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One of the most remarkable features of Robert Walser’s writing is that the narrator consistently orchestrates or engineers his birth. He crafts a narrative that enables him to pass from the page into life in a form of literary transubstantiation in which the word is made flesh. This is the miracle of Walser’s writing. It is also a perversion of the Platonic and mystical ideal of a virgin birth. This seminar will explore Walser’s work against this historical and theological backdrop with special emphasis on the nexus of religion and psychosis, as evidenced in Daniel Paul Schreber’s memoir and Freud’s analysis thereof. We will consider the perversion at the heart of Walser’s work that makes literature the sphere of wonders and miracles in an otherwise disenchanted world. Reading knowledge of German is required for this course, as many of Walser’s works have not been translated into English. In addition to Walser' work, we will also read Plato, Meister Eckhart, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Schreber, Freud, and Beierwaltes on neo-Platonism.