4 - Die Jesuiterkirche in G.

Summary

ALTHOUGH DIE JESUITERKIRCHE IN G. (1816) is often referred to in the secondary literature on Hoffmann, no one critic has thought it worthwhile to offer an all-embracing interpretation of this fascinating Künstlernovelle. Although a number of critics — mostly French — have turned their attention to the novella, they have done little more than compare it to other stories by Hoffmann. Lack of critical attention may be due to the fact that the story's plot and meaning appear, at first sight, to be straightforward. Nonetheless, the story offers the reader a number of insights into the problems confronting the Romantic artist, not least his relationship to the Ideal, to love, and to his public. Hoffmann explores these problems through the central figure in the story, Berthold, as well as through more marginal figures — such as the narrator or Professor Walther — who, though largely ignored in the secondary literature, do in fact make an important contribution to the novella's theme by virtue of the positions they adopt and the opinions they hold. For this reason alone it is worth subjecting the novella to closer analysis, since here, as in all of Hoffmann's works, the formal dimension plays an important role.

The narrative structure of Die Jesuiterkirche in G., like that of many of Hoffmann's novellas, is highly complex. The narrator, “der reisende Enthusiast,” as the reader finds out only later, who is a fictional character situated within the overall framework of the Nachtstücke, tells a story in which he has played only a minor role.