The Reception of Fénelon's "Télémaque" in Zurich and Vienna between 1740 and 1806

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Christoph Schmitt-Maass
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259167713

First published in 1699 Fénelon's 'Les Avantures de Télémaque' rapidly became the 'most read literary work of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe' (P. Riley). In my nearby finished Habilitation I try to find out how 'Télémaque' in Germany supported Enlightenment or how he was adopted to support the Enlightenment in sense of cultural transfer. To answer this question I draw on the 'classical' theory of reception and add the history of books and reading. I'm asking: Who reads, translates, and publishes the 'Télémaque'? Why? With what intentions? For whom? In what manner? With what consequences? In this way I could demonstrate that die German reception of 'Télémaque' is characterized by a remarkable continuity; all six years in average a new issue or edition was printed in the Holy Roman Empire. On the formal level, this editions of a mirror for princes (which criticizes Louis XIV) helps to establish the discourse of Enlightenment. But up to the mid of the century the more early modern tradition dominated the reception of 'Télémaque' (this tradition became important for the reception in the Weimar Classicism). This different reception of the 'Télémaque' was one of the main subjects of the literary quarrel between Leipzig and Zurich. I have worked on the unedited sources in Leipzig and would like to compare them to the unedited sources in Zurich; only in this way the lasting reception of the 'Télémaque' after 1750 in Zurich is explicable. Moreover I will outline the importance of 'Télémaque' for the education of the Habsburg Princes; here I would also like to examine unedited and printed sources. This education in a catholic context is important to contrast my investigations in the Lutheran and Pietistic reception of 'Télémaque' in Prussia and Saxony between 1700 and 1806.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Austria, Switzerland
• Hosts: Professor Dr. Norbert Bachleitner; Professorin Dr. Sabine Schneider