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Doing Mistrust? Heinrich von Kleists Die Verlobung in St. Domingo und die Praktiken des Vertrauens im Moment der Revolution


Zurück zum Heft: Kulturwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift 1/2024
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Using Heinrich von Kleist’s novella The Betrothal in Santo Domingo (1811) as a case study, this article analyzes the connection between practices of trust and mistrust, the form of Kleist’s text, and the historical context in which it is set: the Haitian Revolution shortly before its victory in 1803. In a situation of mistrust within a colonial racist society at the moment of its overthrow, Kleist’s novella depicts attempts to generate trust through certain practices (doing trust). Its specific form, however, is characterized by incongruities that rather generate mistrust (doing mistrust). The form of the text therefore corresponds with the historical situation of revolutionary upheaval.