Tieck's "Der blonde Eckbert." See "Bilder des Aufsiitze, Dejt 9 Werkausgabe (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1965) 232-42, esp. 238-42. Compare also Karlheinz Weigand, "Zu Tiecks 'Der blonde Eckbert' anhand der Deutung durch Ernst Bloch." BlochAlmanach (1983): 117-21. 3

LilianeWeissberg 29 draws in "Das Staunen" upon the luck of the fairy tale. The fairy tale, quoted at the end of the early Spurenas well as at the outset - "VorBloch's project and human strivingat large. To learn how to hope, one has not only to experience Staunen,but also to hope for the further chance, the change of Verwunderung.
III

becomes an allegoricalfigure for wort" - of Das Prinzip Hoffnung,

writes Hans stead of demonstratingphilosophy paradigmatically" in the piecesthatwerelaterincorporated Mayer, describing journalistic form is alreadythe content.Each time, one is "The narrative Spuren. and has to thinkover the tale. Nothingmore can be gained puzzled from it, but this is preciselyits philosophy."'s Mayer'sinsistenceon as philosophycan be quesform as content,on contemplative reading tioned, just because of the didacticcontent that fairy tales bear for It Bloch,the lessonto be learnedthatunderlieshis conceptof allegory. as is clear,however,thatthe narrative well as the processof narrating Blochtrustslanguage, he testshis and to arecentral Bloch'sphilosophy. of eachbook.Eachbook seemsto trustagainand againwiththe writing to indicate withits own birththe desireand hope for a Heimat be gained. of and evidence future set Bloch'snarratives, intothisframework present of standin the tradition prophetic reconciliation, writing. in of Bloch seems to find traces,Spuren, thisHeimat the present,and has to discoverthese traces, he finds it in languageas well. The reader however,in a placethatdiffersfrom language's properone. Narrative, firstof all, is an oralventure.Bloch quotes Homer, Grimm,and Herder as the singers and collectorsof orally transmittedtales, whose in had been captured music and material, already language's Sprachton, write Bloch does not only studyand the Germanof MartinLuther.'19 to on music,but he also tries. turnhimselfinto the Homericsinger,the
Literatur Zeit: der 18. Hans Mayer, "Ernst Blochs poetische Sendung," Zurdeutschen (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1967) 253. Zusammenhiinge Schriftsteller Biicher 19. See "Gesprochene und geschriebene Syntax; das Anakoluth," Literarische Auf560-67; esp. 561, 562. sditze

cess of telling stories. "Bloch's stories are themselves philosophy, in-

it and, one is temptedto say,enactsit. Learning hope becomes a pro-

Bloch does not outline his philosophy as a closed system. He narrates

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prophet of the Old Testament relying on his scribes. "Whatlanguage!"exclaimsWalterJens,commenting ambiguously on Bloch's written as well as spoken words and representingthe colleagues and students who crowded Bloch's lecture halls and recorded his The proper image for these words is not given by the conversations.20 written letters, but by Bloch's appearance, his face, the context of the words' production: [T]hisErnstBloch,one has remarked upon it often,lookslikea rebellious-wise The hair, prophetof the Old Testament. snow-white the powerfuleyes, divided by the ground lenses, the furrowed foreheadand the face,thatseemsto contract towardthe nose and on lips in the form of a bow, is concentrated the triangular play is betweenchin and eyes ... everything just pretext.Only languagegives this great,trulyhumanface its contour.(65) In combining the role of the biblical prophet with that of the singer or teller of tales, Bloch exemplifies a curious phenomenon. While the role of the biblicalfigure, the "Prophetmit Marx-und Engelszungen,"21 may be privileged by many of his German readerswhen describing the philosopher of Jewish descent, Bloch himself attempts the integration of these roles. His prophet reintroduces the Bible into a Western tradition, and he is visible as that prophet because he is the familiar singer of tales as well. To capturethe oral word in writingmay seem a paradoxicalundertaking.22Fairytales, however, serve as an example for the transpositionof the spoken into the writtenthat tries to maintain any oral qualityand the immediacy of the narrativesituation. Bloch may choose the role of the prophet, but he is also the anonymous narratorof Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's collections, also a male Scheherazadeof the Arabian Nights.For Bloch's telling of tales takes place precisely within the double frame of the Grimms' traditionand Scheherazade'sstrugglefor survival. In his study "Der Erzihler," Walter Benjamin proclaims the death
20. WalterJens, "Auch Philosophie gehirt zur Literatur,"Ernst Ein Blochs Wirkung: Arbeitsbuch 90. Geburtstag zum (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1975) 65. 21. See MartinWalser'sessay, "Prophet mit Marx- und Engelszungen," Ober Ernst Bloch(Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971) 7-16. 22. Gert Ueding calls it the "oralness in writing" ("Miindlichkeitin der Schrift"); "Ernst Blochs Philosophie der Utopie," Utopieforschung: Studien neuzur Interdisziplindre zeitlichen Utopie1, ed. Wilhelm Volkamp (Stuttgart:Metzler, 1982) 299.

