Serapion Brothers (Hoffman)

In 1816, the Berlin publisher Riemer completed the publication of the complete collection of short stories by Ludwig Tieck (one of Hoffmann's idols) called Phantasus . A three-volume collection of old and new stories received a sophisticated metal-literary setting in the form of a conversation between friends who discuss the advantages and disadvantages of individual stories, as well as the theory of short prose as a whole. The collection enjoyed success with the reading public.

In February 1818, Hoffman entered into negotiations with Riemer about his new book and suggested that he himself decide whether a new collection needs a fashionable setting in the manner of Fantasus. Riemer answered the question in the affirmative ^[1] . Relying on the ancient tradition of the Decameron , Hoffmann designed the collection as meetings of the literary society of the Serapion brothers. Club members — Theodore, Cyprian, Otmar, Lothar, Sylvester, and Vincent — tell each other stories, guided by the following principle:

The poet’s efforts to make us believe in what he himself does not believe in cannot blame, for he has not seen it. So let everyone, before he dares to say out loud what he intends to announce to others, how to check if he really saw it. Let everyone seriously strive to truly grab the picture that has arisen in his soul, grab with all its figures, colors, light and shadow, and then, when this picture ignites it, to transfer its embodiment to the outer life. <...> Theodore, Otmar and Ciprian gave the word to follow as far as possible the principle of Serapion, which <...> meant only one thing: not to torture each other with craft handicrafts.

The advantage of the "casket" technique was that it allowed collecting new stories under one cover and those that saw the light long ago, but were not approvingly criticized enough to be reprinted in a standard collection. It was enough for Hoffman to accompany the not entirely successful story with disapproving assessments of the “brothers” in order to knock the weapon out of the hands of a potential critic. The free construction of the book allowed to present in it all the genres of the novels of that time.

After the end of years of grueling wars in Germany, the romantic cult of friendship flourished and numerous friendly literary societies appeared ^[2] . The prototype of the Serapion Brotherhood in the book of Hoffmann was the real literary circle known in Berlin in 1815 under the name of the Order of the Seraphim. In addition to Hoffmann, the circle included other leading figures of the narrative - Fouquet and Chamisso .

The Order of the Seraphs was renewed on November 14, 1818, after the return of Chamisso from the world tour aboard the Rurik . Hoffman's wife, looking into the church calendar, discovered that it was the day of Saint Serapion , in connection with which the circle was called the Serapion Brotherhood. Before that, Hoffman wanted to call his collection “The Seraphim Brothers”.

It is considered established that the well-known magnetiser DF Koref served as a prototype for Vincent in the collection, Sylvester- Saliche-Kontess as a prototype, and Hoffmann himself as the prototype of Theodore. Otmar, Lothar, and Cyprian are less individualized and also broadcast the author's position. According to some assumptions, the prototype of Otmar became Hitzig (Hoffmann's first biographer), Lothar - Fuke, and Cyprian - Chamisso.

