Frühromantik

Der sehr verschlüsselte Text der Lehrlinge zu Sais wurde unterschiedlcih interpretiert, teils strukturalistisch, teils auf die wissenschaftlichen Vorlagen bezogen. Diese Arbeit zeigt erstmals, wie beide Interpratationen sinnvoll zusammengeführt werden können, indem nämlich das Kompositionsprinzip einer "zyklischen Ineinandersetzung" den naturwissenschaftlich-philosophischen Gedanken und Inhalten entsprechen.

Am 8. Mai 2016 wurde meine Dissertation "Novalis und die negative Theologie - Träume und Abgrund in der europäischen Romantik" (in französischer Sprache) mit dem Novalis Preis 2016 in Jena ausgezeichnet. Am Vorabend durfte ich bei einem wissenschaftlichen Symposium meine Arbeit synthetisch vorstellen.

[Published in French - May 2017 - Presses du réel: http://www.lespressesdureel.com/ouvrage.php?id=5513&menu=]

This book is an essay conceived as an intellectual portrait of the German writer, psychologist and art theorist Karl Philipp Moritz (1756-1793), whose purpose is to investigate the relationships between aesthetics, psychology and anthropology in the second half of the 18th century, and the importance of their simultaneous development for the debates about art after 1800.

Summary
Moritz remains rather unknown outside of Germany, where he is considered as an essential author for understanding the formation of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline, but also as experimental research, literary field and art critic in the 18th century. By foreshadowing an educational vision of the art experience, Moritz anchored the aesthetic debate in a psychological and anthropological dimension, which went beyond the narrow field of art.

Moritz was first known in his lifetime as a psychologist and a writer. He funded the first journal of experimental psychology where the writings of specialists – doctors or philosophers – were collected together with police reports, real or imaginary autobiographies, anonymous accounts of dreams, literary extracts or texts of mystics. Moritz also won recognition for his writings on art; the most famous was written in Rome in 1786 alongside Goethe who would, some years later, use many of his ideas. After his stay in Italy, Moritz taught art theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. His eclecticism influenced a generation of artists and theorists such as Jean Paul, Friedrich Schlegel and Schiller.

The merit of Moritz is that of having been able to combine, thanks to a dynamic definition of the work of art, a theory of creation with a theory of reception. In the artist, he saw a spectator in front of nature, while the spectator became the architect of the relationship he built with the artwork. Indeed, with Moritz, the artwork acquired for the first time in the history of art theory the status of a radically autonomous object whose body nevertheless remains fragmentary, because its assimilation to the remaining traces of a creative movement can be completed only in the present act. Moritz thus laid the foundations for a debate on the part of history and the part of direct experience in art that continues today.

Reconstruction of the double emergence of a new theory of the dream around 1800 in literature and science: in Novalis's novel "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" (1802) and in the writings of German Romantic anthropologists, esp. Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert's "Symbolik des Traumes" (1814).

Vortrag, der am 30. Oktober 2016 bei der Tagung der Internationalen Novalis Gesellschaft über Novalis und die Religion in Wiederstedt gehalten wurde.
In diesem Text geht es um eine Verdeutlichung der Religiosität des Novalis anhand von den Gesangbüchern, die ihn begleitet haben.

"The Work of Philosophy as a Work of Art. On the Style of Kant"
Abstract
A short essay upon the style of Immanuel Kant as the writer of the Critique of Pure Reason. Some general remarks about the relation between the philosophical book and the notion of the work of art as it appears in the Hegelian philosophy and the Romantic movement.

The focus of the article is Friedrich Schelling’s ontology of the autonomous, spontaneous and productive nature. The author reconstructs in detail the inherent tensions as well as rivalry between Schelling’s conception of self-organization on the one hand, and the mechanistic paradigm of the period (Newton, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace), the Kantian phenomenal somaticism, and the Fichtean radical dualism of the Self and nature (positioned as the Not-Self deprived of autonomy and the self-contained reality) on the other hand. The aim of the Schellingian ontology of nature is to think the entirely spontaneous character of the self-forming (self-production) of cells, body organs, minds and living beings’ behaviour on the basis of the same principles that encompass the formation of crystals, stars or geological formations. In this sense, Naturphilosophie as outlined and constructed in Schelling’s early writings radicalizes the project of the Enlightenment within the field of ontology of nature, and anticipates much later trends in the natural sciences, inspired by the modern rediscovery of the concept of emergence.