LilianeWeissberg 31
of the narrative, referring to the decline of immediate experience as well as the new means of technical reproduction that have replaced the immediate experience of narration.23 In an essay on "Gesprochene und geschriebene Syntax," Bloch implicitly refers to Benjamin while quoting the literary styles of Max Frisch or Uwe Johnson as "a writing and as literature's that does not follow norms" (unnormierte[s] Schrifttum) new language, the "honestly mirrored pile of broken pieces" (ehrlich Ironically, these honestly mirrored fraggespiegelterScherbenhaufen).24 ments come close to the traditional quality of oral language. The syntax seems to be "broken"; repetitions and gaps appear. The "open form" of writing confirms the dominant position of the anacoluthon. This 20th-century style of writing may recall the oral but faces the world acquainted with the written text: And to the break caused by narration something else and necessais ry [einNotwendiges] therefore added that had not been there in the preliteraryera. When the old narratorbegan, and proceeded to present, with viva vox, the most familiar material [vertrautesten as Stoff] fables that seem to happen always again and anew, the surroundings themselves, consisting of spinning rooms and market they were places, were fairly unbroken [ohne viel Gebrochenes]; in bound to the caste system and at least stable [stdndisch] appearance. Today, however, even the still existing unity of the epoch, even and precisely the more deeply situated dialectical unity of contradictions have not left even the appearance of a remainder of rerum. the ordo Today, even the newborn spirit [Elan]of sempiternus reaches the old narrator,or even of the free speech [freies Sprechen] home as an object as well [objektgemtij]. (566-67) In trying to capture the oral quality of language, Bloch quite consciously uses montage. In a time without spinning rooms, for the narrator to call upon the fairy tale is already to make use of quotation. It becomes that can be used for present investment. As a an inheritance (Erbschaft) the fairy tale can recall the lost immediacy of oral presentaquotation, tion so very much bound to the topos, place - the spinning room or marketplace - that delineates a sense of the familiar home. "Toward evening, one may tell stories best" (410) begins Bloch's
23. Walter Benjamin, "Der Erzahler: Betrachtungen zum Werk Nikolai Less2.2 kows," Gesammelte Suhrkamp, 1977) 438-65. Schriften (Frankfurt/Main: 24. Bloch, "Gesprochene und geschriebene Syntax" 567.

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and Philosophy theFairyTale

discussion of the fairy tale and story of adventure in Das Prinzip Hoffnung, that comments on this daydream's peculiar time and timing. Hope prefigures a happy ending that is not yet here, but the fairy tale can make the reader aware of it. The story of adventure with which Bloch compares it produces a similar effect, as it is marked by disturbances, interruptions of order. Travel, the knowledge of other and distant places, finds its space as and in these interruptions. Bloch's language itself produces a mixture of the canny with the puzzlingly secret by staging an authoritativegesture of narrationwhile withholding, instead of offering, total explanation. He presents the secret of the riddle; he hints at a possible solution, but the reader has to wait. Bloch begins each of his works in a similar tone, and this tone sets the stage for the secret rather than the obvious. He translatesthe first questions asked by men in wonderment and curiosity into the "And what way now?" (Wienun?)25 how to write a book. His first sentenof ces, answering the questions as well as replacing them, seem reduced to a mysterious importance: I am. We are. This is enough. Now we have to begin.26 We alwaysonly want to be with us. So here too we do not look backat all.27 We are still. But it succeedsonly partially. The little man keeps backa lot. Stillfor himself,he believes.28 I am moving.Earlyon, one is searching. One is desirous,totally, and screams.Does not havewhatone wants.29 The brief sentences and shorter passages turn into longer ones in the process of writing. At the beginning, there is the word or the simple
25. Bloch, Geistder Utopie, Erste Fassung. Faksimile der Ausgabe von 1918. Werkausgabe16 (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985) 9. 26. Bloch, Geistder Utopie, Erste Fassung 11; Geist Utopie der (1923; Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1973) 11. 27. Bloch, Thomas Miinzer Theologe Revolution, als der 2 Werkausgabe(Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985) 9. 28. Bloch, Erbschaft Zeit. [Expanded edition.] Werkausgabe (Frankfurt/Main: der 4 Suhrkamp, 1985) 25. 29. Bloch, Das Prinzip 21. with Das Prinzip Hoffnung, In comparing Spuren Hoffnung, Jiirgen Moltmann describes Bloch as a "master of beginnings." "Messianismus und ErnstBloch(Frankfurt/Main: Marxismus," Ober Suhrkamp, 1971) 46.

