« … das Wesen jenes geheimnisvollen Bandes, das Geist und Körper verknüpft… ». Letteratura e antropologia magnetica nei "Serapions-Brüder"

The aim of the article is to show how E.T.A. Hoffmann’s interest in animal magnetism is reflected not only in the content – to which critics have paid more attention – but also in the author’s late poetics, i.e. in the Wirkungsästhetik of his work. Whereas in the early Hoffmann’s short stories the use of magnetic practices is a constant theme, e.g. in Der Magnetiseur or in the Nachtstücke, and it often takes on negative and manipulative traits, in the collection Die Serapions-Brüder, in the context of the poetological reflections articulated by the characters within the frame, the magnetism is explicitly associated with the performative effect that poetry is able to exert on the listeners/readers. In this sense, the purpose of the article is to draw attention to the dialectical nature of Hoffmann’s relationship with mesmerism and to prove that the energetic/vitalistic paradigm offered by the magnetic anthropology – which postulated an inseparable union between the psychic and the physical spheres – allows the author to grant his work a therapeutic objective