Dreams, Hallucinations, Dragons, the Unconscious, and Ekphrasis in German Romanticism ― Ludwig Tieck's Skillful Study of the Mind

When reading Ludwig Tieck’s texts, the reader becomes aware that dreams, the unconscious, and art play a key role. This study posits that Ekphrasis and dream interpretation are similar due to both analyzing a visual image and attempting to translate the visual into the verbal in order to gain a better and more complete understanding of it. This book discusses Tieck’s texts—Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen, "Die Gemälde," "Die Freunde," "Die Elfen," "Der Runenberg," "Liebeszauber," and "Das alte Buch und die Reise ins Blaue hinein"—and how Ekphrasis and dream interpretations are essential for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the visual and dream image, resulting in new readings and insights. Furthermore, this book demonstrates that Tieck made major contributions to Ekphrasis studies by integrating notional, dynamic, and static prose Ekphrasis into his fictional works and thus should play a more important role in the current Ekphrasis debate.

Joseph D. Rockelmann (B.A., Auburn University; M.A., Purdue University; M.B.A., Roosevelt University; Ph.D., Purdue University) is Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Hampden-Sydney College. His research interests are German Romanticism and Ludwig Tieck, Ekphrasis studies, visual studies and cognition, and psychopathology in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature. He is currently working on a book project that is examining the role dreams play in G. E. Lessing’s dramas.