LilianeWeissberg 33 sentence: this is an allusion to the Old Testament, to the idea of genesis carried forth in the book's own creation. The reduction of language is followed by what now appears as a linguistic excess: elaborate sentences recounting foreign sayings, Arabian tales or Chinese stories. They appear with a flourish and abundance of images that can be described as linguistic orientalism. In this realm of metaphors, the chapters or sections end. Each of Bloch's books seems to startat the point from which language and itselfmay struggle.This point of Staunen Verwunderung, produced as a reaction in the reader, is often followed by a narrativeof development. This is obviously the case in Bloch's study of Thomas Miinzer's life and works. Das Prinzip offers, moreover, a sequence marked by a Hoffinung
first movement "I am moving" [Ich rege mich] through various

childhood experiences to puberty.30Mayer, citing "Ernst Bloch's poetische Sendung," turns Bloch into a Wilhelm Meister of philosophy.31 But the Bildungsroman entails neither dealing with a knowledge nor a narrativestructurethat can present fulfillment. Staunen, indeed, has to a sense of childhood, a sense of initiation in experience. preserve Theodor Adorno comments on this: "The narrative tone [of Spuren] offers the paradox of a naive philosophy; childhood, preserved unharmed through all reflections, changes even the most mediated [Vermittelthat Bloch adds teste]into the immediate [Unvermittelbares], is related."32 of first an increasing, then varying anecdotes, reflections, and tales, length. The story line discontinues. Constantly revising, rewriting, rearranginghis books while preserving and rearticulatingthe concepts of Staunenor Hoffnung, Bloch's works evoke a sense of chronological stillness despite stylisticchanges or reformulations of his philosophical and political stance. His aim is a collection of evidence toward hope, the the Noch-Nicht, utopia whose latency and tendency Bloch tries to as his own philosophical and literary cosmology. map In this desire, romantic idealism and messianic thought meet to
30. Traces of this structureof development can be found in Bloch's other books as and well; see for example the references to childhood, forceps (Geburtszange), the birth or of the narrative/ornament/child in the early sections of Geistder Utopie; "Fragendes 10 Phantasie.Werkausgabe (Frankfurt/ zur Kind" (1930), Philosophische Aufsiitze objektiven Main: Suhrkamp, 1985) 224. Meisters bears the title Wilhelm Meisters 31. The early version of Wilhelm Lehrjahre theatralische Sendung (1777-1785); it was transformed into the first part of the Lehrjahre. 32. Theodor W. Adorno, "Blochs Spuren: Zur neuen erweitertenAusgabe 1959," Gesammelte Notenzur Literatur. 11 Suhrkamp, 1974) 235. Schriften (Frankfurt/Main:

34

and Philosophy theFairyTale

produce a secular religion, offered as a literaryphilosophy. Bloch sets the caesura between the present and the better, still utopian future. To learn hope, however, is not to regard its study as a glance toward a future that would forget the present or the past. Hope, as a messianic wish for fulfillment and happy ending, is neither in need of a separate realm of the beyond nor in need of God. It shows itself in the here and now, in traces offered in and by Bloch's narratives.This is the place where messianism and marxism will try to come together.

IV
It may be necessary to put the works of Bloch quoted above in their biographical and historical context. Das Prinzip Hoffnung, published between 1954 and 1959, was written between 1938 and 1947 while Bloch was living as an emigre in the United States. It is a study written in reaction to the experience of fascism and the Second World War, and to a change of countries that is still evidenced in the English words and sayings that are introduced into the original German text. Volumes 1 and 2 were first published in the German Democratic Republic, the German state to which Bloch returned after the war. The first publication of the third and final volume in the Federal Republic preceded Bloch's own emigration to the West. Spuren,on the other hand, was composed in the teens and twenties, in German-speakingcountries as well as in France while Bloch was in voluntary exile there, and was published in Berlin in 1930. While Bloch chose Spurento appear as volume 1 of his collected works, it was not the first of his books. It followed not only his dissertation on Heinrich Rickert'sphilosophy,33but also both versions of Geist der Utopie(1918, 1923) and Thomas der Miinzerals Theologe Revolution seems rather a symbolic beginning, a beginning initiated (1921). Spuren again with the revisions of the book in 1959 and 1969.34Passages bear witness to Bloch's early expressionistic style and to the early concern
33. "Kritische Erdrterungen fiber Rickert und das Problem der modernen Erkenntnistheorie," 1908. 34. In a note in Spuren (10) Bloch states that all of the pieces included in the 1969 edition were written between 1910 and 1929. For an account of the different versions of Spuren and their history, see Rainer Hoffmann, Montage Hohlraum: ErnstBlochs im zu (Bonn: Bouvier Herbert Grundmann, 1977). "Spuren"

