Theorizing Theater Antitheatrically: Karl Philipp Moritz's Theatromania Author(s): Christopher J. Wild Reviewed work(s): Source: MLN, Vol.

120, No. 3, German Issue (Apr., 2005), pp. 507-538 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3840737 . Accessed: 19/03/2012 23:13
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Theorizing Theater Antitheatrically: Karl Philipp Moritz's Theatromania

ChristopherJ. Wild

and Theaterfeindschaft I. Theaterleidenschaft Readers of Karl Philipp Moritz's psychological novel chronicling the etiology of an almost pathological passion for the theater have displayed a remarkable lack of puzzlement over the fact that the title is borrowed from the name of one of the most vehement antitheatricalists in the German theater wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Anton Reiser. In 1681 this Hamburg pastor published a OderDie voluminous and verbose tome whose title, AQ! Theatromania
Werke der Finsternif In denen offentlichen Schau-Spielen, provides the

matrix for the diagnosis of the hero's theatrogenic suffering. This lack of philological puzzlement ranges from Lothar Miller's outright dismissal' of any connection between Moritz's Enlightenment novel and the unenlightened diatribes of a Pietist cleric to the dutiful mentioning of a nominal connection2 without further investigating
1Lothar Muller, Die krankeSeeleund das Licht derErkenntnis. Karl Philipp Moritz'Anton Reiser(Frankfurta.M.: Athenaum, 1987). Not coincidentally, Muller buries this dismissal in a footnote of his otherwise stimulating and perceptive study of Anton Reiser:"Seit Ludwig Geiger geistert der glaubenseifrige Hamburger Pastor Anton Reiser mit seiner Schrift gegen die 'Theatromania' von 1681 durch die Moritz-Philologie. Doch scheint es mir sehr unwahrscheinlich, daB Moritz mit dem Namen seines Helden gerade auf diese damals schon lOOJahrealte Schriftin seinem aktuellen Zeitroman anspielen wollte" (415). 2 Two of the most notable examples are: Eckehard Catholy, "KarlPhilipp Moritz. Ein Beitrag zur 'Theatromanie' der Goethezeit," Euphorion 45 (1950): 101 and Rolf MLN 120 (2005): 507-538 ? 2005 by TheJohns Hopkins University Press

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this unholy textual alliance. The sole exception is a rather short and rough article that Wolfgang Martens contributed to the international Fachtagung "Karl Philipp Moritz und das 18. Jahrhundert" and in which he draws on his seminal work on Literatur und Frommigkeit to suggest (rather than fully develop) the idea that "Moritz' Urteil uber Roman- und Dramenlekture und Theaterlust [...] ist abhangig von friihen, voraufklarerischen Einfliissen und Pragungen, die er erfahren hat, obwohl er als Erwachsener, in seiner von ihm vertretenen Weltanschauung und in seinen Schriften, auch im 'Anton Reiser,' sich davon befreit zu haben scheint. Ich meine Einflusse und durch den Pietismus, durch pietistische Kritik, ja Pragungen UrmiBtrauen dem Scheinhaften, dem pietistisches gegenuber Romanhaften, dem Fiktionalen und Theatralischen."3 But just like most readers of Moritz's oeuvre, Martens is blinded by the simple opposition between his later commitment to Enlightenment ideals and the darker "fruhe, voraufklarerische Einflusse und Pragungen." of this internal Moreover, Martens alludes to the reconciliation contradiction that is generally accepted within Moritz philology: thinkers from namely that Moritz's contact with Enlightenment Gottsched to Mendelssohn enabled him to overcome his religious upbringing. As I have shown elsewhere,4 this assumption of discontinuity does not hold for the history of Enlightenment theater, and more importantly, it naively takes at face value the Enlightenment's myth of a "self-fashioning" that breaks with the past. Certainly the relation between his early religious "Eindrficke" and his later philosophy is a complicated and conflicted one, and it is alluded to by an early diagnostic statement of Anton Reiser's narrator: "Diese ersten Eindrucke sind nie in seinem Leben aus seiner Seele verwischt worden, und haben sie oft zu einem Sammelplatze schwarzer Gedanken gemacht, die er durch keine Philosophie verdrangen

des Selbmann, Theaterim Roman. Studien zum Strukturwandel deutschenBildungsromans (Mfinchen: Fink, 1981) 47, since both strive to situate Moritz's novel within the context of theater history. 3Wolfgang Martens, "Zur Einschatzung von Romanen und Theater in Moritz' 'Anton Reiser,"' Karl Philipp Moritz und das 18. Jahrhundert. BestandsaufnahmenKorrekturen Neuansdtze,ed. Martin Fontius and Anneliese Klingenberg (Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1995) 101-09. For the intimate relation of piety and poetry, see Wolfgang und Frommigkeit derZeitderfriihenAufkldrung(Tibingen: Niemeyer, in Martens, Literatur 1989). 4 See Christopher Wild, Theater der Keuschheit- Keuschheitdes Theaters.Zu einer Geschichte (Anti-)Theatralitdt Gryphiusbis Kleist (Freiburg i. Br.: Rombach, 2003). der von

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konnte."5 Not only does the narrator suggest here that this religious milieu is to be blamed for the hero's enduring melancholy, but he seems to anticipate Klaus Heinrich's famous bon mot that "Theologie ist das Verdrangte der Philosophie." These first theological impressions can neither be entirely erased, nor can their symptomatic return be repressed. They live on, and the mode of their haunting will be the subject of this investigation of Karl Philipp Moritz's engagement with the theater.6 While a number of studies have traced the connection between pietist introspection and autobiography, and Moritz's "psychologischem Roman" and project of Erfahrungsseelenkunde,7the possible connections between Anton Reiser's Theaterleidenschaftand pietist Theaterfeindschaft have gone largely unexplored. The following reading is guided by the working assumption that they are not irreconcilable, but complementary. Theaterleidenschaftand Theaterfeindschaftrepresent two sides of the same coin; they are inextricably linked and condition each other reciprocally. Their confrontation is productive and reciprocal rather than inhibitory and exclusionary, leading to complex interchanges and transpositions. Its enemies combat theater, because they are particularly susceptible to its charms and effects. Their critical analyses are therefore characterized by an unusual sensitivity for its specific mediality, i.e. theatricality.8 In this regard the Theaterfeinde are closely related to iconoclasts who destroyed images not because they felt them to be ineffectual and insignificant, but because they exhibited, in their eyes, a magical, even satanic power. Conversely, are disguised or converted Theaterfeinde. Equally theatromaniacs to the allure of the theatrical medium, theatromaniacs susceptible understand the need to curb its uncanny power-as evidenced by the theater reformers from antitheatricalism9 of the Enlightenment
5 Karl Philipp Moritz, Anton Reiser.Ein psychologischer Roman, ed. Wolfgang Martens (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1986) 13. All subsequent references will be cited in the text as AR and page number. 6 Philosophy's role is further complicated by its complicity with the Verdrdngung of the wirklicheWeltby the idealische Welt of novels and theater, a Verdrdngung that is valorized negatively in Anton Reiser. 7Fritz Stemme, "Die Saikularisationdes Pietismus in der Erfahrungsseelenkunde," Zeitschriftfiir deutsche Philologie 72 (1953): 144-58. See also Raimund Bezold, im von und Popularphilosophie Erfahrungsseelenkunde Werk Karl Philipp Moritz(Wiirzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1984). 8 See my chapter "ZurGeschichte der Theaterfeindlichkeit in deutschen Landen," in 167-216. Wild, TheaterderKeuschheit and 91 would like to maintain a distinction here between Theaterfeindlichkeit antitheatricality, which is easily made in German but gets elided by translating both as

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Gottsched to Diderot and Lessing.l1 Moritz himself exhibits a healthy dose of antitheatrical sentiment not only in Anton Reiser, his own novelistic analysis of an "unglficklichen Hang zum Theater," but in several reviews of contemporary theatrical productions, most notably his scathing review of Schiller's Kabale und Liebe. In addition to elucidating the intrinsic relation between Theaterfeindlichkeit and Theaterleidenschaft, theology and theater, I will attempt to reconstruct the configuration of what could be called an antitheatrical subjectivity, which found its most elaborate articulation through Moritz's venture into psychology. My main objective is thus the triangulation of theology, theater, and Erfahrungsseelenkunde. II. Anton Reiser's Theatromania Karl Philipp Moritz's Pietist upbringing and sensibility provides him with the analytical tools to dissect and describe his hero's theatromania. For its symptomatology he draws on stock arguments from the arsenal of theaterfeindliche polemicists. As the title of Anton Reiser's vituperative treatise indicates, Theaterfeinde considered any involvement with the theater to be theatromaniacal and thus pathological-at least in the moral-theological sense. Similarly, the narrator of Moritz's novel considers the theater the "Keim zu allen [...] kunftigen Widerwirtigkeiten" (AR 196) of his hero. He reproduces the Pietist distrust of everything fictitious and fabricated.1' Through his "Romanenlektiire" and then the theater, "[Anton Reiser] war nun auf einmal eine neue Welt er6ffnet, in deren GenuB er sich fur alle [sic] das Unangenehme in seiner wirklichen Welt einigermaBen entschadigen konnte. [...] So ward er schon fruh aus der naturlichen Kinderwelt in eine unnaturliche idealische Welt verdrangt, wo sein Geist fur tausend Freuden des Lebens verstimmt wurde, die andre mit voller Seele genieBen konnen"

Whereas the former refers to every outright hostility and opposition "antitheatricality." to the theater, the latter refers to theories and concepts of theater which seek to limit their specific mediality, i.e. theatricality. Theater can be antitheatrical, but not Put theaterfeindlich. differently, antitheatricalism is an internalized Theaterfeindlichkeit. For a much more elaborate treatment of the Antitheatralititof German theater "1 reform, see the chapters "Geburt der Theaterreform aus dem Geist der Antitheatralitit: Johann Christoph Gottsched," and "EmiliaGalotti:Gotthold Ephraim Lessings Allegorie der Antitheatralitat," in Wild, TheaterderKeuschheit 217-356. " See Wolfgang Schmitt, "Die pietistische Kritik der 'Kfinste.' Untersuchungen uber die Entstehung einer neuen Kunstauffassung im 18. Jahrhundert," diss., U Koln, 1958, 22 and Martens, "Zur Einschatzung von Romanen und Theater" 104.

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(AR 16-17). Displaced from the "natfirliche Kinderwelt," Anton Reiser lives in an imaginary and ideal realm, which in turn displaces the real. His flight from reality makes him "unbrauchbar" for work and studying: "Antons Seele war durch seine romanhaften Ideen zu diesem Takt [des handwerklichen Alltags] verstimmt" (AR 63). "Uberdem war sein Kopf nun wieder bestandig mit Phantasien erfiillt - er war zu keinem anhaltenden und ernsthaften Nachdenken, zu keinem FleiB im Studieren mehr aufgelegt" (AR 348). It is for this reason that German university towns banned traveling theater troops from performing within their walls.12 Going even a step further, Gottfried Vockerodt, a close ally of Philipp Jacob Spener, can argue that the theater undermines the business of bourgeois life: "Wie kan es anders seyn / als daB actores und Zuschauer bey solchen unfertigen Dingen sich also zur Geckerey gewehnen / daB sie ihre droiturede l'Esprit,oder Richtigkeit deB natfirlichen Verstandes / welches der Grund ist der biirgerlichen Erbarkeit / dariiber verlieren / und zu ernsthafften Handlungen endlich untichtig werden / indem sie die schnode Gewonheit zu gecken also verkehret / daB sie fast kein kluges und ernsthafftiges Wort reden k6nnen?"13The "Geckerey"or affectation which the stage inculcates in actors and spectators alike hollows out the "ernsthafften Handlungen" and renders them frivolous. Analogously, the ensuing general theatricalization robs speech of its sincerity and unequivocalness. Thus, Anton Reiser's language is no longer his own but is infected by the language of novels and theater: "Da er nun die Sprache der feinen Lebensart nicht gelernt hatte, und sich doch auch nicht gemein ausdrucken wollte, so bediente er sich bei solchen Gelegenheiten der Bfichersprache, die bei ihm aus dem Telemach, der Bibel, und dem Katechismus zusammengesetzt war, welches seinen Antworten einen Anstrich von Originalitat gab" (AR 131). Much like an actor, Anton is always already "reading" or "reiterating" a pre-existing script. The easy juxtaposition of a novel (albeit written by F6nelon, the ecclesiastic patron of Quietism's mother Mme Guyon) with scripture and catechism must appear sacrilegious to a pious sensibility and makes a
12See the threat of his Erfurt professor, Just Friedrich Froriep, to petition with the magistrate to revoke the theater troupe's license if Anton Reiser were to appear in one of its productions (AR 486). 13 Gottfried Der Music / nebst Vockerodt, Mifibrauchderfreyen Kiinste / insonderheit was Erorterung abgenothigter derFrage: nachD. Luthersund andererEvangelischen Theologorum und Politicorum Meinung von Oper und Comidienzu haltensey?(Frankfurt:Johann David Zunnern, 1697) 129.

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mockery of the Word of God. Paradoxically, the deployment of this "Biichersprache" enables him to set himself apart from his peers and give himself the appearance of originality. In truth, his originality is only simulated since it pertains only to the outer layer, or "Anstrich," and not to the core of his being. Eventually, the "Biichersprache" betrays itself and starts to ring hollow, as when Anton realizes that his own literary style is permeated by echoes of Goethe's Werther (AR 295).14 Not only Anton's language becomes theatricalized, so too do his affects and actions. He adopts the emotions of a novel's or play's character and makes them his own: "Wenn er die Szenen eines Drama [sic], das er entweder gelesen, oder sich selbst in Gedanken entworfen hatte, durchging, so war er das alles nacheinander wirklich, was er vorstellte, er war bald groBmiitig, bald dankbar, bald gekrankt und duldend, bald heftig und jedem Angriff mutig entgegenkampfend" (AR 183). Thus, Anton borrows not only his language, both linguistic and corporeal, from the stage, but also the very interiority it is designed to convey. In turn, he longs to appear on stage to demonstrate "wie tief er empfand, was er sagte, und wie machtig er wieder das durch Stimme und Ausdruck zu sagen imstande ware, was er so tief empfand." As these emotions are always already scripted, Anton is caught in a vicious signifying cycle without an external reference grounding it. From here it is only a small step to one of the principal accusations leveled against theater in general and its players in particular, namely their hypocrisy. While theater and poetry give Anton the opportunity to feel deeply and nobly, they also provide him with the means of simulating those very feelings: "Die Dichtkunst machte ihn also diesmal wirklich zum Heuchler" (AR 284). Paradoxically, actors were simultaneously accused of having or taking on the vices they portrayed on stage. Therefore, Anton is contaminated by the reputed "Liederlichkeit" of the medium of theater despite being generally immune to its erotic dimension.15
14 Sensitized education, Karl Philipp by these experiences and his theaterfeindliche Moritz is allergic to such hollow language in the literary products of others-as in his scathing review of Schiller's Kabale und Liebe:"Wie rednerisch! Ist das Sprache des Herzens und der Natur? - Die lerne Herr Schiller erst von elenden zusammengestoppelten Phrasen und auswendig gelernten Biichersprache unterscheiden, und in dann schreibe er Trauerspiele." Karl Philipp Moritz, Werke zwei Bdnden, ed. Heide Hollmer and Albert Meier, vol. 2 (Frankfurt a.M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1999) 856. Moritz thus shares the antitheatrical sentiment of the bourgeois theater reformers who have similarly introjected the arguments of the Protestant Theaterfeinde. ' See also Anton's reading of Goethe's Werther(AR 292). Although he readily identifies with Werther, he has little understanding for his "Leiden der Liebe."

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The fundamental subversion effected by the theater consists in degrading every word into a citation, every action into an act, and every person into a persona or mask. Due to its mimetic contagiousness, it suspends the distinction between fiction and reality upon which its status as a fiction depends. But its destabilizing effects go even further. With the loss of the "Richtigkeit deB naturlichen Verstandes," theatromaniacs are no longer capable of distinguishing right from wrong and are in danger of losing their "bfirgerliche Erbarkeit." Such a generalized theatricality undermines the whole system of differences (right/wrong, good/evil, honest/dishonest, real/fictional) upon which the bourgeois order is founded. Consea quently, the total theatricalization of life represents for Theaterfeinde worst-case scenario: "Dem gemeinen Wesen kan nichts schadlichers seyn / als die Schauspiele: nichts verderbet mehr der Unterthanen Sitten / weil sie bald die Stimme / das Gesichte / die Geberden und schandliche Handel der Comodianten nachahmen / welche allgemahlich in die Gemuther einschleichen und gantze Stadte verkehren."16 The antitheatrical sensibility Moritz inherited from his Quietist and Pietist'7 upbringing allowed him to go far beyond the conventional critique of the stage for his diagnosis of Anton's theatromania. Such a critical analysis is made possible in part by the antagonistic relationship between theater and its pious enemies. Their vehement rejection allows them to gain insights into the workings of the theatrical medium that go unnoticed by a less critical eye. The novel not only denounces the overtly negative aspects of theater, but moreover debunks its idealization in the course of eighteenth-century theater reform. In order to counter the often accurate description and thus legitimate critique of current theater practices, theater reformers tended to produce an idealized version of this medium that, needless to say, rarely corresponded with historical reality. In fact, idealization is an essential part of Anton's problem and theatromania, and moreover, his idealization of the theater is congruent with that of the theater reformers. The theater that inflames his passion is artistically the most advanced and sophisticated of its time: "Wenn

6 Vockerodt cites Bodin, Mifibrauch derfreyenKiinste 152. 17On the coalescence of these two denominationally different separatist movements, see Robert Minder, Glaube, Skepsis und Rationalismus. Dargestellt aufgrund der autobiographischen Schriftenvon Karl Philipp Moritz (Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1974) 118.

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einen entschiednen irgend auBere Umstande fihig waren,jemandem Geschmack am Theater beizubringen, so war es, Reisers Vorliebe und seine besondern Verhaltnisse abgerechnet, der Zufall, welche diese vortrefflichen Schauspieler damals in eine Truppe zusammenbrachte" (AR 221).18 The "Truppe" is none other than the famous "Ackermannsche," and the first play that Anton sees professionally performed is none other than Lessing's Emilia Galotti:19 "Wie machtig muBte Reisers Seele hier eingreifen; da sie nun die Welt ihrer Phantasie gewissermaBen wirklich gemacht fand! - Er dachte von nun an keinen andern Gedanken mehr, als das Theater, und schien nun fur seine Aussichten und Hoffnungen im Leben ganzlich verloren zu sein" (AR 220). The realization of his imaginary ideal does not bring him back to reality, does not reinstate the reality principle, but results in further idealization: "Dadurch bildete sich ein Ideal von der Schauspielkunst in ihm, das nachher nirgends befriedigt wurde, und ihm doch weder Tag noch Nacht Ruhe lieB, sondern ihn unaufhorlich umhertrieb, und sein Leben unstet und fluchtig machte" (AR 22324). Paradoxically, the reform theater that Anton witnesses embodies an imaginary ideal that is immune to and protected from its realization. What the narrator seems to suggest is that it is precisely the reform theater in its most refined form that is to no small degree responsible for Anton's theatromania. Having introjected the Pietist Theaterfeindlichkeit, he is the ideal spectator for the productions of the theater on route to reform. The conjunction of reformed theater-or and Theaterleidenschaft that the novel establishes Theaterfeindlichkeit corresponds to the very same conjunction embodied by the antitheatrical drama of the bourgeois theater reform. The lens of Theaterfeindlichkeitallows Moritz to see Theaterleidenschaft in a much more critical light than the Theaterfreunde, who were blinded by their tendency towards idealization. It allowed him to recognize theatromania as one of the latent, albeit extreme, possibilities of bourgeois theater reform. Conversely, Moritz uses Anton Reiser's severe case of theatromania to cast a critical light on its other: Theaterfeindlichkeit. The antagonistic stance of the Theaterfeinde is only half of the equation. Would there be nothing more, a categorical and simple rejection would have sufficed. Instead the Theaterfeinde's
18See also Muller, Die krankeSeeleund das Licht derErkenntnis 353. 19Correspondingly, the first role that Anton plays-albeit in an off-school produc-

tion-is

the title role of Lessing's Philotas (see AR 197-98).

