Traumland: a dream undone

Abstract

This paper aims to show the formative importance of the juvenile text Traumland to the poet Georg Trakl through an intense interpretative reading. This brief tale presents – as a recollection of the narrator – an experience of initiation or loss of innocence resulted from the perception of evil in the world, recognized in the sickness of his cousin Maria. The conflict between an enthusiastic and filled with expectancies romantic longing (Sehnsucht) and a terrifying reality which breaks the feeling of a cosmic harmony (Stimmung), drives a transformation in the ways the main character feels and views the world. This change can be metaphorically interpreted as a shift from a purely romantic poetic stance towards a standpoint keener to the XXth century’s demands, especially in the sense of the acknowledgment of an unconquerable evil that cannot be fully romanticized.