Visit to Godenholm (German: Besuch auf Godenholm) is a 1952 novella by the German writer Ernst Jünger. It tells the story of a group of people who are invited to the island Godenholm in Scandinavia, where they take part in a mind-altering séance with strong surreal imagery.

Visit to Godenholm
First English-language edition
(publ. Edda Publishing)
AuthorErnst Jünger
Original titleBesuch auf Godenholm
TranslatorAnnabel Moynihan
LanguageGerman
Publisher107
Publication date
1952
Publication placeWest Germany
Published in English
2015

The book was published in English in 2015, translated by Annabel Moynihan.[1]

Reception

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Visit to Godenholm did not receive much attention when it was first published and was for a long time one of Jünger's less read works. In the 1990s it caught the interest of Jünger researchers as a veiled description of one of Jünger's early LSD trips together with Albert Hofmann. In the introduction, Elliot Neaman situates the book in a tradition of linking drug experiences with literary expression, with prominent examples from Romanticism and in the works of Charles Baudelaire.[2]

Legacy

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In the 1970 essay collection Annäherungen, a book focused entirely on drugs, Jünger has a chapter titled "Rückblick auf Godenholm", which means "Looking back at Godenholm". The French composer André Almuró made the 1971 opera Visite à Godenholm, which is based on Jünger's novel.[3]

References

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Notes
  1. ^ "Ernst Jünger, Visit to Godenholm". Edda Publishing. Archived from the original on 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  2. ^ Streim 2011, p. 119
  3. ^ Streim 2011, p. 133
Literature
  • Streim, Gregor (2011). "Esoterische Kommunikation". In Schöning, Matthias; Stöckmann, Ingo (eds.). Ernst Jünger und die Bundesrepublik: Ästhetik - Politik - Zeitgeschichte (in German). Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110237849.