LilianeWeissberg 35 with religion that was most obviously documented in the first version stress the materialistic side of Geistder Utopie. Later additions to Spuren of his philosophy.35 as Spuren a project, however, differs from Bloch's other books. While Bloch recounts legends or fairy tales in these previous works as well, is and indeed quotes passages from these works in Spuren, Spuren perBloch's most obviously literarystudy. It was not, initially, a public haps success. Bloch complains that hardly one hundred copies were sold in the first two years after its publication: "People who know my other Hans Mayer work did not know Spuren,not even its title [Namen]."36 reminisces on his first encounter with Bloch's "philosophical anecdotes" as "strange pieces of prose": "I did not know what to make of it, I also did not quite know what was supposedly offered here: a gripping narrativeit was obviously not, but it also did not appear with the terminology or the claim of a system a philosophical treatise would have.""37 Klaus Berghahn describes Bloch's project in a recent essay as "emblematic" and refers to the book as a collection of thought images, a Denkbilder, term that he derives from Benjamin.38
The book's tide, Spuren "traces" resonates with the search for

footprints and animal tracks that is thematic in many of Karl May's novels of the adventures of Indians and displaced Europeans in the American wilderness. Bloch refers to these books in many of his works, can and earlierversions of passages in Spuren be found in the collection die that bears the title of one of KarlMay's novels, Durch Wiiste (1923).39 resonates as well with the search for evidence in the detective Spuren stories described in "Philosophische Ansicht des Detektivromans."40 Finally, the sound of the word resonates with spes or spero,the Latin rendering of that hope to which Bloch had dedicated his work.
edition. markedin the tableof contentsof the 1985Spuren 35. See the additional passages des 36. Letter to Max Rychner, 10 Jan. 1934. Quoted in Peter Zudeick, DerHintern und Werk ErnstBloch- Leben (Moos: Elster, 1985) 121. Teufels. 37. Mayer, "Ernst Blochs poetische Sendung" 252. 38. Klaus L. Berghahn, "A View Through the Red Window: Ernst Bloch's Spuren," ed. and Revisions German Modernism, Andreas Huyssen and David Modernity the Text: of Bathrick (New York: Columbia UP, 1989) 200-15, esp. 205. die 39. See also the republicationof Bloch, Durch Wiiste: kritische (FrankAufsdtze Friihe and conder furt/Main:Suhrkamp, 1964). This book reworkspassages from Geist Utopie der tains passagesthat were incorporatedin Erbschafi Zeit.The collections of philosophical contains in turn much of the same material. and literaryessays in the Gesamtausgabe Werk40. Bloch, "Philosophische Ansicht des Detektivromans,"Literarische Aufsiitze. 9 Suhrkamp, 1985) 242-63. ausgabe (Frankfurt/Main:

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and Philosophy theFairyTale

der and gathersand rewritespassagesfrom Geist Utopie from the Spuren the journalisticpieces for the Berliner and Anekdoten, Tageblatt Philosophische that Frankfurter Zeitung left Mayerat a loss. Bloch's method of collectingis at work here as well and poses questions that are not the traditionalones of literaryproperty. His recasting of "Excentrik,"a piece by Theodor Fantapublished in the B6irsen-Courier in September 1925, into the article und Gelachter" for the Berliner Tageblatt "Ohrfeige brought Bloch a charge of plagiarism. He responded to this charge with surprise. His claim, Bloch writes, was not to invent a story, but to comment on what seemed to him "thought provoking"and peculiar,venounderlich.41 Narrais thinking about a materialalreadypresent, a process of collecting. ting It is a takingaccount of the inheritanceof what seems to be venounderlich. Bloch's project as a whole, the published Spuren, been described has as a derivativework, notably by Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin, who point out the influence of Benjamin's own Einbahnstra/Je.42 a But a comparison between Einbahnstrajle, collection of fragments offers insight not only into the similarities and Spuren published 1928, between the books, but also the dissimilarity of the two projects. So, for example, where the figure of hope appears in Benjamin's Einbahnit strafJe, is without any of Bloch's messianic optimism. In describing Andrea Pisano's Spes,a relief on the door of the Florentine Baptistery, he recalls the female figure's inability to reach a desired fruit and describes her helplessness as truth. Bloch refers to the same relief as an image of false hope only.43 In the early years of their acquaintance, Benjamin praised Bloch as "extraordinary"and described him as the "best connoisseur of my work," a person who would know this work better than the author himself would." Bloch in turn was fascinated with Benjamin's Ursprung des deutschen and Trauerspiels his discussions of allegory and symbol.45
41. See Zudeick,DerHintern Teufels, des 118-19, and Mayer,"ErnstBloch's poetische Sendung," 252. 42. Gershom Scholem and Benjamin, Briefwechsel (Franfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, einer 1980) 180, 204, 208; Scholem, Walter Benjamin Die Geschichte Freundschaft (Frank103. furt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1975) 206, 291. See also Zudeick, Der Hinterndes Teufels 43. See Zudeick, Der Hinterndes Teufels 104. 44. Benjamin, quoted in Zudeick, Der Hinterndes Teufels, 103. 45. See Roland Bothner, Kunstim System: konstruktive Die Funktion Kunst Ernst der fiir BlochsPhilosophie (Bonn: Bouvier Herbert Grundmann, 1982) 139-44. Martin Zerlang comments on Bloch's concept of allegoryin Spuren, blurs the differencesfrom Benjabut min's concept; see "ErnstBloch als Erz?hler:Uber Allegorie,Melancholieund Utopie in den 'Spuren."'Ernst ed. Bloch, Heinz LudwigArnold (Munich:text + kritik,1985)61-75.

