Voice of Trauma: The Scandal of Child Abuse in Goethe’s “Erlkönig”

This lecture answers the famous question that Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s ballad “Erlkönig” (1782) begins medias in res: “Who rides so late through night and wind?” Who’s inquiring about the rider? Where and when is this question posed? Goethe’s ballad tells of the cultural taboo of child abuse and it does so using uncanny images and scenes. To be established is how abuse becomes an aesthetic experience through time, the medium of which is the human voice. Essential for understanding “Erlkönig” is its traumatic use of a depersonalized voice intent on making talking heard.

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