This post explores a strong stylistic and thematic influence on Günderrode’s work: the writings of legendary Scottish bard Ossian. For an English translation of Günderrode’s dramatic fragment “Mora” see Karoline von Günderrode: Philosophical Writings (OUP: forthcoming January-March 2026). A translation of the short story “Timur” is included at the end of this post. Versions of the original GermanContinue reading “Karoline von Günderrode’s “Timur” and the Influence of Ossian”
Category Archives: Romanticism
Karoline von Günderrode, “The Prisoner and the Singer”
A version of the original German text can be found here. Rather than providing a new translation of the poem, I’ll send you to an existing one here. “The Prisoner and the Singer” was written in 1805 or 1806 and included in Günderrode’s third collection, Melete. The verses describe a singer who grants a prisoner’s request toContinue reading “Karoline von Günderrode, “The Prisoner and the Singer””
Karoline von Günderrode’s Notes: Where Did They Come From?
In which I explain a mystery in Günderrode scholarship. Please cite me if you quote or share information from this post. In 1975, Doris Hopp and Max Preitz published a selection of notes from Günderrode’s notebooks, including a set of quotations by Kant, Spinoza, Locke, Fichte, Rousseau, Herder and other philosophers and writers. Günderrode groupedContinue reading “Karoline von Günderrode’s Notes: Where Did They Come From?”
Karoline von Günderrode, “Muhammad’s Dream in the Desert”
This poem was published in Günderrode’s first collection of poetry, dialogues and short stories, Poems and Fantasies, which appeared in 1804. Unlike Günderrode’s play Muhammad, the Prophet of Mecca, the poem does not follow Muhammad’s life or use the Prophet as a stand-in for European political figures. Instead, the piece develops Romantic, Christian, and alchemicalContinue reading “Karoline von Günderrode, “Muhammad’s Dream in the Desert””
Shirking Your Responsibilities
Sarah Cameron is a multi-award winning painter and photographer with an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art and a BFA from Edinburgh College of Art. At the time the pieces for this website were painted, she was working in oils on representations of the human-nature relationship. She was particularly interested in the perceivedContinue reading “Shirking Your Responsibilities”
Untitled painting (Günderrode; the unknown)
Sarah Cameron is a multi-award winning painter and photographer with an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art and a BFA from Edinburgh College of Art. I commissioned this large, untitled piece at a time when Sarah was working, in conceptual terms, on paintings as repositories of emotions and, in technical terms, on theContinue reading “Untitled painting (Günderrode; the unknown)”
Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Günderrode’s Suicide
Karoline von Günderrode killed herself on 26 July 1806, after receiving a letter from the married Georg Friedrich Creuzer ending their affair. This event, and its spectacular circumstances (she stabbed herself in the heart with a silver dagger, on the banks of the Rhine, leaving a poem and a blood-stained handkerchief as a “pledge” forContinue reading “Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Günderrode’s Suicide”
Friedrich’s Mountain, Botched Romance
Sarah Cameron is a multi-award winning painter and photographer with an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art and a BFA from Edinburgh College of Art. At the time the pieces for this website were painted, she was working on representations of the human-nature relationship. She was particularly interested in the perceived boundary betweenContinue reading “Friedrich’s Mountain, Botched Romance”
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