(IM)POSSIBILITY OF REINTEGRATION? A CULTURAL-ECOLOGICAL READING OF HEINRICH HEINE’S ROMANCE ALMANSOR

Résumé

Heinrich Heine, a controversial 19th-century writer and one of the most prominent German authors to this day, is widely known as a lyrical poet and the writer of the Travel Pictures (Reisebilder). His extensive literary work consistently combines elements of social criticism with a re-examination of contemporary literary trends. These aspects are often intertwined with an underlying autobiographical search for identity, shaped by his Jewish heritage and his sense of not belonging to German society. The romance Almansor, written in 1825, represents a synthesis of these themes. Here, Heine projects the problem of integration onto medieval Spain during the Reconquista, addressing the encounter between Christian and Islamic cultures, the issues of belonging and marginalization, and the relationship between the individual and society. In this paper, these dynamics were interpreted through Hubert Zapf ’s model of cultural ecology. This triadic framework offers new perspectives for literary analysis by distinguishing three interrelated discourses: the culture-critical metadiscourse, the imaginative counter-discourse, and the reintegrative interdiscourse. Catholic Spain is examined as the culture-critical metadiscourse, where analyses on both stylistic and thematic levels reveal the exclusivity of the dominant order. The figure of Almansor is interpreted within the imaginative counter-discourse, illuminating marginalized and suppressed elements of the cultural system. Particular attention is devoted to the reintegrative interdiscourse and the question of whether the cultural center can be regenerated from its margins. The analysis demonstrates that the dominant system shows no capacity for self-correction; instead, it is marginalized groups and individuals who bear the burden of initiating new beginnings under unfavorable religious and cultural conditions. Christianity ultimately brings Heine’s romance to its conclusion, while both adaptation and the potential transformation of the system remain confined to the realm of dream and imagination.