LilianeWeissberg 37 Bloch describes their friendship during the mid-twenties as close and declares a "true symbiosis" during their stay in Paris in 1926.4 Benjamin's skepticism in regard to Bloch's work does not seem always to have been articulated then, and was only voiced loudly in the thirties, der It and especially in reaction to the publication of Erbschaft Zeit.47 touches Bloch's philosophy as well as his special use of the montage as technique. Spuren, a collection of tales, already poses the question of the literary and philosophical inheritance, however. and While Einbahnstrajfe Spurenare both collections of texts, Spuren misses the linearityof EinbahnstrafJe. Instead of the topographicalmodel, Bloch often quotes Johann Peter Hebel and his Schatzkistlein den fiir Rheinischen Hebel provides Bloch with material for his Hausfreund.48 narratives,as well as with certain linguistic patterns. The name Schatz(little treasure box) suggests a treasure horde of tales as well as kiistlein the trustworthy quality inferred by the use of the diminutive. Schatzalso refers, however, to a certain tradition of Erbauungsliteratur, kiistlein to the collection of biblical phrases and proverbs from which one would be chosen on certain days to provide material for contemplation.49While both Benjamin and Bloch employ the narrativesof everyBloch's acceptance day events and objects, defining them as Chiffren,50 sets of the model of the Schatzkdstlein him clearly apart from Benjamin's concept of collection. Comforting tales and religious tradition come together in Bloch's book, which presents not only a Schatzkiistlein but also the adventure of a treasure hunt in its Spuren.Next to brief anecdotes and sketches, Bloch sets the adventures of far away countries: Aflica, China, America, Russia. Experience not only relates to
46. Bloch, "Erinnerungen," Uber WalterBenjamin(Frankfurt/Main:Suhrkamp, 1968) 16. 47. See Zudeick, Der Hinterndes Teufels,104, and Philippe Ivernel, "Soupcons: selonErnstBloch,ed. GkrardRaulet D'Ernst Bloch AWalter Benjamin," Utopie Marxisme (Paris:Payot, 1976) 265-77. See also Bloch's letters to Benjamin, 18 Dec. 1934 and 7 May 1935, and the editors' notes, Bloch, Briefe1903-1975 2, ed. Uwe Opolka et al. (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985) 658-62. In1934, Benjamin was planning to write an essay on Bloch as the representative writer of essays, however. 48. This does not only hold true for many references to Hebel in Bloch's work, but also for his emulation of Hebel's narrativemodel and style. See, for example, Zudeick, Der Hinterndes Teufels, 119-20. 49. See Ludwig Volker, "Das literarisierteSchatzkAsdein.Marikes Spiel mit einer a DVjs special edition Gebrauchsform der Erbauungsliteratur," Perspektivenwechsel, Elend: (forthcoming). In regard to Spurenas a collection, see Gert Ueding, Glanzvolles und Kolportage Versuch Kitsch iiber Suhrkamp,1973) 163-204. (Frankfurt/Main: und Messianismus Apokalypse, 223-26. 50. See, for example, Miinster, Utopie,

