The Point of Kleist's "Über das Marionettentheater"

Abstract: For over two centuries of reception, Kleist's "Über das Marionettentheater" has remained an enigma. The reason, I argue, is that Kleist's text is driven by an epiphanic insight: representation itself functions as an apparatus of control—as a "Marionette Theater." The assumption that texts represent undergirds practically all our reading practices. To achieve the levity needed to get (to) the point of Kleist's text we must let go of that assumption. Analyses of select examples of existing scholarship—and Paul de Man's prominent article in particular—show that (and how) academic reading, too, is subject to that predicament. Kleist distinguishes three modes of reading: two that remain ensnared in the apparatus, and one that can break free—and dance. For Kleist to state his insight directly, however, would create a catch-22. That is why he uses mathematical metaphors.