name	Johann Paul Friedrich Richter
pseudonym	Jean Paul
birth date	March 21, 1763
birth place	Wunsiedel, Holy Roman Empire
death date	November 14, 1825
death place	Bayreuth, Germany
occupation	novelist
nationality	German
period	1783-1825
genre	Humour
subject	Education, politics
website	}}

Jean Paul (21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825), born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.

Life and work

Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountains (Bavaria). His father was an organist at Wunsiedel. In 1765 his father became a pastor at Joditz near Hof, and in 1767 at Schwarzenbach, but he died on 25 April 1779, leaving the family in great poverty. After attending the ''Gymnasium'' at Hof, Jean Paul went in 1781 to the University of Leipzig. His original intention was to enter his father's profession, but theology did not interest him, and he soon devoted himself wholly to the study of literature. Unable to maintain himself at Leipzig he returned in 1784 to Hof, where he lived with his mother. From 1787 to 1789 he served as a tutor at Töpen, a village near Hof; and from 1790 to 1794 he taught the children of several families in a school he had founded in nearby Schwarzenbach.

Jean Paul began his career as a man of letters with ''Grönländische Prozesse'' ("Greenland Lawsuits", published anonymously in Berlin) and ''Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren'' ("Selections from the Devil's Papers", signed J. P. F. Hasus), the former of which was issued in 1783-84, the latter in 1789. These works were not received with much favour, and in later life Richter himself had little sympathy for their satirical tone. A spiritual crisis he suffered on 15 November 1790, in which he had a vision of his own death, altered his outlook profoundly. His next book, ''Die unsichtbare Loge'' ("The Invisible Lodge"), a romance published in 1793 under the pen-name Jean Paul (in honour of Jean Jacques Rousseau), had all the qualities that were soon to make him famous, and its power was immediately recognized by some of the best critics of the day.

Encouraged by the reception of ''Die unsichtbare Loge'', Richter composed a number of books in rapid succession: ''Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterleins Maria Wutz in Auenthal'' ("Life of the Cheerful Schoolmaster Maria Wutz", 1793), the best-selling ''Hesperus'' (1795), which made him famous, ''Biographische Belustigungen unter der Gehirnschale einer Riesin'' ("Biographical Recreations under the Brainpan of a Giantess", 1796), ''Leben des Quintus Fixlein'' ("Life of Quintus Fixlein", 1796), ''Der Jubelsenior'' ("The Parson in Jubilee", 1797), and ''Das Kampaner Tal'' ("The Valley of Campan", 1797). Also among these was the novel ''Blumen- Frucht- und Dornenstücke, oder Ehestand, Tod und Hochzeit des Armenadvokaten Siebenkäs'' ("Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces; or, the Married Life, Death and Wedding of Siebenkäs, Poor Man's Lawyer") in 1796-97.

The book's slightly supernatural theme, involving a Doppelgänger and pseudocide, stirred some controversy over its interpretation of the Resurrection, but these criticisms served only to draw awareness to the author. This series of writings assured Richter a place in German literature, and during the rest of his life every work he produced was welcomed by a wide circle of admirers.

After his mother's death in 1797, Richter went to Leipzig, and in the following year to Weimar, where he started work on his most ambitious novel, ''Titan'', published between 1801-02. Richter became friends with such Weimar notables as Herder, by whom he was warmly appreciated, but despite their close proximity, Richter never become close to Goethe and Schiller, both of whom found his literary methods repugnant; but in Weimar, as elsewhere, his remarkable conversational powers and his genial manners made him a favorite in general society. The English writers Thomas Carlyle and Thomas de Quincy took an interest in Jean Paul's work.

In 1801 he married Caroline Meyer, whom he had met in Berlin the year before. They lived first at Meiningen, then at Coburg; and finally, in 1804, they settled at Bayreuth. Here Richter spent a quiet, simple and happy life, constantly occupied with his work as a writer. In 1808 he was fortunately delivered from anxiety about outward necessities by Prince Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg, who gave him an annual pension of 1,000 florins which was later continued by the king of Bavaria.

