Reading Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus as a political treatise between Hobbes and Locke

This is a study of the political argumentation in the German Baroque writer Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen’s picaresque novel Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch (1668). This thesis argues that the novel contains the three-part political argument found in the contemporary political treatises of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) and John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689). The three-part argument asks what is the state of nature, what is the natural man, and what is the just political system that emerges from these definitions. Simplicissimus demonstrates political argumentation that refutes Hobbes’ defense of absolutism and anticipates Locke’s liberal political philosophy, while championing the moral hermit’s life above all political systems. The substantial political argumentation in the novel is presented as a series of distopian and utopian worldviews encountered by the protagonist. This thesis also presents a new interpretation both of the novel’s structure and of the novel’s frontispiece in light of the political reasoning in the work.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

German

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Hollender, Kurt N.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wade, Mara R.

• Gimmelshausen
• Simplicissimus
• Political Science
• Political Treatise
• Hobbes
• Locke
• Absolutism

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Kurt Hollender

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16708

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16708