Stephan Klenner-Otto's E.T.A. Hoffmann illustrations

Dickson, S. (2024) Stephan Klenner-Otto's E.T.A. Hoffmann illustrations. Literatur für Leser:innen, 45(1-2), pp. 113-131. (doi: 10.3726/lfl.2022.01.08)

Abstract

With his illustrations for E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Rat Krespel and Der Sandmann, the German artist Stephan Klenner-Otto enters into a creative dialogue which combines the writer’s fantastic juxtapositions of the everyday and the supernatural with the artist’s surrealist intertwining of the realistic, the quirky and the grotesque. The latter’s self- irony amplifies the former’s satire, expressing the kinship that forms the basis of Klenner-Otto’s engagement with Hoffmann and his characters. From this 21st-century vantage point, the illustrator redefines the youthful hero and the beautiful heroine as middle aged and unprepossessing, the eccentric artist as disturbingly non-human, and the threatening ‘supernatural’ figure as a baleful member of the ‘real’ world. Klenner-Otto pays homage to Hoffmann through the intensely personal interpretation of his tales.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: E.T.A. Hoffmann; Stephan Klenner-Otto.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dickson, Professor Sheila
• Authors: Dickson, S.
• Subjects: N Fine Arts > NC Drawing Design Illustration; P Language and Literature > PD Germanic languages; P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > German
• Journal Name: Literatur für Leser:innen
• Journal Abbr.: LfL
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• ISSN: 0343-1657
• ISSN (Online): 2364-7183
• Published Online: 13 April 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 Sheila Dickson
• First Published: First published in Literatur für Leser:innen 45(1-2): 113-131
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence