The journey of the soul towards death. "The mines of Falun", by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Abstract

Die Bergwerke zu Falun (The Mines of Falun) is one of the most complex stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Starting from an event recalled in old chronicles, the writer fantasizes on a story that shares only the ending with the documented one, which allows for an extraordinary incursion in other depths, those of the dreams, hallucinations and obsessions. The whole narration demands a reading from a symbolic perspective, where images constantly refer to what lies beyond the apparent. The author of this paper has felt the need to put that vortex of images in parallel with the psychology called imaginal, not without reason, by James Hillman, and that of his master Carl Gustav Jung. From this perspective, the touchstone of the story, that is, the death, suicidal to some extent, of the protagonist, allows for discovering values that are not commonly accepted, not even imagined, by an Ego-centred psychology which has generally guided the preceding interpretations of this tale.