DIGRESSIONS FOR FUTURE INSTALMENTS: SOME REFLECTIONS ON JEAN PAUL'S EPIC OUTLOOK.

This article discusses the epic outlook of author Jean Paul. In spite of Germany's reputation for cultural expenditure, one can safely say that the complete Jean Paul material will never be published, although so much has been done since the first comprehensive edition in sixty-five volumes and although the volumes of the Historical-Critical Edition, begun in 1987, still continue to appear. Jean Paul himself said his ambition was to do what no writer had done before: to set down in writing every thought that ever came into his head. Jean Paul claimed to hate all story telling that was not an occasion for a thousand notions. What is narrated, he says, is only an opportunity to talk about everything else. Yet he also insists on story telling as the beginning of education, on history as the sum of innumerable stories, approving, for example, of Dr Johnson's preference for biographies. The Jean Paul narrative is in general loosely constructed, its elements often held together by little more than the dashes with which his work is punctuated and which are the most striking feature on the printed page. This manner of looking on life, insisting on entirety if necessary at the expense of unity, involves a certain openness, a provisional and interim quality that is an aspect of Jean Paul's modernity.