"«Di maggiore importanza per lo sviluppo della sua mente e dell’indirizzo della sua cultura fu la circostanza della sua dimora di alcuni anni in Germania, a Monaco e ad Erlangen, dove frequentò le rispettive università in qualità di studente di medicina e di scienze naturali. Tutto quello ch’egli ebbe ad osservare e ad udire in quella sua dimora lasciò tracce vive e durature sull’animo impressionabile e sul versatile spirito di lui, ed è circostanza che ben serve a spiegarci come accadesse ch’egli, in cuore suo sincero patriota italiano sin nell’età più provetta, si fosse immedesimato nel genio germanico e si trovasse in possesso della lingua tedesca a segno da riescire a servirsene di preferenza nella estrinsecazione de’ suoi concetti critici intorno all’arte». (G. Frizzoni, Cenni biografici intorno a Giovanni Morelli, 1897).

Giovanni Morelli (1816-1891) è senz’altro la figura più poliedrica e contraddittoria della connoisseurship storico-artistica ottocentesca. In questo volume si propone uno studio filologico delle opere e della biografia morelliane destinato a rimettere in discussione l’opinione critica tradizionale che vede in Ivan Lermolieff – alias Morelli – e nel suo metodo sperimentale soltanto un prodotto del Positivismo scientifico. Esaminando la fitta trama di relazioni personali e filosofico-letterarie che legano Morelli all’ambiente del primo Romanticismo tedesco, questo studio svela poco a poco l’origine culturale delle teorie e della scrittura di Morelli, «italiano d’animo e tedesco di studii.»
Gli scritti morfologici di Goethe, la fisiognomica di Lavater e Carus, la Naturphilosophie di Schelling, la stravagante amicizia fra Morelli e Bettina von Arnim, e la predilezione tutta romantica del connoisseur per l’elemento ironico, per il frammento e il dialogo. Sono questi soltanto alcuni degli aspetti qui affrontati dall’autrice in un’analisi interdisciplinare che, penetrando sotto la superficie del testo, muove da una prospettiva diacronica disposta ad ammettere ambivalenze e contaminazioni fra arte, letteratura e scienza. Liberate dall’etichetta positivista, la figura e l’opera di Morelli rivelano finalmente tutta la loro essenza romantica."

Die Gründung der Frühromantik wurde den Jahren 1798-1799, der Zeit der Veröffentlichung der von August Wilhelm Schlegel und Friedrich Schlegel herausgegebenen Zeitschrift Athenaeum, in der das prägende progressive Universalpoesie-Programm artikuliert und fortgesetzt wurde, zugerechnet. In den vorhergegangenen Jahren entwickelt Friedrich von Hardenberg, dessen Beitrag dazu die poetisch-philosophische Fragment-Sammlung Blüthenstaub ist, das Programm und seinen „magischen Idealismus” in philosophischen Schriften, wie den Fichte-Studien. In einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung sowohl mit der Transzendental-Philosophie Immanuel Kants und Johann Fichtes, als auch mit der Philosophie des Holländers François Hemsterhuis bauen Hardenberg und Friedrich Schlegel zusammen ein System der Ästhetik, das in Fichtes Transzendental-Philosophie fehlt, auf.

This examination considers the influence of the seventeenth century Cambridge Platonist Cudworth upon the thought of the late eighteenth century German thinker Herder. It focuses upon Herder’s use of Cudworth’s philosophy to create a revised version of Spinoza’s metaphysics. Both Cudworth and Herder were concerned with the problem of determinism. Cudworth outlined a number of difficulties relating to this problem in the thought of Spinoza, and proposed amendments, particularly the introduction of the middle principle of plastik, which would mediate between the Ideas of transcendent reason and mechanical materialism. We find these amendments to Spinoza’s philosophy also employed in Herder’s contribution to the Pantheism Controversy, in which he too offers a revised Spinozism and introduces his own middle principle of Kraft. This demonstrates an important but under-explored English contribution to a key development in German intellectual history. The Pantheism Controversy was an epoch-making event, helping to bring an end to the German Enlightenment, and to inaugurate the Romantic movement. Herder’s version of Spinoza’s thought revived the philosopher’s fortunes, and Herder’s notion of Kraft became central to Romantic aesthetics. Finally, Herder’s use of Cudworth demonstrates the important but overlooked source of Platonic realism in German Romantic thought.