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garrulity betrays their secret infatuation with the theater. The Theaterfeinde's sharp-sightedness concerning the mediality of the theater stems as much from their oppositional stance as from their secret susceptibility and complicity. In Anton Reiser the complicity and intrinsic relation between Theaterfeindlichkeit and Theaterleidenschaft, between theology and theater, is suggested rather than made explicit as, for instance, in the spatial proximity of the theater and the church in Gotha: "die beiden kleinen Turmchen von Gotha [...], wovon ihm der Schuster sagte, daB der eine auf der Kirche, und der andre auf dem Kom6dienhause stande. Dieser angenehme Kontrast und lebhafte sinnliche Eindruck machte, daB sein Gemft sich allmahlich wieder erheiterte, und er durch verdoppelte Schritte seinen Gefahrten wieder in Atem setzte. Denn das Tuirmchen bezeichnete ihm nun deutlich den Fleck, wo der unmittelbare laute Beifall eingeerntet, und die Wunsche des wurden" (AR 410). The narrator ruhmbegierigen Jiinglings gekr6nt intimates that the juxtaposition of "Kirche" and "Kom6dienhause," underscored by the ambiguous reference of "das Turmchen" which can refer to either, is responsible for lifting Anton's spirits. Generally, Anton Reiser is unable to rise above the fray of experience and to gain insight into the etiology of his theatromania and the complicity between theology and theater-a prerogative reserved to the narrator. Only when he is confronted with the fantasies of his fellow theatromaniac and the future famous actor and theater director August Wilhelm Iffland, who dreams of becoming a lowly "Landprediger," is Anton beset by a "geheimes Geffihl": er war also entschlossen, Theologie zu studieren, und unterhielt Reisern bestandig mit der Schilderungjener stillen, hiuslichen Glickseligkeit, die er dann im SchoB einer kleinen Gemeinde, die ihn liebte, in seinem Dorfchen genieBen wurde. - Reiser, welcher dergleichen Spiele der Phantasie aus eigner Erfahrung kannte, prophezeite ihm im voraus, daB er diesen EntschluB zu seinem Besten wohl nie in Erfullung bringen wurde: denn wenn er Prediger wiirde, so wurde er wahrscheinlich ein grofjer Heuchlerwerden - er wirde mit der gr6Bten Hitze des Affekts, und mit aller Stirke der Deklamation doch immer nur eine Rolle spielen. - Ein geheimes Gefuhl sagte Reisern, daB dies bei ihm selber wohl der Fall sein wiirde, darum konnte erjenem so gut den Text lesen. (AR 346-47) It is Anton's susceptibility to similar fantasies that enables him to diagnose Iffland's self-deception and hypocrisy. During his apprenticeship in Braunschweig, the renowned preacher Paulmann served

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as the object of Anton's adolescent adoration.20 It was not Paulmann's spiritual or moral perfection that so captivated the young Anton, but the brilliance of his oratorical delivery or actio. In other words, he regards the preacher first and foremost as an orator or actor and thus privileges the presentation over content, letter over spirit. From this perspective theater forms the logical conclusion and culmination of preaching: "Nun wurde ihm die Theatergrille so wert, daB die Sucht zu predigen beinahe ganz aus seiner Seele verdrangt wurde - denn hier fand seine Phantasie einen weit groBern Spielraum, weit mehr wirkliches Leben, und Interesse, als in dem ewigen Monolog des Predigers" (AR 183). Analogously, Anton transfers his adulation to the actors of the Ackermannsche Truppe, for whom he "fast so viel Ehrfurcht, wie ehemals gegen den Pastor P[aulmann) in B[raunschweig] empfand" (AR 222). The relation between theology and theater is no one-way street and thus can work in both directions. Much later, after having escaped the drudgery of his scholastic existence and on route to fulfilling his theatrical dreams by joining the Seilersche Truppe under Konrad Ekhof's direction in Erfurt, Anton Reiser poses as a student intent on studying theology. When these dreams fail, he falls back on becoming the student of theology he had impersonated before. Just as in Iffland's case, theater and theology are so inextricably linked in Anton's mind that one can stand in for the other. It was Karl Philipp Moritz's invention of a new program of psychological inquiry, simultaneously indebted and eccentric to Pietist introspection as well as Theaterleidenschaft, that enabled him to yoke theater and theology. Several contributions to his Magazin der Erfahrungsseelenkunde are devoted to the cases of young men who have been befallen by a "unseeligen Hang zum Theater"21 that threatened to destroy the "ganze Gluckseeligkeit [ihres] Lebens" (3.1: 117). Much like Anton Reiser, they are guided by a "miBleitende Phantasie" (4.1: 99), and due to their "Kom6dienlektfire," their "ganze Seele" was filled with "Ideen aus der theatralischen Welt" (3.1: 117). Moritz, the editor of the letters detailing one such "ungliickliche Theatergrille" (4.1: 99), notes in a footnote, "Nichts ist sonderbarer in diesen
20 see Seeleund Regarding the figure of the preacher in Anton Reiser, Muller, Die kranke das Licht derErkenntnis350. 21 Anke Bennholdt-Thomsen and Alfredo Guzzoni, eds., Gnothiseauton oderMagazin 10 derErfahrungsseelenkunde, vols. (Lindau i.B.: Antiqua, 1978) 3.1.: 115-25, 4.1: 85-109, 6.2: 11-13, and 7.3: 106-16. Subsequent references will be made to the volume, issue, and page number of this edition of the Magazin.

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Briefen, als der immerwahrende schnelle Uebergang von Komodie zu Predigt und von Predigt zu Komodie, gerade in dem Punkte, worin beide in der Phantasie des Schreibenden immer zusammen trafen" (4.1: 99).22 Not coincidentally, the sermon, as the most theatrical component of a cleric's office, provides the relay for phantasmatically linking theater and theology. The "sonderbare [...] von Comedie zur Predigt" not only betrays the Uebergang "zwischen den Actionen des Schauspielers und so manches affinity Geistlichen" (6.2: 12), but moreover makes it possible for theology and theater to function as each other's proxies. Thus, one of the young theatromaniacs is able to indulge his passion in a more socially acceptable manner: "Denn nun fing er bald an zu predigen, und konnt doch auf die Weise seinen unwiderstehlichen Hang zum theatralischen Deklamiren in etwas befriedigen. Ein Grund, der mehr junge Leute zum Studium der Theologie antreibt, als man glauben sollte. - Die Neigungen der Junglinge werden immer mehr durch die Zeichen der Sache, als durch die Sache selbst gelenkt. Der zierliche Husarenpelz, und der weiBe Kragen macht mehr Proselyten, als der Degen und die Bibel" (3.1: 118-19). That these young students of theology never quit the theater is indicated by their motivation for this course of study: much like the spectator of a play who is so absorbed by the theatrical illusion that s/he forgets that the "Zeichen" is not the "Sache," these "Jfinglinge" are more attracted by the "weiBe Kragen" then by the "Bibel." For them, the clothes make the churchman-just as the costume transforms the actor into his dramatic persona. The "Uebergang von Komodie zu Predigt" is so easy because theology is the continuation of theater by other means. Conversely, the "Uebergang [...] von Predigt zu Kom6die" is made possible by the latent theatricality of theology, which is brought out by the theater proper. This is why Theaterfeinde react so allergically to any hint of theatricality in preaching; for example, Johann Melchior Goeze, Lessing's opponent in the Fragmentenstreitand one of the main combatants of the second Hamburger Theaterstreit,wrote: "Eine auf der Schaubuhne erlernte Beredsamkeit, wird, wenn sie auf den Vortrag gottlicher Wahrheiten angewandt wird, wenig Segen nach sich ziehen
22 Moritz's co-editor Karl Friedrich Pockels, who was in charge of the Magazin during Moritz's Italian journey, similarly notes the "sonderbaren Uebergang einer verschrobenen Phantasie von Comedie zur Predigt, und von der Predigt zur Comedie" (6.2: 12). Anton Reiser is able to make a similarly smooth transition: "Zwischen den Komodienproben versaumte nun Reiser nicht, des Doktor Frorieps Predigerkolloquium fleiBig zu besuchen" (AR 459).

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[...] und die Vorstellung, welche sich eine Gemeine von einem solchen Lehrer nothwendig machen muB, nemlich, daB sie demselben eine Copey eines Com6dianten vor sich sehe, wird seinen und Bestrafungen, alle Kraft nehmen."23 Ermahnungen, Warnungen Surprisingly, Moritz does not further explore the affinity of theater and theology in the venue of the Magazin zurErfahrungsseelenkunde. In the short essay "Uber Selbsttauschung" (to which I will have to return later), he takes a first step when he attributes this proclivity to take "Schein" for "Wirklichkeit" (8.3: 34) to a certain uneasiness with one's self, but only in Anton Reiser does he flesh out this line of argument: "Weil er von Kindheit auf zu wenig eigene Existenz gehabt hatte, so zog ihn jedes Schicksal, daB auBer ihm war, desto stirker an; daher schrieb sich ganz natiirlich wahrend seiner Schuljahre, die Wut, Kom6dien zu lesen und zu sehen. - Durch jedes fremde Schicksal fihlte er sich gleichsam sich selbst entrissen, und fand nun in andern erst die Lebensflamme wieder, die in ihm selbst durch den Druck von auBen beinahe erloschen war. Es war also kein echter Beruf, kein reiner Darstellungstrieb, der ihn anzog: Denn ihm lag mehr daran, die Szenen des Lebens in sich, als auBer sich darzustellen" (AR 413). Since early childhood, Anton Reiser has suffered from a lack of "eigener Existenz" that has to be compensated. In other words, his empty self has to be filled. While the novel depicts other means to as travel, flights of fantasy, or remedy this ego-deficiency-such mimesis (taken in its strict Platonic sense) is the reading-theatrical most effective and thus the telos of all others. It simultaneously provides Anton Reiser with an escape from his own dreaded self and with a substitute. Before examining more closely the precise mechanism of compensating this ego-deficiency, I would like pursue further its etiology and the role theology plays in it. The narrator suggests two causes for this lack of selfhood: one religious and the other familial. Both date back to Anton's early childhood and, in the case of the former, even antedate his birth.24 And both often operate in a congruous manner. The members of the

23JohannMelchior Goeze, Theologische der der Untersuchung Sittlichkeit heutigen wie Ob insonderheit wirklich ein im Schaubuhne, iiberhaupt: auchderFragen: ein Geistlicher, stehender Comddien selbst Mann,dieSchaubiihne besuchen, schreiben, Predigt-Amte auffiihren und drucken [...] Brandt,1770) 53. laf3en kinne?(Hamburg: Johan Christian 24Remarkably, Anton'sBildungsgeschichte not withthe circumstances his birth starts of but with a descriptionof the religiousmilieu into which he wasborn. Thus, even the familialenvironment-particularly strife-was determinedby religiousissues and its forces.

