Influence of the English Eighteenth-century Satirists on G. Ch. Lichtenberg and the Nachtwachen. Von Bonaventura

Abstract:
The Nachtwachen von Bonaventura 1804/50, an enigmatic, much debated, anonymous work, originally highly regarded,variously interpreted and ascribed to leading German writers of the Age of Goethe,among them Jean Paul, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Brentano, even Goethe himself, but eventually to August Klingemann, a prolific author of long-forgotten novels and dramas. Since then it is widely regarded as trivial literature.
Time, place and acting persons are vague and undefined, but the text is filled with proper names. Having followed their context I found striking parallels with the thought and intellectual pursuits of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Professor of Natural Philosophy in Goettingen and influential Late Enlightenment satirist(see "Eine Untersuchung der Eigennamen in den Nachtwachen von Bonaventura und bei Georg Christoph Lichtenberg", MA Thesis, UF, 1984). Lichtenberg was also a leading authority on English culture and literature, and the correspondences between his writings, the Nachtwachen and the English enlightenment satirists led me to the conclusion that the Nachtwachen are a Menippean Satire, written by Lichtenberg or else someone commanding the same exceptional intellectual horizon and commitment
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