Fantasies of home: “Heimat” in E. T. A. Hoffmann's <i>Haimatochare</i>

Abstract E. T. A. Hoffmann's Haimatochare , an epistolary fiction set in Hawaii, defamiliarizes the narrative of erotic colonial fantasy by coaxing reader into assumption that its alluring central figure is Indigenous woman and then revealing her to be insect. This article studies dynamics misapprehension within text, beginning with Walter Benjamin's misreading title as “Heimatochare,” a mistake has proved strangely persistent critical literature. By reading alongside Der Sandmann shows how introduces web “Heimat”‐related terms both solicit indicate insect's identity such revelation already partially intuited thus takes on uncanny aspect. Furthermore, making “Heimat” present across destabilizing it, text unfolds experience “Heimweh,” where home sickness at once.