Jean Paul's ''Titan'' was followed by ''Flegeljahre'' ("The Awkward Age", 1804-5). His later imaginative works were ''Dr Katzenbergers Badereise'' ("Dr Katzenberger's Trip to the Medicinal Springs", 1809), ''Des Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz'' ("Army Chaplain Schmelzle's Voyage to Flätz", 1809), ''Leben Fibels'' ("Life of Fibel", 1812), and ''Der Komet, oder Nikolaus Marggraf'' ("The Comet, or, Nikolaus Markgraf", 1820–22). In ''Vorschule der Aesthetik'' ("Introduction to Aesthetics", 1804) he expounded his ideas on art; he discussed the principles of education in ''Levana, oder Erziehungslehre'' ("Levana, or, Pedagogy", 1807); and the opinions suggested by current events he set forth in ''Friedenspredigt'' ("Peace Sermon", 1808), ''Dämmerungen für Deutschland'' ("Twilights for Germany", 1809), ''Mars und Phöbus Thronwechsel im Jahre 1814'' ("Mars and Phoebus Exchange Thrones in the Year 1814", 1814), and ''Politische Fastenpredigten'' ("Political Lenten Sermons", 1817). In his last years he began ''Wahrheit aus Jean Pauls Leben'' ("The Truth from Jean Paul's Life"), to which additions from his papers and other sources were made after his death by C. Otto and E. Förster.

Also during this time he supported the younger writer E. T. A. Hoffmann, who long counted Richter among his influences. Richter wrote the preface to ''Fantasy Pieces'', a collection of Hoffmann's short stories published in 1814.

In September 1821 Jean Paul lost his only son, Max, a youth of the highest promise; and he never quite recovered from this shock. He lost his sight in 1824, and died of dropsy at Bayreuth, on 14 November 1825.

Characteristics of his work

Friedrich Schiller said of Jean Paul that he would have been worthy of admiration if he had made as good use of his riches as other men made of their poverty—the classic approach of "Weimar".

But in working out his conceptions, Jean Paul found it appropriate to express any powerful feeling by which he might happen to be moved. He made it his style to use seemingly out-of-the-way facts or psychological notions which occurred to him. Hence every one of his works is irregular in structure and his style lacks directness, though never grace. His imagination was one of extraordinary fertility, and he had a surprising power of suggesting great thoughts by means of the simplest incidents and relations.

The love of nature was one of Jean Paul's deepest pleasures; his expressions of religious feelings are also marked by a truly poetic spirit, for to him visible things were but the symbols of the invisible, and in the unseen realities alone he found elements which seemed to him to give significance and dignity to human life. His humour, the most distinctive of his qualities, cannot be dissociated from the other characteristics of his writings. It mingled with all his thoughts, and to some extent determined the form in which he embodied even his most serious reflections. That it is sometimes extravagant and grotesque cannot be disputed, but it is never harsh nor vulgar, and generally it springs naturally from the perception of the incongruity between ordinary facts and ideal laws.

Jean Paul's personality was deep and many-sided; with all his willfulness and eccentricity he was a man of a pure and sensitive spirit, with a passionate scorn for pretence and an ardent enthusiasm for truth and goodness.

The last scene of Jean Paul's ''Flegeljahre'' was the inspiration behind Robert Schumann's composition "Papillons" Op. 2, and Schumann´s Humoreske Op. 20 is inspired by Jean Paul.

19th century works on Jean Paul

Richter's ''Sämtliche Werke'' (''Complete Works'') appeared in 1826-28 in 60 volumes, to which were added 5 volumes of ''Literarischer Nachlass'' (literary bequest) in 1836-38; a second edition was published in 1840-42 (33 volumes); a third in 1860-62 (24 volumes). The last complete edition is that edited by R. Gottschall (60 parts, 1879). Editions of selected works appeared in 16 volumes (1865), in Kürschner's ''Deutsche Nationalliteratur'' (edited by P. Nerrlich, 6 vols, pp. 388–487), &c. The chief collections of Richter's correspondence are:

''Jean Pauls Briefe an F. H. Jacobi'' (1828)

