Emanzipation und Versöhnung

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is widely considered an advocate of sensualistic hedonism. In the name of sensualism he campaigned against Christian animosity toward things corporeal and the against the renunciation ethic of the restoration era. At the same time, however, his specific brand of sensualism is geared to a pantheistic reconciliation of mind and matter. Exposed to the rival pulls of emancipation and reconciliation, Heine urges a holistic view of life permeating all his output from the early prose to the final death poems. The present study is the first to give a systematic examination of this sensualist concept as an aesthetic constant in Heine's work, thematizing its different materializations in Heine's engagement with religion, politics, aesthetics and psychology. A close reading of the »Reisebilder« demonstrates that sensualism was already a guiding notion for the poet prior to his Paris exile.