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Quietist, or Separatist, sect to which Anton's father belonged and into which he initiated his son at a very early age were united in their spiritual quest "in ihr Nichts (wie es die Mad. Guion nennt) wieder einzugehen, alle Leidenschaften zu ertoten, und alle Eigenheit auszurotten" (AR 8). The extinction of all "Selbstliebe"and "Eigenheit" was the indispensable condition for receiving "die Stimme Gottes oder das innereWort"(AR 8) and thus uniting with the godhead. Only the total evacuation of the self insured that God's presence would remain undiluted and pure. Ideally, the self was annihilated in order to be replaced by God, resulting in a heavenly plenitude. As Karl Philipp Moritz documents both in his novel as well as with the published letters of Herrn von Fleischbein, the sect's leader, the presence of the divine Word remained ever in question. In other words, with God's presence in doubt, all the subject was left with was an annihilated and empty self, a self in desperate need of fulfillment-ironically, a fulfillment Anton does not find within the world of the novel. Quietism's ascetic regime is complemented by the lack of "liebreicher Behandlung" and the "Verachtung, die er von seinen Eltern erlitten" (AR 14) which set the pattern for the "Demiitigungen und Krankungen [...], denen er von seiner frfihesten Kindheit an, fast solange er denken konnte, bestandig ausgesetzt worden war" (AR 343) so that Anton can come to the conclusion "daBer von der Wiege an unterdruckt war" (AR 12, see also 343). In a sense, Anton's story consists of little else than a series of "Augenblicken [...], wo er gleichsam vor sich selber vernichtet wurde" (AR 169). Such instances of"Verachtung" or "Beschimung" "erniedrigte[n] ihn bei sich selber, er war in einem solchen Zustand, wo man gleichsam zu versinken, oder in einem Augenblick ganzlich vernichtet zu sein, wiinscht" (AR 168). Ironically, the treatment he receives from his social environment succeeds where elaborate ascetic practices fail, namely to achieve the "Eingehen ins Nichts" (AR 8). The religious and social "Vernichtung" thus coalesce and reinforce each other such as when Anton's parents are invited "zu einem kleinen Familienfeste" "bei dem Wirt des Haus, wo sie wohnten" and leave him alone at home: Anton muBte es aus dem Fenster mit ansehen, wie die Kinder der Nachbarnsch6n geputztzu diesem Feste kamen, indes er alleine auf der Stube zuruckbleiben muBte, weil seine Eltern sich seines schlechten Aufzugesschamten. [...] Verlassenvon allem, fiihlte er erst eine Art von bitterer Verachtung gegen sich selbst, die sich aber plotzlich in eine unaussprechlicheWehmutverwandelte,da er zufilligerweisedie Lieder

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der Madam Guion aufschlug, und eins fand, das gerade auf seinen Zustand zu passen schien. - Eine solche Vernichtung, wie er in diesem Augenblick ffihlte, muBte nach dem Liede der Mad. Guion vorhergehen, um sich in dem Abgrunde der ewigen Liebe, wie ein Tropfen im Ozean, zu verlieren. (AR 21-22) The congruity between the religious and the social "Vernichtung" is indicated by the common terminology the narrator employs. The "Demfitigungen" (e.g. AR 168, 195) he experiences in these moments are congruent with the "Demut" requisite for pious selfhave to be conduct.25 Any traces of vanity and self-importance or in Anton's case by immediately vanquished by practicing humility, being subjected to a "Demutigung": "Man sieht leicht, daB Anton Reisers Eitelkeit, durch die Umstande, welche sich jetzt vereinigten, um ihm seine eigne Person wichtig zu machen, mehr als zuviel Nahrung erhielt. Es bedurfte wieder einer kleinen Demutigung fur ihn, und die blieb nicht aus" (AR 128). The primal scene of the "Familienfest" establishes a complex pattern governing Anton's psychic economy. For one, it lays the groundwork for Anton's preoccupation with outward appearance as it is the motive and sign for this instance of "Verachtung." Like the 'Junglinge" who take the "Zeichen der Sache" for the "Sache," Anton takes his tattered wardrobe as indicative of his worthlessness and conversely strives to improve his self by dressing up. More importantly, he is prompted by the "Lieder der Madam Guion" to internalize the external "Verachtung" he receives and to integrate it into her and his program of self-"Vernichtung." In the process, bitterness is transformed into religious melancholy or "Wehmut." In other words, the pious "Selbstvernichtung" provides the matrix for Anton's internalization of "Verachtung" by others.26 This self-hatred forms the core of Anton's pathology: "Dies war eine naturliche Folge seines von Kindheit an unterdriickten Selbstgefuihls, das damals nicht stark den Urteilen anderer von ihm zu widerstehen - hatte ihn genug war, jedermann fur einen offenbaren Verbrecher gehalten, so wiirde er sich zuletzt auch dafur gehalten haben" (AR 245). It is this self-hatred that informs the innumerable scenarios of self-annihilation which

25See also the pious world view of the father "dem die Grundsatze der Demutigung und Ertotung alien Stolzes und Eigendunkels aus den Schriften der Mad. Guion heilig waren" (AR 257). 26The internalization of "Verachtung"also provides the matrix for Moritz's internalization of Theaterfeindlichkeit.

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Anton stages from early childhood on: "Selbst der Gedanke an seine eigne Zerstorung war ihm nicht nur angenehm, sondern verursachte ihm sogar eine Art von wollustiger Empfindung" (AR 29). And it motivates his preoccupation with death and structures the many figures of nothingness, as in the case of the "vier Missetater auf dem Rabensteine": "Denn er konnte sich nicht enthalten, sich immer an den Platz der zerstuckten und in Stucken auf das Rad gewundenen hingerichteten Missetater zu stellen" (AR 262). The "Verachtung" and the concomitant "Selbstverachtung" play out in the realm of the visual as Anton internalizes the others' mocking and contemptuous gaze. Struck down by the school director's "Blick des Zorns und der Verachtung," Anton Reiser "getraute sich von nun an nicht mehr, seine Augen zu dem Direktor aufzuschlagen, und muBte sich in den Stunden derselben, wie ein Wesen betrachten, auf das nicht die mindeste Riicksicht genommen ward" (AR 193). Unable to return the gaze, he is no longer its subject, but merely its object. In fact, having internalized the others' gaze, he begins to see himself through the eyes of the others as if he were another. Thus, the others' gaze becomes a permanent fixture of Anton's field of vision so that "er sich selbst als einen Gegenstand der allgemeinen Verachtung ansieht, und es nicht mehr wagt, die Augen vor jemanden aufzuschlagen" (AR 168). He cannot escape the feeling of being under constant, contemptuous surveillance. Having internalized the others' gaze, he always carries it with him. Thus, he feels like everyone and everything is looking at him. Anton's paranoid universe is patterned on the universe of the pious self, which feels God's gaze resting upon itself and reads in everything signs of its salvation or condemnation. Similarly, Anton cannot read any event as but relating to him "da er nun einmal gelernet hatte, nach dem, was ihm von einer besondern gottlichen Ffihrung in den Kopf gesetzt war, alles auf sich zu beziehen" (AR 90). Whereas in his childhood Anton was counted among the elect by his spiritual mentors, the adolescent quickly fell out of their and God's favor so that his father regards him as an "ausder g6ttlichen Gnade gefallenen Sohn" (AR 109). The universal contempt that Anton feels is thus the mundane and secularized version of God's condemnation. More generally, the internalization of the divine gaze forms the matrix for the internalization of the others' gaze, as the latter succeeds the former. Indicative of the uncanny affinity of theology and its odious other, namely novels and theater, this religiously rooted paranoia is reinforced by Anton's mode of identificatory reception, more

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specifically by his reading of Schnabel's Die Insel Felsenburg, which makes an intense impression on him: "denn nun gingen eine Zeitlang seine Ideen auf nichts Geringers, als einmal eine groBe Rolle in der Welt zu spielen, und erst einen kleinen, denn immer gr6Beren Zirkel von Menschen um sich her zu ziehen, von welchen er der Mittelpunkt ware: dies erstreckte sich immer weiter, und seine ausschweifende lieB ihn endlich sogar Tiere, Einbildungskraft Pflanzen, und leblose Kreaturen, kurz alles, was ihn umgab, mit in die Sphare seines Daseins hineinziehen, und alles muBte sich um ihn, als den einzigen Mittelpunkt, umher bewegen, bis ihm schwindelte" (AR 34). Reminiscent of the Baroque theatrum mundi, Anton imagines himself playing the lead role on the stage of the world. All eyes are on him as the whole universe rotates around him as its center. This pattern is replicated when Anton enters school. Immediately distinguishing himself from his peers, Anton gains the attention of his teachers: 'Sein Sie ja recht auf Ihrer Hut, und denken Sie, daB man genau auf sie achtgibt. - Es sind groBe Dinge mit Ihnen im Werke!' und dergleichen mehr, wodurch nun Reiser freilich anfing, sich eine wichtigere Person, als bisher zu glauben, und seine kleine Eitelkeit mehr wie zuviel Nahrung erhielt, die sich denn oft toricht genug in seinem Gange und seinen Mienen auBerte, indem er manchmal in seinen Gedanken mit allem Ernst und der Wiirde eines Lehrers des Volks auf die StraBe einhertrat, wie er dies denn schon in B[raunschweig] getan hatte, besonders wenn er schwarze Weste und Beinkleider trug. Bei seinem Gange hatte er sich den Gang einesjungen Geistlichen, der damals Lazarettprediger in H[annover] und zugleich Konrektor am Lyzeum war, zum Muster genommen, weil dieser in der Art sein Kinn getragen, etwas hatte, das Reisern ganz besonders gefiel. (AR 125-26) The theatricalization that ensues from this paranoid fantasy of election is obvious. Analogous to the phantasmatic scenario prompted by his reading of the Insel Felsenburg, in which Anton imagines playing "eine groBe Rolle," he starts playing to the audience. Through the internalization of the others' gaze, his actions become an act. And not coincidentally, the role in which "Reisern [sich] ganz besonders gefiel" was that of a man of the cloth, the "Lazarettprediger in H[annover]." Theater represents the most immediate gratification of Anton's fantasies of election. Here his paranoia is legitimate: Ruhm und Beifall sich zu erwerben, das war von jeher sein h6chster Wunsch gewesen; - aber der Beifall muBte ihm damals nicht zu weit liegen - er wollte ihn gleichsam aus der ersten Hand haben, und wollte gern, wie

