1 - Empiricist Empires: Hofmannsthal's Domestic Orientalism

Summary

HOFMANNSTHAL'S EARLY WORKS are imbued with a tremulous yet torpid aestheticism that seems at first glance far removed from the harsh reality of late nineteenth-century imperialism. It is therefore surprising to discover that some of his early texts, most noticeably “Das Märchen der 672. Nacht” (The Tale of Night 672, 1895) and the poetic monologue “Der Kaiser von China spricht” (The Emperor of China Speaks, 1897), draw upon orientalist topoi, and thus participate in the discourse that, according to Edward Said, consistently acts as the ideological cohort of Western colonialism. However, we must remember that, unlike the British and French empires that predominate in Said's Orientalism, Hofmannsthal's Austria-Hungary possessed no overseas colonies but was rather itself a contiguous, if somewhat fractious, European empire. My aim here is to consider how Hofmannsthal's tale and poem reflect on imperialism, not so much as a matter of overseas expansion, but rather of domestic policy. This chapter will demonstrate that rather than promoting Western hegemony, these texts question the basic viability of imperialism and challenge received notions of national identity.

Both the Märchen and the poem feature chimerical kingdoms, realms so vast that they can only exist as cohesive entities in the minds of their putative sovereigns. Although the monological form and monomaniacal speaker can only intimate this disturbing truth in “Der Kaiser von China spricht,” the third-person narrative in the tale can address this topic more directly.