Der „Donnerkeil“ und die „Kunstgriffe“ im Fortgang des Redens

Abstract

Kleistʼs text Über die allmählige Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden evokes contemporanean rhetorics already with the term „verfertigen“. But he inverts the regulative subordination of the ars inveniendi and the rhetorical devices under the topic or aim of speech which traditional rhetorics postulates. In analogy to wit which according to Friedrich Schlegel hits like lightning, speaking boldly („dreist“) begins with a „Donnerkeil“ (thunderbolt) without knowing of or for what. In this manner a „new“ „rhetoric of the future“ (Rüdiger Campe) is envisioned – a rhetorics which will institute its own frames instead of performing in already instituted ones. This is what the devices of continuing speaking have to ensure, while the tension between speaking and its product is acted out in felicitous contingencies. This tension is also acted out in Kleistʼs text, which proceeds by examples without resulting in a thesis.