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es der naturliche Hang zur Tragheit mit sich bringt, ernten ohne zu saen. - Und so griff nun freilich das Theater am stirksten in seinen Wunsch ein. - Nirgends warjener Beifall aus der ersten Hand, so wie hier zu erwarten. - Er betrachtete einen Brockmann, einen Reinicke immer mit einer Art von Ehrfurcht, wenn er sie auf der StraBe gehen sahe, und was konnte er mehr winschen, als in den Kopfen anderer Menschen einst ebenso zu existieren, wie diese in seinem Kopfe existierten. (AR 351) In contrast to the "Schriftstellersucht, welche schon damals anfing, ihn Tag und Nacht zu qualen" (AR 350), where the "Beifall" is mediated, "aus zweiter Hand" so to speak, the "Beifall" of theater manifests itself in the gaze with which Anton observes ("betrachtete") famous actors like Brockmann or Reinicke. He projects the gaze with which he watches the actors onto his future spectators who will watch him. Moreover, on stage, "wo es einem nicht einmal darf zur Eitelkeit angerechnet werden, daB er sich sooft wie m6glich zu seinem Vorteil zeigen will, sondern, wo die Sucht nach Beifall gleichsam privilegiert ist" (AR 364), paranoia and vanity are institutionalized, and Anton does not run the risk "seine eigne Person wichtig zu machen." Theater remedies and renews the pathological constitution of pious subjectivity as it brings to the fore its latent theatricality. More than anything else, theater lets Anton escape his dreaded self.27 The total absorption that watching or acting out a play produces in Anton allows him to forget himself completely. Thus, Anton fulfills the ideal of the absorbed spectator that the theater reformers envision. Totally absorbed, he is no longer conscious of his spectatorship and therea degree fore of the process of theatrical mediation in general-to rarely realized in contemporary theater or even hoped for by its theoreticians. Ironically, this kind of escapism, as many Theaterfeinde (most notably Rousseau) rarely fail to observe, puts theater's moral applicability into question and renders its pedagogical force ineffectual. In contrast to, for instance, Diderot's theory of theatrical reception, which conceives a carefully calibrated dialectic of forgetting and remembering,28 Anton's forgetting is severed from a remembering which would re-anchor him in reality. Completely lost in the moment, he cannot connect the lessons presented on stage to his
27 Paradoxically, it is philosophy that reinforces theology's lesson that one's self is inescapable: "Plotzlich entstand in ihm das Gefiihl, daft er sich selbst nicht entfliehen und kein anderer sein konnte, konnte.[... ] DaB er nun unabanderlich erselbstsein mufite, daB er in sich selbst eingeengt, und eingebanntwar.. ." (AR 265). 28 See David Marshall, The Marivaux, Diderot,Rousseau, SurprisingEffectsof Sympathy. and Mary Shelley(Chicago and London: Chicago UP, 1988) 104-35.

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everyday existence in any meaningful way. Anton proves to be the perfect spectator of the reform theater in other ways as well. In order to escape his own hated self, he identifies with and even becomes other selves. Or put differently, it is precisely his lack of self that makes him so receptive for the theatrical presentation of other selves: "Sein eignes auBres Schicksal war ihm daher, so verachtlich so niedrig, und so unbedeutend geworden, daB er aus sich selbstnichts mehrmachte- an dem Schicksal einer MiB Sara Sampson, einerJulie und Romeos hingegen konnte er den lebhaftesten Anteil nehmen" (AR 213-14). "An dem Schicksal" of the dramatis personae "den lebhaftesten Anteil nehmen" represents the intended reception within the drama of sympathy that lies at the heart of bourgeois theater reform.29 But instead of putting himself in the place of the theatrical other, he puts the theatrical other in the place of his self. Moreover, the emotions that the theatrical roles provide help fill Anton's empty self. They compensate for the lack of feeling that is the result of the manifold techniques of "Ert6tung""allerLeidenschaften" (AR 8). For this reason, Anton "winschte sich dann eine recht affektvolle Rolle, wo er mit groBem Pathos reden und sich in eine Reihe von Empfindungen versetzen konnte, die er so gern hatte, und sie doch in seiner wirklichen Welt, wo alles so kahl so armselig zuging, nicht haben konnte" (AR 182). His criterion for choosing roles has less to do with their heroic character, although he does generally prefer leading roles, and more to do with their degree of affectivity. Similarly, comical characters prove unattractive to Anton due to their unsuitable and low affective content. The stage provides Anton with a venue to practice emotions, or more precisely, recalling and inducing them readily. Not coincidentally, acting techniques are thus capable of addressing a potential dilemma created by the pious "Ertotung"of all "Leidenschaften." The total evacuation of the self can result in a lack of interior feeling precisely when it is most essential and critical. Anton shares with his father the predicament that they are "nichts weniger, als gleichgultig" (AR 139) when taking an oath or part in religious rituals such as the "Glaubensbekenntnis"or the "Abendmahl" (AR 148): "Aus dem Unterricht, den er in der Religion bekommen, hatte er sehr hohe Begriffe vom Eide, und hielt diese Gleichgultigkeit an sich ffir h6chst strafbar"(AR 139). In order to remedy this lack, he resorts to the theatrical technique of inducing these emotions: "Er
29One need only think of Lessing's famous dictum: der mitleidigste Menschist derbeste Mensch.

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zwang sich also nicht gleichgfiltig, sondern geriihrtund ernsthaft zu sein, bei diesem wichtigen Schritte, und war mit sich selber unzufrieden, daB er nicht noch weit geruhrter war" (AR 139, see also 148). While the need for the performative induction of emotionality and interiority arises in the religious context, it is most satisfactorily met by the medium of theater. Credited for hollowing out the self, for turning every action into an act that lacks emotional backing, theater simultaneously redresses this deficiency-at the risk of rendering Anton a "Heuchler." In a very substantial manner, theater is responsible for the formation of Anton's-albeit theatrical-self. Thus, it would be far too reductive, as much of the scholarship has done, to give theater merely an escapist and compensatory function in Anton's psychic economy. To be sure, theater does compensate him for many of the things his real life is lacking in the realm of the ideal and the imaginary, but as one of the most important mechanisms of Bildung, it is formative in a positive as well as in a negative manner. For instance, the narrator stresses repeatedly that Anton would have become truly "niedertrachtig" had it not been for novels or theater: "WasWunder, wenn er am Ende durch diese fortgesetzte Behandlung wiirklich niedertrachtig gesinnt geworden ware. - Aber er fuhlte noch immer Kraft genug in sich, in gewissen Stunden, sich ganz aus seiner wirklichen Welt zu versetzen. - Wenn seine Seele durch tausend Demutigungen in seiner wirklichen Welt erniedrigt war, so ubte er sich wieder in den edlen Gesinnungen der GroBmut, Entschlossenheit, Uneigennutzigkeit und Standhaftigkeit, sooft er irgendeinen Roman, oder heroisches Drama durchlas oder durchdachte" (AR 195).30That Anton can still play theatrical roles, be they imaginary or real, indicates that the "Verachtung" he has internalized has not become second nature; in other words, though he may give the appearance of "Niedertrachtigkeit," he has not yet become "niedertrachtig." He has not yet been "erniedrigt" so far that he cannot rise up into the "idealische Welt." Playacting implies a certain self-distancing that prevents the total identification with what cannot be called anything other than the
30 In a different context, the narrator goes as far to suggest that novels and theater may even avert self-destruction: "denn er war sich selbst so gleichgiiltig geworden, und hatte so wenige Achtung gegen sich und Mitleid mit sich selber fibrigbehalten, daB wenn seine Achtung und Empfindung des Mitleids, und alle die Leidenschaften, wovon sein Herz iiberstr6mte, nicht auf Personen aus einer erdichteten Welt gefallen ware, sie notwendig sich alle gegen ihn selbst kehren, und sein eignes Wesen hStten zerst6ren missen" (AR 224).

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social roles that are assigned to Anton by his environment. Anton's severe case of theatromania makes apparent that the internalization of involves the adoption of a certain persona. In "Verachtung" always that sense, it functions performatively. When the Inspektorof the Freischule calls Anton "dummer Knabe!"(AR 111), or when the Rektor of the Hohen Schule speaks of a "wahreDummheit" (AR 212), he is immediately and lastingly overcome by a "wirkliche Seelenlihmung" (AR 213) so that he "oft im Ernst anfing, sich selbst ffir den Dummkopf zu halten, woffir er so allgemein erkannt wurde" (AR 214). By introjecting and appropriating this appellation, Anton is transformed into what it signifies. The story of Anton's life is organized by such appellative instances in which each new appellation recalls the previous ones and increases its perlocutionary and illocutionary force. This series of appellations-from the "dummer Knabe.,"the "vidi" (AR 153-54), "Ichmeineihnja nicht," the "Rektors and the "par nobileFratrum" the to Famulus," the "wahreDummheit," "ichhabedieEhremichIhnen zu empfehlen"-becomes almost literally an intrinsic part of Anton's psychic fabric: "Sie haben sich in alle seine Gedanken verwebt, und ihm lange nachher oft alle Gegenwart des Geistes in Augenblicken genommen, wo er sie am meisten bedurfte" (AR 213). Perversely, Anton need not even understand an appellation correctly in order to make it a reality. Thus he imagines a "Rektors Famulus," a designation his fellow students use in the scholastic sense and thus employ rather admiringly, as "einen Bedienten, der seinem Herren die Schuh putzt" (AR 192). It comes as no surprise that the "Rektor"will later use him for menial services befitting a "Bedienten" and for which he will even receive his first "Trinkgeld." In this case, the performative identification with the appellation goes much further since it pertains not only to an interior state of mind but to social reality. Whether real or imagined, Anton makes it real. Anton thus introjects and performs the role others fashion for and project onto him. By providing him with alternative roles, theater offers Anton a means to resist the social roles his environment imposes on him. Anton escapes to the stage so that he does not have to play theater in real life. Even though this escape is only temporary, role-playing presents an alternative position that allows Anton to avert the total identification with these social roles. It secures a certain internal distance and divergence from these overpowering social forces. Functionalizing role-play in such a manner, Moritz utilizes a central argument of the Theaterfeinde, namely that theater erodes the predes-

