(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

56
DOMINIK FINKELDE
the impact of “good works” in a divine creation, makes the salvation of the
individual soul of the faithful dependent on belief, which was bestowed
by an act of a God who almost arbitrarily distributes his “Gnade des
Glaubens” (GS I.1:317; “grace through faith,” Origin, 138) and makes
the “weltlich-staatlichen Bereich zur Probestatt eines religiös nur mittelbaren
. . . Lebens” (GS I.1:317; “secular-political sphere a testing ground
for a life which was only indirectly religious,” Origin, 138). With this,
admittedly, Protestantism has instilled “im Volke . . . den strengen Pflichtgehorsam
[. . .], in seinen Großen aber den Trübsinn” (GS I.1:317; “into
the people a strict sense of obedience to duty but in its great men it produces
melancholy,” Origin, 138). With the devaluation of “good works,”
human actions are deprived of any kind of magnitude at all. “Etwas Neues
entstand: eine leere Welt” (GS I.1:317; “Something new arose: an empty
world,” Origin, 139).
The Trauerspiel no longer knows any “heroes.” It drifts through
history as if through an arbitrary world (but not through History). The
creature “hält an der Welt [fest]” (GS I.1:246; “clings so tightly to [this]
world,” Origin, 66), almost animal-like with all four legs on the ground,
whereas the Greek tragic hero even in his defeat can set himself upright
against divine destiny. Therefore the figures of the mourning play find
themselves in constellations rather than in situations. The stage is a setting
(Schauplatz) and no longer a courtroom as in Greek tragedy. At the
same time death in the mourning play is no longer the climax/highlight
of an interiority in a process of individuation. Instead it is marked by
“vehemente[r] Äußerlichkeit” (GS I.1:315; “drastic externality,” Origin,
137). In the mourning play it takes the form of a communal fate.
The mourning play is conceptualized for repetition. It puts the lamentations
of the creature “halb nur bearbeitet zu den Akten” (GS I.1:316;
“only partly dealt with [aside],” Origin, 137). “Die Wiederaufnahme ist
im Trauerspiel angelegt und bisweilen aus ihrer Latenz getreten” (GS
I.1:316; “resumption is implicit in the Trauerspiel [mourning play], and
sometimes it actually emerges from its latent state,” Origin, 137).
Together with the notion of destiny, another notion of central importance
is revealed. In the Protestant mourning play destiny is seen as “die
elementare Naturgewalt im historischen Geschehen” (GS I.1:308; “the
elemental force of nature in historical events,” Origin, 129) which are not
themselves entirely nature “weil noch der Schöpfungsstand die Gnadensonne
widerstrahlt” (GS I.1:308; “because the light of grace is still
reflected from the state of creation,” Origin, 129). As Benjamin explains
in “Schicksal und Charakter” (“Fate and Character”), in the context of
ancient myth destiny was seen as a Schuldzusammenhang des Lebendigen
(GS II.1:175; “guilt context of the living,” SW 1:204). In the spirit of the
restoration theology of the Counter-Reformation it now appears as the
prehistoric sin that precedes every understanding of individual and moral