38

and Philosophy the FairyTale

travel here, but also to the exotic tale. And alongside the Arabian Nights and narrativesof China appear stories that combine the exotica of these far awaylands with the religious. But it is not the religion of the Christian Rather,it is the messianic traditionof Chassidictales. Erbauungsliteratur. V Anson Rabinbach describes a form of "Jewish Messianism" as a "JewishnesswithoutJudaism" and dates its appearancein Germany to the time shortly afterthe FirstWorld War.s51 Defining it as a result of the uncertainsuccess of Jewish assimilation,Rabinbach sees it as a reaction to an identitycrisisof GermanJewry.WhileJewish religion was often no longer accepted, Jewishness could be redefined within a philosophical and political context. Rabinbach calls the early writings of Ernst Bloch and Walter Benjamin a "particular'pure type' of this thinking" (81): "[O]nlyBloch and Benjamin- initiallywithout any mutual influence brought, in varying degrees, a self-consciously Jewish and radical Messianism to their political and intellectualconcerns" (82). Rabinbach's description of Bloch's "self-consciously Jewish concerns" may be challenged here, as Bloch combined his studies of the Jewish messianic idea with the mysticism ofJakob Bohme, early Christian thought, and classical philosophy. The idea, or rather ideas, of messianism certainly brought Bloch and Benjamin together, however. And both seem to have been influenced by the same author, Martin and VomGeistdesJudentums Buber, whose DreiRedenfiberdasJudentum were published in 1911 and 1916, followed by a further essay collection, RedeniiberdasJudentum(1923), and various collections of Chassidic tales in the twenties.52 The mysticism displayed in these Chassidic tales was supposed to underscore Buber's own view of the regeneration of Judentumby Chassidic thought. His various tellings and retellings of these tales were well known to both Benjamin and Bloch, and seem to have been a topic of their discussions during their period of "symbiosis" in Paris.
51. Anson Rabinbach, "Between Enlightenment and Apocalypse: Benjamin, 34 Bloch, and Modem German Jewish Messianism." New German Critique (1985) 78124; here 82. 52. For a discussionof the influenceof Buber'sthought on Bloch, see Anton F. Chrisder ten, Ernst Blochs Metaphysik Materie (Bonn: Bouvier Herbert Grundmann, 1979) 25-45.

LilianeWeissberg 39
Several tales eventually enter Bloch's Spuren, the book that was written during this time; and Buber's writings influenced Benjamin's sketches on Franz Kafka, which were composed during the same period. A Russian tale of "Potemkin's Unterschrift" as well as one of Buber's Chassidic tales become part of Benjamin's essay on Kafka.53 The same story and the same Chassidic tale are narrated in Bloch's Spuren, together with fictional sketches that recall the style of Kafka.54 In the final version of his essay "Franz Kafka: Zur zehnten Wiederkehr seines Todestages," Benjamin places the Chassidic tale at the beginning of a section tided "Sancho Pansa": In a poor public house, in a Chassidic village, the Jews sat together one evening at the end of the Sabbath day, the story goes. They were locals, except for one whom nobody knew, a very poor, shabbily dressed man who was crouched in a dark corner in the background. Back and forth the conversation went. Just then someone asked what everyone would wish for if he had a free wish. One wanted money, another one a son-in-law, a third a new carpenter's bench, and so on, all around. After everybody had spoken, only the beggar in the dark corner was left. With much resistance and hesitation, he finally answered the people questioning him: "I wish I were a very powerful king and ruled in a wide country and would rest at night and sleep in my palace and at the border, the enemy would proceed with his invasion, and before it turned light, the horsemen would reach my castle, and there would be no resistance nor, awakenedwith terrorfrom my dream, even time to dress myself, and in my shirt I would have to begin my escape, and would rush beyond mountain and valley and forest and hill without rest day and night; until finally I would arrive here, on this bench, in your comer, saved. This is what I wish for myself." Without comprehending this, the others looked at each other. - "And what would you gain from this wish?" somebody asked. - "A shirt" was the answer.55 Benjamin tells this story in a spare style that is reminiscent of Kafka's parables. The Chassidic tale, set in a quixotic tradition, should indeed illuminate the modem author's writings already by its special placement
53. Also, one has to add, a "Hamsungeschichte"; see Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften 2.3: 1210. 54. See especially Bloch, "Die unmittelbare Langeweile," Spuren,112-17. 55. Benjamin, Franz Kafka,Gesammelte Schrifen2.2: 433.

40

and the Fairy Tale Philosophy

in Benjamin's essay itself. The Chassidic tale and Kafka's texts join in turn to cast a light on the notion of messianism: This story leads deep into the household of Kafka'sworld. Nowhich the Messiah body says yes, the displacements [Entstellungen] is supposed to put into place with his appearance, are only those of our space [Raum].There are certainly also those of our time. Surely Kafkahas thought this. (433) The Chassidic tale, brought into constellation with Kafka's work, highlights the Jewish tradition of this author, while commenting on the modernity of his writings. Bloch, on the other hand, weaves the Chassidic tale into an exotic carpet. While retelling the tale in his own way of philosophical rethinking, he adopts Buber's style of added commentaries. Bloch remarks on one of these tales in Spuren:"If this story is nothing, the tellers of fairy tales say in Africa, it belongs to him, who has told it; if it is something, then it belongs to all of us" (127). Bloch's project is not to decipher the specific Jewish quality of a tale, but to read it as a trace that marks the messianic anticipation in the hierundjetzt. Bloch titles the story "Fall ins

