parent shortcoming indirectlyconfirms thatsocialist allegory resists convention-
al definitions that–based on the distinctioninHegel’saesthetics betweengood
metaphor and bad allegory–invariablydismiss the latter as too formalistic and
mechanistic.
GivenFuchs’shumanistic education, it can be safely assumed that his de-
scription of patheticallegory drawsonkey insights fromFriedrich Schiller’sin-
fluential essayon“The Pathetic”(1793). Therepresentation of suffering in art,
Schiller argues, functions asameans, not an end, in facilitating man’srise as
areasonable being (Vernunftswesen)overhis existenceasasensuous being (Sin-
nenwesen). Just as the tragic hero must pass through the crucible of emotion, all
actionsand decisionsinlife are prefigured in, and facilitated by,aesthetic expe-
riences.“The first lawofthe tragic art was to represent suffering nature. The sec-
ond lawistorepresent theresistance of morality opposedto suffering,”¹³writes
Schiller.With the aesthetic conceivedasameans of self-liberation, his definition
of pathosreadsvery much likeadescription of the proletarian Prometheus:
Pathos isasort of artificial misfortune, and brings usto the spiritual lawthat commands
our soul. Real misfortune does not always choose its time opportunely,whilepathos finds
us armed at all points.Byfrequentlyrenewing this exercise of its own activity,the mind
controls the sensuous,sothatwhen real misfortune comes,itcan treat it as an artificial
sufferingand makeitasublime emotion.[...]Thus pathos takesawaysome of the malignity
of destinyand wards off its blows.¹⁴In the European tradition, the Prometheus figure has long embodied the dialec-
tics of sufferingand rebellion and allowed artists to reflect on the contradictions
of human self-emancipation. Part ofagroup of demigods that includes Icarus,
Sisyphus, andTantalus,the most famous of the Titans has oftenbeen castas
apersonification of the struggle between freedom and tyranny. This tension
has foundtelling expression in his association with fire asatool of innovation.
And since Prometheus is also known asatrickster,the figure has inspiredcount-
lessversions and competing interpretations, beginning with Hesiod andAeschy-
lus and continuing with Horace,Ovid,and manyothers. Prometheus stole fire
from thegods andgave it to humans, thus making possible their liberation
through labor,technology,and,inthe mostgeneral terms,creativity.Aspunish-
ment,Zeus ordered Prometheus chainedto the mountains and condemnedto a
life of eternal suffering,with an eagle every night eating his liver. In earlyver-
Friedrich Schiller,“The Pathetic,”inAestheticaland Philosophical Essays,online at http://
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6798/6798-h/6798-h.htm#link2H_4_0034,1March2017.
Friedrich Schiller,“On theSublime,”inAesthetical and Philosophical Essays,online at http://
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6798/6798-h/6798-h.htm#link2H_4_0033, 1March2017.
The Proletarian Prometheus and Socialist Allegory 109