Sapfo, Grillparzer and Prešeren

Abstract

Prešeren in his sonnet An eine junge Dichterin based on Grillparzer's treatment of the Sappho motif in the tragedy Sappho. Both authors along this motif themed the problem of a romantic poet as carrier of the contrast between art and life, but essentially different: Grillparzer emphasizes the poet's autonomy towards life, whereas Prešeren understands the poets existence as determined and predestined for life's misfortune. As these differences can not be explained individually-psychologically, the treatise explains them on more levels - typologically and psychoanalitically, spirituallyhistorically and sociologically. These explanations don't exclude each other, on the contrary, they make possible the conclusion that the diversity of Grillparzer's and Prešeren's ideas about a poet is based on the socio-cultural diversity of the life world, out of which they created their life work.