Überlegungen zu Heines Sprachkritik

Abstract

Heine's speculation about language is less oriented towards the metaphysical and ontological aspects of traditional language philosophy than towards the pragmatic instrumentality of the spoken and written word. Such a shift of emphasis reflects, in part, the "Sprachutilitarismus" of the Young German Movement. Thus the article explores, in addition to Heine's aesthetics of language, his pronouncements on the manipulative power of (political) rhetoric, the linguistic constraints imposed by censorship, the evolution of German as a national tongue, and the art of literary translation.