The Book of Psalms as the Archetext of Quirinus Kuhlmann's Poetry

This research article aims to establish the specifics of intertextual connections between the Baroque works of the German poet, mystic and visionary Quirinus Kuhlmann (1651-89) and the biblical Book of Psalms. The philosophy of dialogue (M. Buber), the concept of dialogue of cultures (M. Bakhtin and V. Bibler), especially the “dialogue of texts”, as well as the theory of intertextuality (J. Kristeva, R. Barthes, G. Genette) provide the theoretical and philosophical basis for the research. The author uses cultural and historical, biographical, comparative, hermeneutic methods and holistic analysis to analyze the poetics of The Book of Psalms and of Kuhlmann's works. She shows that for Kuhlmann The Book of Psalms is an “axial” archetext, or a primary meaning- and text-generating text. This biblical book vividly represents the dialogue between man and God, between I and the Eternal Thou. This very aspect was the most important for Kuhlmann's perception of the world. First of all, the archetextual role of The Book of Psalms is manifested in Kuhlmann's chief poetic collection, his own Psalter - Der Kuhlpsalter - which contains 150 religious-philosophical hymns. The general motifs of Der Kuhlpsalter have much in common with the Biblical Psalms' motifs: appeals for help and for growing in fortitude, sincere repentance and confidence in God's constant concern and love for man and His kinship with humans despite His inscrutability and transcendence, sincere love for God and admiration for His might, ecstatic ascent of human spirit to God. It is the ecstatic principle and aspiration to render verbally unio mystica - a mystical union of soul and God (Jesus) - that are the most important for Kuhlmann, together with messianic and eschatological motifs. That is why the whole Bible as an archetext is important for him, especially the prophetic books, The Song of Songs and the Gospels in addition to The Psalter. Unlike other German poets of the 17th century who paraphrased the Psalms (M. Opitz, P. Fleming, A. Gryphius and others), Kuhlmann does not paraphrase The Psalter but recreates it according to his religious-mystic and sociopolitical views, the concept of Jesuelism based on peculiar ecumenism. The text of the Psalms in Kuhlmann's oeuvres is used as their intertext, paratext and archetext, but the whole Book of Psalms plays the role of a “text-code”, “text-pattern”, i. e. the archetext upon which the poet bases his works. At the same time, Kuhlmann dares to treat it as his own rival: he davidisiert, that is, in the process of creation he turns ecstatic and thus acts as if he were David the Psalmist himself. The dialogue with The Book of Psalms leads not only to the use of its stable topoi, concepts and rhythmic structures, but also results in a poetic experiment: Kuhlmann actively creates new words and word forms, he often destroys conventional syntax and paves the way for vers libre. Kuhlmann's poetic experiments influenced the late Baroque, the poetry of Pietism and the pioneering works of F. G. Klopstock, numerous poets of Modernism (especially Expressionism) and Postmodernism.

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