ABSTRACT
In the second letter from Heine’s 1822 Briefe aus Berlin (Letters from Berlin), we find the following passage:
Resonating with the vertigo of the whirling encounters of Prinzessin Brambilla, it is one of the rare instances where Heine speaks of himself as a dancer. Akin to Hoffmann, the sheer dynamic corporeality of movement gains significance as a metaphor for mental mobility. In Heine, it articulates itself most distinctively in transgressions of order, in the acrobatics of writerly handstands that turn contemporary moral and aesthetic positions upside down.