Jetzt":
They had studied and argued, and became tired in the course of it. At this point the Jews, who came together in the prayerhouse of the small town, began to talk about what they would wish for themselves, were an angel to come. The Rabbi said he would already be happy, if he could get rid of his cough. And I would wish, a second person said, I had my daughters married off. And I would wish, a third person called, I had no daughters at all, but a son who could take over my business. At last, the Rabbi turned toward a beggar, who had strayed to this place the evening before, and who was now sitting shabby and miserable on the bench in the back. "Whatwould you wish for yourself, my dear? God have mercy, you don't look as if you could be without a wish." - "I wish," the beggar said, "I were a great king and had a big country. In each city I would have a palace, and in the most beautiful one my residence, built with onyx, sandalwood, and marble. There, I would sit on the throne, would be feared by my enemies, and loved by my people, like King Solomon. But in time of war, I do not share Solomon's luck; the enemy invades the country, my armies are beaten, and all the cities and forests are in flames.

Liliane Weissberg

41

Already the enemy stands before my residence, I hear the noise on the street and I am sitting in the hall on my throne, all alone, with my crown, scepter, purple robe and ermine, deserted by my dignitaries, and I hear the people call for my blood. Just then, I undress except for my shirt, and throw away all rich array, and jump through the window down into the court. I proceed through the town, through the masses, into the open field, and run, run, through my burnt country, to save my life. Ten days it takes until I reach the border, where nobody knows me anymore, and I cross it, reach other people, who do not know anything about me, who do not want anything from me, am saved and since yesterday evening in I havebeensittinghere."- Long pause and a shock [Chok] addition to it, the beggarjumped up, the Rabbi looked at him. "I must say, you are a strange man. Why do you wish to have all that, if you lose it all again. What would you gain from your riches and your splendor?" - "Rabbi," the beggar said and sat down again, "but I would have something, a shirt." (98-99) Bloch's story differs from Benjamin's. Bloch's tale comments, indeed, on his project of reformulation that touches on the description of Staunen itself. While associated in Geist der Utopiewith a theological concept of Messiasgeist (messianic spirit),56this concept has been further secularized

in his laterwork to produce a narrative that can reshape the rabbi's story
into the philosopher's fairy tale. Bloch fills in details, produces a familiar inventory and a cozy atmosphere of conversation. He even adds a happy ending in the present, as a present: "The Jews were laughing now and shaking their heads and they gave the king a shirt as a gift, the shock was with a joke" (99). covered [zugedeckt] Laughter covers the Chokand terror of the tale, and the adventures told are rewarded, after their narration. The shirt offers a material gain. Loss and fear, naked fear, can be covered, if only by a shirt. It is not only a minimum of dress, but also the dress that covers the body from the nakedness of death. This can be learned from Buber. Referring to the wish for one's death, he quotes Rabbi Nachman: "'I would well like to take off the little shirt,' he said to his students in his last year of life, 'because I cannot stand to remain on the same level [Stufe]."'(30). Zudecken,to cover up, may also be the proper expression for the pla-

cing and function of this tale itself. While Benjamin reduces the story to the spareness of a paradoxical parable, Bloch adds the paradoxical
56. 214-62, esp. 242. Bloch, Geistder Utopie

42

and Philosophy theFairyTale

pathos of Alltiglichkeit, everyday life. Not the shirt, but the "Fall ins of particularimportance to him; the tear in the narrative Jetzt" seems texture that indicates a fall into presence, "from the dream" (99). Wish and present state, historical past and present tense, confront each other and produce the Chok that stands, independent of the experiencing there by itself: "Long pause and a shock in addition to persons, right it" (Lange Pauseundein Chok dazu)(99). Adding to the story while cutting through its texture, the Chok performs precisely what the shirt does, or what the soil or trapdoor does in Bloch's prefacing comments: One canalso reachthe Hereand Now in strange ways,thisis never far from us. I knowa short,ratherlow, eastern Jewishtale, of whichthe ending,however, curiously is The disappointing. end was embarrassed dull,not and obviously supposedto be ajoke,a rather a funnyone, but one thatwasjust aboutto cover[zuschaufeln]pit the into whichone had fallen.The pit is our Now, in whichwe all are and whichis notnarrated as is away, it is often;the littletrapdoor to be set in thisway.(98) VI In calling the end of the Chassidic tale a curiously (merkwiirdig) disapone, Bloch does not only indicate that his sense of the story's pointing ending may indeed differ from Benjamin's. He also draws attention to the curious relationship of disappointment and relevance, Merkwiirdigkeit.Despite as well as because of its disappointing quality, the Chassidic tale finds its place in Bloch's Spuren provides the tracesfor which he and is searching. Next to tales of foreign adventures, the Chassidic tale, moreover, receives a peculiar classification. It is a narrativethat can stand next to these others; but compared with the tales of distant travel, it provides an exoticism of its own: it is "low" (nieder) "easternJewand ish" (ostjiidisch). integration of the tale is therefore performed beThe cause of its common narrativetruth as well as because of its difference. Like the Ostjuden themselves, they may be known to Bloch as Jews, but of a strange and foreign sort, a lower class. Bloch shares this attitude toward easternJews with many of his German Jewish contemporaries. Benjamin, for example, writes in an early letter to Ludwig Strauss that his thoughts on Jewish identity would relate to Western Jewish culture only, and not encompass the eastern Jews;