This examination provides a history of the problematic characterization of Early German Romanticism (or Frühromantik) as subjectivist, and challenges this characterization in light of recent scholarship. From its earliest critical reception in the early nineteenth century, the movement suffered from a set of problematic characterizations made by popular philosophical figures. Goethe, Hegel, Heine, Kierkegaard and others all criticized the movement for holding a dangerous subjective egoism. This characterization remained with the Frühromantik throughout the twentieth century until it was challenged by recent re-evaluations offered by figures such as Dieter Henrich, Manfred Frank, Friedrich Beiser and Andrew Bowie. Their work has opened new possibilities for the re-interpretation of Frühromantik and our understanding of the movement’s religious thought.

Este artigo procura desenvolver o conceito de "crítica" no primeiro romantismo, sobretudo em seus principais representantes, Friedrich Schlegel e Novalis. A partir destes autores já não se pode falar de uma obra de arte desvinculada da reflexão sobre ela, mas, por sua vez, a própria "critica" deve se tomar arte.

Arte, crítica e crítica como arte: acerca do conceito de crítica em F.Schlegel e em Novalis”. Discurso, Instituto de Filosofia da FFLCH-USP, 1993, pp.115-136. http://revistas.usp.br/discurso/article/view/37959/40686

Bilingual English-German edition of second collection published by the German poet, dramatist, and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode (1780–1806).

The second collection of writings by the German poet, dramatist, and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode (1780–1806), Poetic Fragments was published in 1805 under the pseudonym “Tian.” Günderrode’s work is an unmined source of insight into German Romanticism and Idealism, as well as into the reception of Indian, Persian, and Islamic thought in Europe. Anna C. Ezekiel’s introductions highlight the philosophical significance of the texts, demonstrating their radical and original consideration of the nature of the universe, death, religion, power, and gender roles. The dramas “Hildgund” and “Muhammad, the Prophet of Mecca” are two of Günderrode’s most important works for her accounts of agency, recognition, and the status of women. The three poems included in the collection, “Piedro,” “The Pilgrims,” and “The Kiss in the Dream,” represent the wide range of forms in which Günderrode wrote. They reflect themes of erotic longing and union with the divine, and point to her radical reimagining of death. This bilingual English-German edition is the first volume of Günderrode’s work to appear in English, and will help unearth this rich, complex, and innovative writer for English readers.

Resumo: Hablar de la educación del Yo, es decir, de su formación, es hablar de la co-formación y co-educación del mundo. Traicionando y respetando al mismo tiempo el espíritu de la primera Wissenschaftslehre, Novalis muestra la correspondencia micro-macrocósmica de Yo y Mundo. Para lograr esta correspondencia es necesaria una acción del Yo que, aparentemente, va en contra de su propia actividad, revelándose como una especie de "debilidad". El siguiente trabajo aplica la categoría de debilidad para interpretar el movimiento de Selbstentäußerung que hace posible la nueva posición necesaria de Yo que permitiría al mundo de ser simple mundo y al anthropos de ser macroanthropos. Este mismo mecanismo de debilidad es el que actúa en el contexto político (Glaube und Liebe) e histórico (Die Christenheit oder Europa). Palabras clave: Novalis; Fichte; Tú; formación; imaginación productiva. Abstract: Novalis develops the Fichtean ideas of dialectic between I and Not-I showing a micro-macrocosmic relation between I and World. Education of I corresponds here to forming of I within the World. This paper applies the category of weakness to describe the new necessary position of I as a movement outside itself (Selbstentäußerung): this would allow the world to be world as such without being only a product of I. The paper shows further that the same mechanism of weakness is at work in a political (Glaube und Liebe) and historical context (Die Christenheit oder Europa).

Dieser Artikel setzt sich mit der Beziehung zwischen Ontologie, Kontingenz und Geschlecht in der Frühromantik auseinander und legt den Fokus dabei auf die Figur von Dorothea Schlegel. Obwohl Dorothea Schlegels Werk oft getrennt von den theoretischen Zielen der Frühromantik behandelt wird, argumentiere ich für die Zentralität ihres Romans Florentin im nachkantischen Kontext. Florentin bietet eine wichtige Revision von Friedrich Schlegels Poetik und Metaphysik der Ehe an, sowie der geschlechtsspezifischen Dynamik seiner Idee einer romantischen Symphilosophie. Darüber hinaus lässt sich der Roman als eine Inszenierung grundlegender Aspekte der realistischen Ontologie Markus Gabriels lesen, die angesichts von Beisers Plädoyer
für eine nichtsubjektive Ansicht auf die transzendentalen Ziele der Romantiker für die Romantikforschung in Anspruch genommen werden kann. In Kontrast zu Gabriels Sinnfeldontologie, die Ontologie in letzter Instanz von Geist abhängig macht, insistiert Dorothea Schlegels Florentin allerdings auf die irreduzible Präsenz der Körper und körperlicher Kontingenzen.