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tined station and identity in life,3' in order to sabotage the constrictions of the pious self. Simultaneously, theater's subversiveness has an epistemological dimension. What it unmasks inversely and implicitly is that an integral part of the internalization of "Verachtung"is the imposition of a certain role, in other words, that the social world is as always already theater. The example of Werther the paradigm of a highly theatrical or "affektierte Empfindsamkeit" makes this clear: "Die Stelle, wo Werther das Leben mit einem Marionettenspiel vergleicht, wo die Puppen am Draht gezogen werden, und er selbst auf die Art mitspielt oder vielmehr mitgespielt wird, seinen Nachbarn bei der holzernen Hand ergreift, und zuruckschaudert" (AR 293) reminds Anton of similar feelings he has had in similar social settings. Confronted with fiction and theater, Anton becomes conscious of the theatricality of everyday life-that selves are nothing more than puppets that do not follow their own inner impulses but merely the pull of strings. It is this unmasking of the theatricality of everyday life that Theaterfeinde find so threatening about the medium of theater. Theater does not impart a radically new quality on an otherwise stable and self-sufficient reality, but rather brings out its latent theatricality; or as Antonin Artaud would put it, theater is like the It plague because it reveals, like the plague, a basis of latent cruelty.32 debunks every action as an act, every self as a persona or mask, every word as a citation. What theater makes apparent is the performativity and theatricality of affectivity and interiority. Theater does not infect the real world, but reveals the real world as always already having been infected. Not only on stage does Anton create ideal and imaginary personas for himself, but also in "reality." The "Uebergang" from life to theater can thus occur so effortlessly. Not surprisingly, the "Uebergang von Kom6die" to life operates by the same logic. In order to safeguard himself against the prospect that "die Entwiirfe zu seiner theatralischen Laufbahn ganzlich scheitern sollten," Anton toys with the idea of becoming a peasant or a soldier instead. Ironically, these alternatives
31Particularly "radical" Protestants such as Zwinglians, Calvinists, Puritans, and Pietists condemned theatrical role-playing for its subversion of divine predestination. For the Swiss reformed church, see Thomas Brunnschweiler, Johann Jakob Breitingers "Bedencken Comoedien von oder Spilen."Die Theaterfeindlichkeit Alten Zurich.Edition im Kommentar Monographie (Bern, Frankfurt a.M., New York, Paris: Lang, 1989) 189-93. For the Pietist context, see Schmitt, Die pietistische Kritikder 'Kiinste' 25. 32 See Antonin Artaud, "Le Theatre et la vol. 4, Oeuvres peste," Le Thietreet son double, (Paris: Gallimard, 1964) 37. completes

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are nothing but a continuation of theater by other means: "denn seine Ideen vom Bauer und Soldat wurden wieder zu einer theatralischen Rolle, die er in seinen Gedanken spielte. [...] Indem er also glaubte, daB er gerade auf das Entgegengesetzte vom Theater sich gefaBt gemacht habe, war er erst recht in vollkommen theatralische Aussichten und Traume wieder hineingeraten" (AR 395-96). The narrator articulates here one of the central principles of Anton's psychic economy and, more generally, the rule of conversion between In Theaterfeindlichkeit and Theaterleidenschaft.33 addition to the peasant and the soldier, Anton creates a whole set of "opposites" such as that of the day laborer (see AR 424), the Carthusian monk (see AR 450), and the student of theology (see AR 437). It should come as no surprise that he settles on the last role when the "Entwurfe zu seiner theatralischen Laufbahn" fail. The radical other of theater is again theater. Thus, the other of theater is not reality, but a different theater, the theater of everyday life. The theatricalization governing Anton's Bildung is so total that it does not stop at theater itself. In other words, the institution of theater which provides a "realistic"frame for the fictional world it stages within its walls is not exempt. Just as the "Bauer" and the "Soldat" represent idealized versions of these professions, i.e. idealized roles that Anton imagines for himself, the theater and its players are unrealistic-at least the way they exist in Anton's head. In other words, when he imagines himself as an actor on the stage, he is just playing another role. Acting isjust another act; playing isjust another play. And the act that is the theater may be potentially just as big of a disappointment as every other social act so that Anton feels that he needs to safeguard himself by imagining back-up roles like the "Soldat," the "Bauer,"and the "Handlanger." Because theater is just another social role, it can spill over into real life so easily. It constitutes one of the most supreme and profound ironies of the novel that, contrary to most conventional readings, Anton's dream of the theater is realized-only in the most unexpected way. The Sokrates" (AR 199) that stuck to "allgemeine Spottname der sterbende Anton until he escaped school altogether derived from the "Nachspiel" of the off-school production that Anton and a few fellow students who had been excluded from the regular school theater organized. He becomes identified with the part he coveted but was not allowed to play. Ironically, the wish he is denied on stage is fulfilled in life when
33See also Bezold, Popularphilosophie Erfahrungsseelenkunde und 157.

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he becomes "der sterbende Sokrates." From this very first practical venture onto the stage, Anton's acting career seems cursed.34 And although Anton often does not get cast in the roles he would like to play, he more often and detrimentally is identified with personas he would rather not personify. The curse haunting him thus renders not only reality theatrical, but theater real. Instead of remaining an imaginary and ideal realm apart and opposed to reality, theater becomes all too real. Conversely and paradoxically, this curse that transposes theater into reality simultaneously prevents the realization of his "theatralische Aussichten und Traume." The curse not only saves Anton Reiser, or should I say Karl Philipp Moritz, from pursuing a stage career as well as from donning the preacher's frock, but also turns him toward another career, namely that of the Erfahrungsseelenkundler. With the Magazin der Erfahrungsseelenkunde, entitled Gnothi sauton, Moritz strives to live up to the personal motto of the role in which he had been involuntarily cast. As is well known, "Know thyself!" guided Socrates's philosophical program of self-exploration. At the beginning of his essay "Uber die bildende Nachahmung des Sch6nen," Moritz draws a sharp distinction between the theatrical impersonation of Socrates by an actor, which he pejoratively terms "parody," and the true emulation or "Nachahmung" of this wise man by the wise man. Yet, can the radicality of this distinction really be taken at face value? Is the difference between the parody on stage and the "Nachahmung im Leben" really categorical and ontological? As has become clear, Reiser's or Moritz's alternatives are never the radical other that they are presented as being. In fact, they carry on the original project in a different form, but with many of its premises intact. What remains to be shown is how Erfahrungsseelenkunde, the "eccentric" position from which Moritz analyzed the unholy alliance between theology and theater, is drawn into the fray. Given that the profound indebtedness of Moritz's Erfahrungsseelenkunde to the former is well established, it should come as no surprise that it does not remain untouched by the latter.
34When Anton is denied the role of Clavigo, the narrator remarks dryly, "Aber vom sterbenden Sokrates an schien der Genius der Schauspielkunst auf ihn zu ziirnen" (AR 358). Instead, he has to settle on another role, namely the "Magister Blasius" in Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel's Der Mann nach der Uhr (AR 361). Resembling his character "da er mit gesenktem Haupte melancholisch vor sich hin ging," he draws a jibe from two younger boys: "Dageht derMagisterBlasius!" (AR 366). Again, he does not become identified with Clavigo, the part he coveted, but with the part that was left over and assigned to him.

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III. The Theater of Erfahrungsseelenkunde The model for the project of psychological inquiry, which Karl Philipp Moritz outlines in the "Vorschlag zu einem Magazin der and which this "Lesebuch fur Gelehrte Erfahrungs-Seelenkunde" und Ungelehrte" strives to realize, is the theater: Aber wer gibt dem Beobachter des Menschen immer Kilte und Heiterkeit der Seele dazu, alles was geschieht, so wie ein Schauspiel zu beobachten, und die Personen, die ihn oftmals kranken, wie Schauspieler? Ja, wenn er nur nicht selber mit im Spiele begriffen wire, und wenn nur kein solcher Rollenneid statt fande? - Aber was soil einer denn tun, wenn er von Menschen oder von seinem Schicksale unterdrfickt wird, und nun nicht weiter kann? Was bessers und edlers, als sich hinaus versetzen fiber diese Erde, und fiber sich selber, gleichsam als ob er ein andres von sich selber verschiedenes Wesen ware, das in einer hohern Region aller dieser Dinge lachelt - und auf die Art uiber sich selber, uiber seine eignen Klagen und Beschwerden - lacheln - das alles wie ein Schauspiel zu betrachten welche Wonne, welch eine Erhebung zum alles umfassenden Sch6pfer des Weltalls. So bald ich also sehe, daB man mir selber keine Rolle geben will, stelle ich mich vor die Bfihne, und bin ruhiger, kalter Beobachter. So bald mir mein eigner Zustand beschwerlich wird, h6re ich auf, mich fur mich selber so sehr zu interessieren, und betrachte mich als einen Gegenstand meiner eignen Beobachtung, als ob ich ein Fremder ware, dessen Gliicks- und Ungliicksfalle ich mit kaltbliitiger Aufmerksamkeit erzahlen horte. In keinem Verhaltnisse des Lebens ist die Beobachtung seiner selbst und der Menschen um uns her etwas Unangenehmes oder Beschwerliches. Es ist vielmehr ein Trost und eine Zuflucht vor unserm eignen besondern Kummer.35 What Moritz utilizes rather explicitly for the methodological foundation of his Erfahrungsseelenkunde are the childhood experiences he describes at length in his novel Anton Reiser. Is not the latter's childhood and adolescence a history of abuse and humiliation? And is not the "Rollenneid" of his peers to blame for Anton's permanent exclusion from school productions and scholastic life in general so that he is forced into the role of the detached and forlorn observer, which provides "Trost und eine Zuflucht vor [seinem] eignen
35Karl Philipp Moritz, "Vorschlag zu einem Magazin der Erfahrungs-Seelenkunde," Werke zwei Bdnden, ed. Heide Hollmer and Albert Meier, vol. 1 (Frankfurt a.M.: in Deutscher KlassikerVerlag, 1999) 793-809, here 801-02. All subsequent references to the "Vorschlag"will be cited in the text with the page numbers. For the following, see und also Bezold, Popularphilosophie Erfahrungsseelenkunde 152-63.