• The first volume (1819)
  • First section
    • "The Hermit Serapion" ^[3] ( it. Der Einsiedler Serapion ) - says Cyprian
    • " Counselor Crespel " ( it. Rat Krespel ) - Theodore
    • "Fermata" ( it. Die Fermate ) - Theodore
    • "Poet and Composer" ( it. Der Dichter und der Komponist ) - Theodore
  • Second section
    • "An episode from the life of three friends" ( him. Ein Fragment aus dem Leben dreier Freunde ) - Otmar
    • "Arturova Hall" ( it. Der Artushof ) - Cyprian
    • " Falun mines " ( him. Die Bergwerke zu Falun ) - Theodore
    • The Nutcracker and the Mouse King ( German Nußknacker und Mausekönig ) - Lothar
• The second volume (1819)
  • Third section
    • "Competition of singers" ( it. Der Kampf der Sänger ) - Cyprian
    • The Ghost Story ( Eine Spukgeschichte ) - Cyprian
    • Automaton ( Die Automate ) - Theodore
    • " Doge and Dogressa " ( it. Doge und Dogaresse ) - Otmar
  • Fourth section
    • “Old and New Sacred Music” ( Alte und neue Kirchenmusik ) - Theodore and Cyprian
    • "Meister Martin-bochar and his apprentices" ( Meister Martin der Küfner und seine Gesellen ) - Sylvester
    • “Unknown Child” ( Das fremde Kind ) - Lothar
• The third volume (1820)
  • Fifth section
    • "Information from the life of a famous person" ( it. Nachricht aus dem Leben eines bekannten Mannes ) - Lothar
    • " The choice of the bride " ( it. Die Brautwahl ) - Lothar
    • "The sinister guest" ( it. Der unheimliche Gast ) - Otmar
  • Sixth section
    • " Mademoiselle de Scudery " ( Das Fräulein von Scudéry ) - Sylvester
    • " Player Happiness " ( spielerglück ) - Theodore
    • "Baron von B." ( it. Der Baron von B. ) - Cyprian
• The fourth volume (1821)
  • Seventh section
    • "Signor Formica" ( it. Signor Formica ) - Otmar
    • Zacharias Werner ( him. Zacharias Werner )
    • "Visions" ( him. Erscheinungen ) - Cyprian
  • Eighth section
    • "The interdependence of events" ( it. Der Zusammenhang der Dinge ) - Sylvester
    • "Vampirism" ( it. Vampirismus ) - Cyprian
    • "Aesthetic Tea" ( him. Die ästhetische Teegesellschaft ) - Otmar
    • The Royal Bride ( Die Königsbraut ) - Vincent

The aesthetic program of the collection is expressed in the first story, which does not have (like many others) in the original title. It tells about the German aristocrat, who, settling in the forest near Bamberg , imagined himself a holy hermit Serapion , and his hut - Thebaid . He accepts the spiers of a distant city as the temples of Alexandria and reinterprets everything in his own way. All attempts to bring him back to reality, the newly appeared Serapion, parries with arguments about the primacy of consciousness over matter and about the subjectivity of such concepts as time and space ^[4] .

The story of the hermit Serapion serves as an allegory of the writer as a visionary who has privileged access to the world of dreams, spirits and dreams ^[5] . In other words, the artist or narrator serves as an intermediary between the world of reality and the world of fantasy. He does not invent his stories as much as he translates into concrete plots the visions of an alternate reality that visit him ^[6] .

The unprecedented number of stories and their genre diversity required the expansion of the geography of the artistic world of Hoffmann, which had previously been limited to Germany and Italy. Now he leads his reader to Paris in the times of Louis XIV , under the sooty vaults of the Gdansk town hall, to the Scandinavian mines of Falun , to the Italian theaters of the XVII century, to Venice in the medieval doge. A painstaking study of guidebooks allows the author to describe places where he has never been. Part of the plots Hoffman draws from historical chronicles ^[7] ; others are developing around the paintings of contemporary artists who have “ignited” him at exhibitions.

One of the reasons for such a deepening in the past era was the popularity of the historical prose of Walter Scott , who reached Germany at that time. In some stories (such as, for example, Doge and Dogress), Hoffmann tries to reproduce the style of the fashionable English writer, describing in detail the scene, costumes and rituals of the past years. The members of the Serapion Brotherhood directly discuss the innovation of Scott and his compatriot Byron . At the same time, in Hoffmann, the “stories of old times deep” somehow illustrate the topics of concern to his contemporaries. Thanks to this approach, Hoffmann managed to turn the collection into a “genuine encyclopedia of modern psychological teachings” ^[8] .

The plot and genre wealth of the Serapion Brothers turned Hoffmann's final collection into a storehouse of plots and ideas for other authors. “The Singers' Contest” served as the source for Tannhauser ’s libretto, the scenes of The Counselor Crespell were used in Hoffmann ’s Fairy Tales ; brides ".

One hundred years later, young followers of Zamyatin and Shklovsky , dissatisfied with the plot poverty of classical Russian literature, decided to learn plotting from Hoffmann and borrowed from him the name for his circle — the Serapion Brothers .