''Briefwechsel Jean Pauls mit seinem Freunde C. Otto'' (1829–33)

''Briefwechsel zwischen H. Voss und Jean Paul'' (1833)

''Briefe an eine Jugendfreundin'' (1858)

P. Nerrlich, ''Jean Pauls Briefwechsel mit seiner Frau und seinem Freunde Otto'' (1902).

See further:

The continuation of Richter's autobiography by C. Otto and E. Fürster (1826–33)

H. Dring, ''J. P. F. Richters Leben und Charakteristik'' (1830–32)

Richard Otto Spazier, ''JPF Richter: ein biographischer Commentar zu dessen Werken'' (5 vols, 1833)

E. Förster, ''Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben von J. P. F. Richter'' (1863)

Paul Nerrlich, ''Jean Paul und seine Zeitgenossen'' (1876)

J. Firmery, ''Étude sur la vie et les œuvres de J. P. F. Richter'' (1886)

P. Nerrlich, ''Jean Paul, sein Leben und seine Werke'' (1889)

Ferdinand Josef Schneider, ''Jean Pauls Altersdichtung'' (1901); and ''Jean Pauls Jugend und erstes Auftreten in der Literatur'' (1906).

Thomas Carlyle's two essays on Richter.

Quotations

Joy is inexhaustible, unlike seriousness.

Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

Many young people get worked up about opinions that they will share in 20 years.

Too much trust is a foolishness, too much distrust a tragedy.

The German language is the organ among the languages. (''Die deutsche Sprache ist die Orgel unter den Sprachen.'')

A man never describes his own character so clearly as when he describes another.

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.

What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity.

Works

''Grönländische Prozesse'' 1783-1784

''Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren'' 1789

''Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz'' 1790

''Die unsichtbare Loge'' 1793

''Hesperus (book)'' 1795

''Biographische Belustigungen'' 1796

''Leben des Quintus Fixlein'' 1796

''Siebenkäs'' 1796

''Der Jubelsenior'' 1797

''Das Kampaner Tal'' 1797

''Des Luftschiffers Giannozzo Seebuch'' 1801

''Titan'' 1800-03

''Flegeljahre'' (unfinished) 1804

''Vorschule der Aesthetik'' 1804

''Levana oder Erziehlehre'' 1807

''Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise'' 1809

''Des Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz'' 1809

''Leben Fibels'' 1812

''Bemerkungen über uns närrische Menschen''

''Clavis Fichtiana'' (see also Johann Gottlieb Fichte)

''Das heimliche Klaglied der jetzigen Männer''

''Der Komet'' 1820-1822

''Der Maschinenmann''

''Die wunderbare Gesellschaft in der Neujahrsnacht''

''Freiheits-Büchlein''

English translations

Richter's more important works have been translated into English, for example:

''Quintus Fixlein'' and ''Schmelzles Reise'', by Carlyle

''Walt and Vult'' by Lee (1846)

''Titan'' by Brooks (1863)

''Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces'' by Ewing (1877)

''Levana'' by Wood (1887)

References

Fleming, Paul. ''The Pleasures of Abandonment: Jean Paul and the Life of Humor''. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2006.

External links

Jean Paul's works at Projekt Gutenberg-DE (in German)

Famous Quotes by Jean Paul Richter

Category:1763 births Category:1825 deaths Category:People from Wunsiedel (district) Category:German novelists Category:German short story writers Category:People from the Principality of Bayreuth Category:Deaths from edema Category:German opinion journalists Category:Blind people from Germany

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Alina Troyano better known as Carmelita Tropicana, is a Cuban-American stage and film actress.

References

I, Carmelita Tropicana

Dorson, Melanie, "Comedy is Your Weapon: Performance Artist Carmelita Tropicana's Oppositional Strategies"

External links

Category:American actors Category:American people of Cuban descent Category:LGBT people from Cuba Category:Living people Category:American writers of Cuban descent

bgcolour	#6495ED
name	Ana Mendieta
birth date	November 18, 1948
death date	September 08, 1985
nationality	Cuban American
field	Performance art, sculpture
awards	}}

Ana Mendieta (18 November 1948 – 8 September 1985) was a Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who known for her "earth-body" art work.

Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba. At age 12, in order to escape Fidel Castro's regime, Ana and her sister Raquelin were sent to the United States by their parents. Through Operation Peter Pan, a collaborative program run by the U.S. Government and the Catholic Charities, Mendieta and her sister were moved through several institutions and foster homes in Iowa.

Education

Mendieta attended the University of Iowa where she earned a BA, an MA in Painting and an MFA in Intermedia. Through the course of her career, she created work in Cuba, Mexico, Italy, and the United States.

Life and Work

Mendieta's work was in its essence autobiographical and focused on themes including feminism, violence, life, death, place and belonging. Mendieta often focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the Earth, most particularly in her "Silueta Series" (1973–1980). The series involved Mendieta creating female silhouettes in nature - in mud, sand and grass - with natural materials ranging from leaves and twigs to blood, and making body prints or painting her outline or silhouette onto a wall.

In 1983 Mendieta was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. While in residence in Rome, Italy, Mendieta began creating art "objects," including drawings and sculptures. She continued to use natural elements in her work.

Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985 in New York from a fall from her 34th floor apartment in Greenwich Village, where she lived with her husband of eight months, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Andre was tried and acquitted of her murder. During the trial, Andre's lawyer described Mendieta's death as a possible accident or suicide. The cause of her death may never be known.

Ana Mendieta's estate is managed by the Galerie Lelong in New York City.

''"My art is the way I reestablish the bonds that unite me to the universe."'' - Ana Mendieta, from the article "Ana Mendieta Plants," written by Judith Wilson and published in the ''Village Voice'' in 1980.

Death

Mendieta fell to her death from a bedroom window after an argument with Mr. Andre, who later told the police he was not in the room when she fell.

Varying accounts of her death suggest that she had either committed suicide during an enraged fight with her husband, sculptor Carl Andre, or that he had pushed her out of the window of their 34th floor apartment. Andre was ultimately acquitted by a judge.

Silueta Series (1973-1980)

When Ana Mendieta began her "Silueta Series" in the 1970s, both land art and body art were being explored by an influx of performance artists. Mendieta was possibly the first to combine the two in what she coined as "earth-body" sculptures (Jacob 1999, p. 3). She often used her naked body to explore and connect with the Earth, as seen in her piece ''Imagen de Yagul, from the series Silueta Works in Mexico 1973-1977.''

Mendieta also created the female silhouette using nature as both her canvas and her medium. She used her body to create silhouettes in grass; she created silhouettes in sand and dirt; she created silhouettes of fire and filmed them burning. Through these works, which cross the boundaries of performance, film and photography, Mendieta explored her relationship with place as well as a larger relationship with mother Earth or the "Great Goddess" figure (Blocker 1999, p. 47-48).

Mary Jane Jacob suggests in her book ''Ana Mendieta: The "Silueta" Series (1973-1980)'' that much of Mendieta's work was influenced by her interest in the religion Santería, as well as a connection to Cuba (Jacob 1991, p. 4). Jacob attributes Mendieta's "ritualistic use of blood" (Jacob 1991, p. 10) and the use of gunpowder, earth and rock to Santería's ritualistic traditions (Jacob 1991, p. 17).

Jacob also points out the significance of the mother figure, referring to the Mayan deity Ix Chel, the mother of the Gods (Jacob 1991, p. 14). Many have interpreted Mendieta's recurring use of this mother figure, and her own female silhouette, as feminist art. However, because Mendieta's work explores many ideas including life, death, identity and place all at once, it cannot be categorized as part of one idea or movement.