LilianeWeissberg 43 he attempts to find out what is "Jewishand German." 57Benjamin performs what Buber himself had done before him: he translatesChassidic thought for German and Western taste. Bloch, on the other hand, follows Buber's project but insists on a different kind of strangeness.The exoticism of the Chassidictale casts a shrewd light on the familiar;it promore dramaticallypervides the reader with the wonderment (Staunen) than the observationof rain. In doing this, Bloch uses well-known haps or and familiarclassificationsof these tales: they are legends (Legenden) compared to the Africanfairytales. In the case of the Chassidictale quoted above, it is interestingto note that this tale takes up certain elements of the Grimms' fairytale of fear. And if Peter Zudeickwould like to suggest Bloch's copying of Buber's narratologicalmodel in the Chassidische takes Bloch's double bind of Merkwiirdigkeit Buber'sproject Erziihlungen,58 further,by commenting on the direction of the process of translationitself. Bloch casts a light on the tradition of these classifications. The romanticization of the Chassidic tales has already been performed by Buber. This is one of Buber's descriptions of a Rabbi's narrative venture: was The driveto narrate for RabbiNachmanthe feelingthat his "did lessons[Lehren] not haveany clothes."The storieswere supposed to be the clothes for his lessons. They were supposed to ideaor a truthof life into He "awaken." wantedto planta mystical his students'heart.But withouthavinghad this in his mind, his took shape in his mouth, grewbeyond its purposeand narrative lesson, and insteadbecamea fairytale or legend.The storiesdid becauseof this, but it became not lose their symboliccharacter and more spiritual. (41) quieter Here, we may have some of the material that was reworked for the texture of Bloch's shirt. Buber uses references to symbolism and interiorifor ty and metaphors of organic growth (Bliitengeranke) which Herder himself, of course, was quite responsible. It is, finally, Buber who calls who insists on their didactic impact the Chassidic tales "Mairchen,"59
57. Letter to Ludwig Strauss, 11 Sept. 1912; quoted in Anson Rabinbach, "Between Enlightenment and Apocalypse" 94. des 58. Zudeick, DerHintern Teufels 119. Zudeick points to the similarityof Hebel's and Buber's style of narration. Lite6th des 59. Martin Buber, Die Geschichten Rabbi Nachman, ed. (Frankfurt/Main: rarische Anstalt, 1922) 40. Bloch retells a tale from this collection, "Meister des

until forced its tendrils of blossoms [Bliitengeranke], it ceased to be a

44

and Philosophy theFairyTale

and (Lehre, Lehrworte) on their oral quality: "With the didactic sayings one can easily recognize which ones have been noted down [Lehrworte], right away; they show the spirit and the language of the Master" (41). Pointing himself at the revisions done by the Chassidic students of each rabbi (42), Buber offers different revisions of the tales as well in the various editions of his collections. If Bloch turns himself into the prophet of the Grimms' fairy tales, Buber had already turned himself into the Brother Grimm of the Jewish tradition. As is appropriate for the literatureof the early 20th century, and appropriate for keeping the proper distance from his subject, the eastern Jews, Buber does not interview Chassidic people but translates texts. Bloch continues the process that was initiated by his predecessor and familiarizes as well as defamiliarizes tales that have already been made part of the German Romantic tradition. Herder and the Chassidic tale meet to propose an idea of messianism that is no longer just indicative of a Jewishness without Judaism, but of Jewishness without Jews. It becomes a concept to which Schelling, for example, would have been able to subscribe as well:60the aspect of hope in the tradition of German idealism.
Gebets," as part of his "Triumphe der Verkanntheit"in Spuren (50-51). 60. Jilrgen Habermas enacts this thought in the very structure of his essay on Bloch that contains a section on "The inheritance ofJewish mysticism" but is entitled ErnstBloch,61-81. "Ein marxistischer Schelling." Oiber