Abstract
Through a close reading of selected passages, this article tests the hypothesis that Hölderlin’s Patmos (1803) is a psycholinguistic exercise designed to evoke a non-dualistic state of mind in its readers. The argument demonstrates how Hölderlin’s deliberate manipulation of syntax and disruption of propositionality force readers into oscillation between contrasting interpretations, making a definitive understanding elusive. By fragmenting perception through anti- or meta-propositional language, Hölderlin creates the mental discomfort necessary to induce non-dualistic states of consciousness—states he believed were essential for opening the mind to revelatory experiences.
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In this issue
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- Article
- Abstract
- 1. The Request: “To Flatten Their Exegetical Dreams”
- 2. The Response: Das Lebende, Gott
- 3. The Material: Most Intimate Relations; Innigste Beziehungen
- 4. The Form: An Ever-Communicating Unity (Close Reading of the Beginning Verses of Stanza Nine)
- 5. Language of Revelation, Language of Broken Perception
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