Photo Etchings of the ''Rupestrian Sculptures''

As documented in the book ''Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works'', edited by Bonnie Clearwater, before her death, Ana Mendieta was working on a series of photo-etchings of cave sculptures she had created at Escaleras de Jaruco, Jaruco State Park in Havana, Cuba (Clearwater 1993, p. 11). Her sculptures were entitled "Rupestrian Sculptures" and the book of photographic etchings that Mendieta was creating to preserve these sculptures is a testament to the intertextuality of Mendieta's work. Clearwater explains how the photographs of Mendieta's sculptures were often as important as the piece they were documenting because the nature of Mendieta's work was so impermanent. Mendieta spent as much time and thought on the creation of the photographs as she did on the sculptures themselves (Clearwater 1993, p. 11).

Mendieta returned to Havana, Cuba, the place of her birth birth for this project, but she was still exploring her sense of displacement and loss, according to Clearwater (Clearwater 1993, p. 18). The "Rupestrian Sculptures" that Mendieta created were also influenced by the Tainan people, "native inhabitants of the pre-hispanic Antilles," which Mendieta became fascinated by and studied (Clearwater 1993, p. 12).

Mendieta had completed five photo-etchings of the "Rupestrian Sculptures" before she died in 1985. The book ''Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works'', published in 1993, contains both photographs of the sculptures as well as Mendieta's notes on the project (Clearwater 1993, p. 20).

References

Jacob, Mary Jane. "Ana Mendieta: The "Silueta" Series, 1973-1980." Galerie Lelong, 1991.

Blocker, Jane. ''Where Is Ana Mendieta?: Identity, Performativity, and Exile''. Duke University Press, May, 1999.

Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. A''na Mendieta: A Book of Works''. Grassfield Press, November, 1993.

Bibliography

Blocker, Jane. ''Where Is Ana Mendieta?: Identity, Performativity, and Exile''. Duke University Press, May, 1999.

Cabañas, Kaira M. "Ana Mendieta: 'Pain of Cuba, body I Am.'" ''Woman's Art Journal'' 20, no. 1 (1999): 12-17.

Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. A''na Mendieta: A Book of Works''. Grassfield Press, November, 1993.

Heartney, Eleanor. "Rediscovering Ana Mendieta." ''Art in America'' 92, no. 10 (2004): 139-143.

Jacob, Mary Jane. "Ana Mendieta: The "Silueta" Series, 1973-1980." Galerie Lelong, 1991.

Katz, Robert. ''Naked by the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta." Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990.

Kwon, Miwon. "Bloody Valentines: Afterimages by Ana Mendieta." In: Catherine de Zegher (ed.), ''Inside the Visible''. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston & MIT Press, 1996.

Moure, Gloria et al. ''Ana Mendieta''. Poligrafa, April 2, 2001.

Perreault, John and Petra Barreras del Rio. ''Ana Mendieta: A Retrospective''. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1987.

Raine, Anne. "Embodied Geographies: Subjectivity and Materiality in the Work of Ana Mendieta." In ''Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology: An Interdisciplinary Reader'', edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Christina Gilmartin, and Robin Lydenberg, 259-286. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Rauch, Heidi, and Federico Suro. "Ana Mendieta's Primal Scream." ''Américas'' 44, no.5 (1992): 44-48.

Viso, Olga. ''Ana Mendieta: Earth Body.'' Hatje Cantz Publishers in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2004.

Viso, Olga. ''Unseen Mendieta: The Unpublished Works of Ana Mendieta.'' New York: Prestel, 2008.

Walker, Joanna, ‘The body is present even if in disguise: tracing the trace in the art work of Nancy Spero and Ana Mendieta’. ''Tate Papers'', Spring 2009. See http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/09spring/joanna-walker.shtm

External links

Galerie Lelong site - for images and artist's CV

Information on 2004 traveling retrospective presented by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

''Las huellas de Ana Mendieta'' por Gretel Herrera, Fundación Cultural Enrique Loynaz, Santo Domingo

The Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden biography of Ana Mendieta with images of her work

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "Making Sense of Modern Art"

Category:1948 births Category:1985 deaths Category:American people of Cuban descent Category:American artists Category:American feminists Category:Cuban feminists Category:Feminist artists Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:People from Havana Category:Deaths by defenestration Category:Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts

ca:Ana Mendieta de:Ana Mendieta fr:Ana Mendieta pl:Ana Mendieta ru:Мендьета, Ана