Reading Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus as a political treatise between Hobbes and Locke
Hollender, Kurt N.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/16708
Description
Title
Reading Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus as a political treatise between Hobbes and Locke
Author(s)
Hollender, Kurt N.
Issue Date
2010-08-20T17:55:34Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Wade, Mara R.
Department of Study
Germanic Languages & Lit
Discipline
German
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Gimmelshausen
Simplicissimus
Political Science
Political Treatise
Hobbes
Locke
Absolutism
Abstract
This is a study of the political argumentation in the German Baroque writer Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen’s picaresque novel Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch (1668). This thesis argues that the novel contains the three-part political argument found in the contemporary political treatises of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) and John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689). The three-part argument asks what is the state of nature, what is the natural man, and what is the just political system that emerges from these definitions. Simplicissimus demonstrates political argumentation that refutes Hobbes’ defense of absolutism and anticipates Locke’s liberal political philosophy, while championing the moral hermit’s life above all political systems. The substantial political argumentation in the novel is presented as a series of distopian and utopian worldviews encountered by the protagonist. This thesis also presents a new interpretation both of the novel’s structure and of the novel’s frontispiece in light of the political reasoning in the work.
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