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besondern Kummer." Regarding the social significance of "Rollenneid," Anton Reiser comes to a conclusion characterized by a similar level of generality:
Reiser hat sich nachher oft an diesen Auftritt in seinem Leben zurfickerinnert, und Betrachtungen dariiber angestellt, wie in diesen kindischen Bestrebungen nach einer so unbedeutenden Sache, als eine Rolle in einem Stficke war, das von den Primanern in H[annover] aufgeffihrt wurde, sich doch das ganze Spiel der menschlichen Leidenschaften ebenso vollstandig entwickelte, als ob es die allerwichtigste Angelegenheit betroffen hatte; und wie das Streben gegeneinander, dies Verdrangen und Wieder-verdrangt-Werden, ein so getreues Bild des menschlichen Lebens im Kleinen war, daB Reiser alle seine kfinftigen Erfahrungen hierdurch schon gleichsam vorbereitet sahe. (AR 344, see also 348) Obviously, not only his "kfinftige Erfahrungen" are "vorbereitet" by this theatrical constellation, but also his Erfahrungsseelenkunde as the science of those "Erfahrungen." Moritz conceives the act of observation on which his project of Erfahrungsseelenkunde rests as a profoundly theatrical one. In the theater of observation, the Erfahrungsseelenkundler occupies the position of the spectator and his objects of inquiry that of the actors. The

theatricalization of social and psychological events thus establishes the distinction between a subject and an object of observation. Only when the self begins to regard the events in which it takes part "wie ein Schauspiel" can it detach and situate itself vis-a-visas an observer. Therefore, theatricality creates the epistemological and hermeneutic conditions that make observation possible in the first place. Conversely, any event becomes a Schauspiel exactly in that moment (or in German, Augenblick) in which the observer's gaze falls upon it. Yet, this theatricalization does not end with the actors. Not only the observed selves are transformed into actors by the act of observation, but the "ruhiger, kalter Beobachter" himself. As Moritz emphasizes, the latter should "die Kunst verstehn, in manchen Augenblicken seines Lebens sich plotzlich aus dem Wirbel seiner Begierden um eine Zeitlang den kalten Beobachter zu spielen, herauszuziehen, ohne sich im mindesten fur sich selbst zu interessieren" (799, my emphasis).36 Thus, the observer qua spectator always also plays a role, namely the role of the "ruhiger, kalter Beobachter." The ensuing
36See Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, Die Melancholie der Literatur.Diskursgeschichte und Textfiguration (Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler, 1997) 339.

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"Heiterkeit" and "Wonne" would then be nothing more than the affects dictated by this role. The "Beobachter des Menschen" cannot escape role-play and envy solely for the reason that the spectator in Moritz's theater of observation becomes an object of observation himself-if not of others, then of his own. The self-observer, who forms the core of Moritz's project (see the title Gnothi sauton), cannot remain in the position of the detached observer since s/he is drawn into the fray of observed events. Therefore, the self-observer is actor and spectator in one person. On the one hand, the theatricalization of observation enables the differentiation of observer and observed, spectator and spectacle; and on the other hand, it undercuts this very difference. The generalization of the observational regime that Moritz delineates results in a total theatricalization of society in which everyone is always observer and observed, spectator and spectacle: "M6chten doch Leute aus ganz verschiedenen Standen, diese Arbeit unter sich verteilen, und ein jeder nur erst einige Personen, mit denen sein Stand oder sein Amt ihn in die genaueste Verbindung setzt, zum Ziele seiner Beobachtungen machen? - Aber auf die Art ware ja niemand vor den spahenden Blicken seines besten Freundes sicher, macht? wenn dieser ihn gerade zum Ziele seiner Beobachtungen Was schadet dieses denn? - Sollten nicht vielmehr zwei Freunde selber jeder in den andern wie in einen Spiegel blicken, um desto genauer mit sich selber bekannt zu werden?" (802). The series of rhetorical questions registers Moritz's uneasiness in the face of such a system of surveillance-a system we recognize from the Pietist universe of Anton Reiser's youth. Instead of the "spahende Blicke seines besten Freundes," Anton feels first the unblinking eye of God resting on him and then the untrusting eyes of his spiritual and pedagogical mentors. But God does not drop out of the picture completely. The secularization of the observational regime involves figuring the role of the "Beobachter des Menschen" as that of the "umfassenden Schopfers des Weltalls." By installing itself as an observer, the self usurps the position of the "Schopfer des Weltalls" and internalizes his gaze. This internalization of the divine gaze is responsible for the general theatricalization of the project of Erfahrungsseelenkunde. Aside from the "Heiterkeit" and "Wonne," the interest gained for observation is acuity. Only God's eyes can penetrate the opaque self. But not surprisingly, this is only a phantasmatic ideal. In observing itself as an "andres von sich selber verschiedenes Wesen," the self differentiates and alienates itself from itself. The

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observed self has become another. Since the self can only observe itself as another, self-observation necessarily misses itself; or put differently, the self can never observe itself as a spectator, but always only as an actor. By regarding itself "als ob [es] ein Fremder ware," when it makes itself the "Gegenstand [seiner] eignen Beobachtung," the self becomes subject to the same aporia that haunts psychological observation in general and that Moritz strove to circumvent by grounding the observation of others in self-observation: "Von dem Leben der Menschen, deren Geschichte beschrieben ist, kennen wir nur die Oberflache. Wir sehen wohl, wie der Zeiger an der Uhr sich dreht, aber wir kennen nicht das innere Triebwerk, das ihn bewegt. Wir sehen nicht, wie die ersten Keime von den Handlungen des Menschen sich im Innersten seiner Seele entwickeln. Dies bemerken wir nur so selten bei uns selber, geschweige denn bei andern" (799800). Once the self observes itself as an other, it becomes opaque. Thus, the observational matrix that makes self-knowledge possible simultaneously undercuts it, and by undercutting it keeps it going. Theatricality not only forms the condition of possibility for Moritz's project of observing the self and others, but also poses its greatest threat. Consequently, Moritz describes the obstacles or "Hindernisse" that the "Beobachter des Menschen" has yet to overcome "ehe er in das Innerste des Herzens dringen kann" with the metaphorics of theater. He lists three interrelated obstacles: the "Vorhang der sogenannten guten Lebensart," the "Vorhang der Lebensklugheit," and the "Vorgang der Selbstgefailligkeit oder Gefalligmachung seiner selbst bei andern" (803). Most closely aligned with theater, the last "Vorhang" poses the greatest threat to observing the self as well as others: Besonders ist die Verstellung aus einer falschen Art von Gefilligkeit am allerhaufigsten. So groB ist die Begierde, auch oft nur auf eine Viertelstunde lang, einem andern mit dem man jetzt grade redet oder umgehet, besser zu gefallen, daB man, die Zeit fiber, seine Meinungen und Gesinnungen ganz verleugnet, um in die Meinungen und Gesinnungen des andern einstimmen zu k6nnen. Im Grunde ist dieses Eitelkeit oder Selbstgefalligkeit, denn wir gefallen uns immer doppelt, indem wir zu gleicher Zeit einem andern zu gefallen glauben. Beinahe einjeder zeigt sich in einem andern Lichte, so bald er glaubt, daB er bemerkt wird, und sobald ihm daran gelegen ist, in den Gedanken eines andern auf eine vorteilhafte Weise zu existieren. (803) The greatest threat to Moritz's project of psychological observation arises when the observed self becomes a persona or mask, when it

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becomes an actor who plays to an audience in order to please. The observed subject's self thus remains hidden behind the role it is playing. In other words, the greatest threat is posed by the that forms the of the self, the theatricalization theatricalization condition of possibility of Erfahrungsseelenkunde. When the self "seine Meinungen und Gesinnungen ganz verleugnet" in order to please another, then it has begun to see itself with the other's eyes.37 And when the self sees itself with the other's eyes, then it has to become that other in order to please itself. "Selbstgefalligkeit" and "Gefalligmachung seiner selbst bei andern" are two sides of the same coin: the self pleases itself by pleasing another. The "Vorhang der Selbstof self-observation gef5lligkeit" is a symptom of the interdependence and observing others. Pleasing oneself and pleasing others coincide solely for the reason that the subject of the observational regime that Moritz conceives always has to observe itself as another. Similarly, the "Nachahmungssucht" or mimetic desire, as a variant of the "Vorhang der Selbstgefalligkeit," cannot deny its theatrical provenance: "Man legt nach und nach seinen originellen Karakter ab, und setzt sich aus hie und da abgerissenen Lappen einen andern zusammen. Dies macht die Menschen oft so unwahr, daB man sie selber beinahe gar nicht mehr reden h6rt oder handeln sieht. [...] Die Menschen driicken sich einander ihr Geprage auf, und jeder verliert dadurch sein eignes" (803). In a case of "Nachahmungssucht," the self employs another theatrical textile to fashion a new character or costume which the "Beobachter des Menschen" needs to defrock in order to observe its "originellen Karakter." This problem is exacerbated when the mimetic desire becomes generalized and everyone imitates everyone else. In a world ruled by "Nachahmungssucht," originals no longer exist. Every self is but a copy. Not coincidentally, Moritz, raised in the religious milieu of Quietism/ Pietism, identifies "Romane und Schauspiele" and the concomitant rampant "Lesesucht" as the main culprits: Die Nachahmungssucht erstreckt sich gar so weit, daB man Ideale aus Buchern in sein Leben hinfiber tragt.Ja nichts macht die Menschen wohl mehr unwahr, als eben die vielen Bucher. Wie schwer wird es dem
37Moritz figures the gaze that the self internalizes as a "Bemerkung" ("so bald er glaubt, daB er bemerkt wird"). Probably the most famous literary case of such a "Bemerkung" is the one through which the young man in Kleist's "Uber das Marionettentheater" loses his "Unschuld" or innocence. See my article "Wider die Marionettentheaterfeindlichkeit. Kleists Kritik burgerlicher Antitheatralitat," KleistJahrbuch(2002): 109-41.

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Beobachter, unter alle dem, was durch das Lesen von Romanen und Schauspielen in den Karakter gekommen ist, das Eigne und Originelle wieder hervorzusuchen. Anstatt Menschen, o Wunder! hort man jetzt Bucher reden, und siehet Bucher handeln. Leute die wenig Romane gelesen haben, sind noch immer der leichteste Gegenstand fur den Menschenbeobachter. Man lebt und webtjetzt in der Bucherwelt und nur so wenige Bucher ffihren uns noch aufunsere wirkliche Welt zuruck. (804) While Moritz never tires of warning against "sich in eine idealische Welt hiniiber zu traumen" and promotes Erfahrungsseelenkunde as a method "in seine eigne wirkliche Welt immer tiefer einzudringen" (801), this bookish variant of "Nachahmungssucht" poses the danger that there is no real world left to which one can return from one's foray into the ideal. Blurring the difference between life and art, the mimetic junkie "lebt und webt" entirely "in der Bucherwelt." Similar to Anton Reiser, his life becomes literally scripted. The scriptedness of the social fabric also makes up the "Vorhang der sogenannten guten Lebensart": "DaB das Geprage der Seele von dem Gesichte des Menschen schon so fruh verwischt wird, daB sein Ton und seine Mienen schon so friih die selige Ubereinstimmung mit Gedanken und Empfindung verlernen, das ist die Frucht der Ueppigkeit und Verfeinerung, der auswendig gelernten Verbeugungen, lachelnder in den unbedeutendsten Blicke, und kfinstlichen Wendungen Ausdrucken der Hoflichkeit" (805). Like his fellow antitheatricalist Rousseau, Moritz betrays here his bourgeois values when he blames the aristocratic code of politeness for dissembling the self. All three "Vorhange" reveal the self as thoroughly theatricalized. Moritz portrays this theatricalization as the principal obstacle for the project of Erfahrungsseelenkunde. Theater is thus, as in Anton Reiser's case, simultaneously medicine and malady. Already in the "Vorschlag," Moritz's project of Erfahrungsseelenkunde is haunted by serious epistemological doubts which are so fundamental that it puts the project into question from the start. The short essay "Uber Selbsttiuschung" (8.3: 32-37), which Moritz published shortly after his return from Italy, takes these doubts to their radical conclusion and demonstrates the aporetic nature of any self-observation, and with that of the observation of others as well. For the project of Erfahrungsseelenkunde, "Selbsttauschung" or self-deception necessarily presents itself as the paradigm of the inexplicable because it is self-observation's uncanny other that haunts it from its inception. What puzzles Moritz so much about this phenomenon is that the selfdeceiving self behaves "gleichsam als ob [es] ein von sich selbst

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verschiedenes Wesen ware, das zweierlei Interesse hatte" (8.3: 32). The condition for self-deception is the splitting and self-alienation of the subject, which is also the condition for Moritz's project of selfobservation. The dilemma posed by self-deception is its motivation, as the self is not only the deceiver but the deceived: "und doch wire es ungereimt zu sagen, daB irgend ein Mensch die Absicht haben k6nnte, sich selbst im Ernst zu betrugen" (8.3: 32). Moritz proposes an inductive approach by way of examples. It should no longer surprise us that he chooses as his point of departure the example of piety, for nothing is more susceptible to self-deception: "Offenbar findet der meiste Selbstbetrug bei den religiosen Empfindungen statt, welche man sich oft zu haben die Miihe gibt, und am Ende wirklich zu haben glaubt, indem man bei leerem Herzen, in ErgieBungen des Danks und der Ehrfurcht ausbricht, die man nicht mehr fur erkfinstelt halt, und die es dennoch sind. Dergleichen ErgieBungen finden sich haufig in diesem kleinen Buche, und dienen zum Beweise, bei welchem Grade von Frommigkeit der Mensch dennoch gegen sich selber ein Heuchler sein, und bei welchem Grade von Aufrichtigkeit er dennoch sich gegen sich selber verstellen k6nne" (8.3: 32). Reminiscent of Anton Reiser, who also und ernsthaft zu sein" in things religious (AR forces himself "geriihrt 139), the self-deceiving pious self attempts to induce the desired emotions and to fill its empty heart. If successful, it forgets the "Kunst"and "Miihe"expended and deems the emotions real.38Thus, the self's interiority becomes affected. Such deception is easily explained when it occurs intersubjectively: "Denn wer dergleichen Empfindungen in seinen Worten und Gebarden liigt, um andre Menschen damit zu tauschen, bei dem laBt sich dies Verfahren leicht erklaren; wer aber diese Empfindungen in sich selbst erkiinstelt, um sie fuir sich zu haben, wenn auch niemand auBer ihm sie bemerkte, bei dem sollte man kaum noch Verstellung ahnden, wenn dieselbe nicht noch einen Schlupfwinkel hatte, namlich den, daB der Mensch auch vorsich selbereine Rolle zu spielen, im Stande ist" (8.3: 33). In the deception inbetween selves, the emotions are just a matter of exterior misrepresentation that leaves the deceiving selfs interiority unaf38The question that immediately arises and that Moritz fails to address is of course how we can distinguish between feelings we "really"have and feelings we only believe that we have, but do not "really"have. Are not the feelings that the self fabricates simply feelings that it has? In other words, from which privileged perspective can this distinction be drawn? Is Moritz here surreptitiously usurping the position of the "Sch6pfer des Weltalls"?

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fected. Or put differently, the difference is split between the selfs inside and outside, the self and the other. But in the case of deception within the self, this simple tactic obviously does not work since-to quote a distinction made by Barbara Johnson-the difference between collapses into a difference within. So what is the "Schlupfwinkel"that makes the deception within the self possible? Not surprisingly, Moritz invokes the theatrical concept of role-playing to resolve this psychological mystery. The fact that it requires no further comment or explanation indicates the degree of its self-evidence. And indeed, the model of theater resolves the dilemma of how the self can at once be the deceiver and the deceived. For one, deceiver and deceived are reconfigured as actor and spectator. More importantly, role-playing is a game in which both parties win. The spectator (and under certain circumstances also the actor) is deceived but not defrauded. As the spectator lets himself be deceived willfully and not without pleasure, both actor and spectator have the "Vorteil,"and neither has a "Nachteil." Thus, self-deception and self-observation share the same psychological configuration. Both simultaneously figure the self as actor and spectator. The role-playing of self-deception would then only be a logical extension of the theatrical model of (self-)observation. If selfobservation and self-deception share the same psychological configuration, then the self-observer indeed playsjust another role-a role just like the one that the self-deceiver plays, in other words, a role in which s/he alwaysalso potentially deceives her-/himself as any actor deceives the spectator. Taking the next step, we would have to conclude that self-observation cannot elude self-deception, or put differently, that it is an integral moment of the self observing itself. Moritz draws this conclusion in another little essay, "Uber Selbsttauschung" (7.3: 14547), when he states, "Es1aBtsich kein h6herer Gradvon Selbsttauschung denken, als den Vorsatz zu fassen, inskinftige wahr zu seyn, und vor sich selber nicht mehr zu scheinen, als wie man ist" (7.3: 45). In other words, the will to truthful self-observation and its programmatic enactment represent the highest degree of self-deception.39 With its institution, the program of self-observation unavoidably deceives itself. In fact, the self-deception of role-playing is self-observation's very condition of possibility.The self-deception that founds self-observation consists in this "Vorsatz,"in the "Vorsatz"to be a "ruhiger, kalter Beobachter." The self-observing self is most truthful when it does not make the resolution to observe itself, or put differently, when it forgets that it is observing itself. Therefore, it can never observe itself as an

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observer because then it would become aware of the act of observation. Conversely, the observed self needs to be unaware that it is being observed (by itself)-much like the actor behind Diderot's imaginary fourth wall must forget that s/he is standing before an audience. Otherwise, the observed self startsplaying to its audience of one. As the self of self-observation has to dissimulate its very theatricality, it is at once profoundly theatrical and untheatrical, in other words: antitheatrical. This antitheatrical self at the core of the project of selfobservation is the supreme self-deception: a self that needs to forget its act of observing in order to observe itself truthfully. We thus arrive at the paradoxical conclusion that rather than conceiving self-deception as self-observation gone awry,the latter is grounded in the former. But let us not forget theology. Already in the aforementioned essay, Moritz had claimed that nothing is more prone to self-deception than "religi6se Empfindungen." The other essay is conceived as a "Parenthese zu dem Tagebuch eines Selbstbeobachters" and thus comments on a religious diary. Thus, self-deception is not only profoundly (anti-)theatrical, but also profoundly theological. In self-deception, come to be fatally contheology, theater, and Erfahrungsseelenkunde Each seeks to separate itself from the other and is thereby joined. only reinscribed with it. Therein lies the productivity and formativity of their constellation. Always adversarial and always complicit, theolwork together to produce a ogy, theater, and Erfahrungsseelenkunde theatrical self. And all three abhor its very theatricality profoundly and, as a result, arrive at what I have termed an "antitheatrical self." The production of what could be called the modern self is thus the product of an unsuccessful overcoming of and haunting by the old and the other, be it theological or theatrical.
Universitdt Konstanzand UNC-ChapelHill

39 Unable to conceal its religious provenance, the antidote for self-deception that Moritz proposes in the first essay mentioned follows a similar logic: "Es gehort eine gewisse Art von Verleugnung und Ert6tung dazu, um ganzlich auf den ScheinVerzicht zu tun. - Aus dieser Ertotung selber aber keimt bei demjenigen, welcher sich ihr unterzieht, ein neues Leben hervor, das alien Schimmer iiberwiegt" (8.3: 35). In order to combat self-deception, the pious malady par excellence, one need to resort to the pious practice par excellence: "Verleugnung und Ert6tung." See also Bezold, und 155. Popularphilosophie Erfahrungsseelenkunde