Abstract
This article analyzes first how Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) distances himself from Aristotle’s Poetics by positing the figure of tragic hero as the foundation of tragedy in the Grund zum Empedokles [Basis of Empedocles], Annmerkungen zum Oedipus [Remarks on Oedipus], and Anmerkungen zum Antigonae [Remarks on Antigone]. Secondly, the article explores the concept of "catharsis" that the German poet puts forward in these essays. Finally, it discusses the concept of fate in the Remarks, in relation with the possibilities of tragedy in modern times.
Keywords: tragedy, tragic hero, catharsis, destiny, Friedrich Hölderlin.
Resumen
En el siguiente artículo analizaré en primer lugar cómo Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) se distancia de la Poética de Aristóteles al proponer la figura del héroe trágico como fundamento de la tragedia en Grund zum Empedokles [Fundamento para el Empédocles], Annmerkungen zum Oedipus [Comentarios sobre Edipo] y Anmerkungen zum Antigonae [Comentarios sobre Antígona]. En segundo lugar, examinaré la noción de “catarsis” que concibe este poeta alemán en dichos tratados. Finalmente, estudiaré la noción de destino que se formula en los Comentarios en relación con las posibilidades de realización de la tragedia en la época moderna.
Palabras clave: tragedia, héroe trágico, catarsis, destino, Friedrich Hölderlin.

This paper analyses the diagnoses, solutions and means of implementation of an egalitarian social order outlined by Friedrich
Schiller and Gerald Cohen. To accomplish that, both thinkers consider the urgency of eradicating egoism and mutual mistrust through a cultural
transformation of a fraternal type, encouraged by an “aesthetic mood” (Schiller) and a “principle of community” (Cohen). Therefore, the authors
emphasize the significance of an aspect common to their reflections: the struggle for the realization of a “revolution of sentiment”, a tool recognized as the most appropriate to teach human being the
value of fraternity.

Largely neglected today, the work of Karl Philipp Moritz was a highly influential source for Early German Romanticism. Moritz considered the form of myth as essential to the absolute nature of the divine subject. This defence was based upon his aesthetic theory, which held that beautiful art was “disinterested”, or complete in itself. For Moritz, Myth, like art, constitutes a totality providing an idiom free from restriction in the imitation of the divine. This examination offers a consideration of Moritz’s aesthetics and mythography, before turning briefly to consider his influence on the authors of Early German Romanticism. An understanding of the role of Moritz’s thought supports a number of recent claims (Frank, Beiser, Bowie) that challenge the conventional reading of Romanticism. At the same time it allows us to see Romanticism’s unconventional realist theological programme, permitting us to overcome the problematic secularising readings of the movement. I would like to thank Kurt Mueller-Vollmer (Stanford), as well as Fredrick Beiser (Syracuse) and Lars Fischer (Cambridge) for their help with this project.

Revista Ensemble, nº11, 2013, p. 37.

Un des romans les plus célèbres du boom latino-américain pourrait-il être un héritier de la pensée et de l’esthétique du premier romantisme allemand (Frühromantik) ? C’est cette hypothèse qu’explore le présent article en contrastant les fragments des frères Schlegel et de Novalis avec des passages de Marelle où l’alter ego de Cortázar, l’écrivain Morelli, réfléchit au roman total qu’il aspire à créer et que le lecteur a déjà entre ses mains. À travers cette lecture comparée apparaît avec force de quelle façon Julio Cortázar retravaille dans son projet romanesque les principes esthétiques postulés un siècle auparavant par la revue Athenaeum : le fragment comme expression de la totalité, le roman comme genre total capable d’accueillir toutes les disciplines et les arts, l’émergence de la figure du lecteur dans la création du sens, mais aussi le rôle de l’ironie. Ces correspondances concernent également le domaine de la métaphysique, car les personnages de Marelle illustrent la tension entre la rationalité et le sentiment qui ont marqué la pensée romantique. Grâce à cette mise en relation, on observe de quelle façon précisément Marelle s’inscrit dans une tradition philosophique et esthétique européenne qui a marquée la modernité littéraire.