The Persistence of Romanticism
Essays in Philosophy and Literature

This volume, first published in 2001, argues that Romantic thought remains central to both artistic work and philosophical understanding.

Richard Eldridge (Author)

9780521800464, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 February 2001

264 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.474 kg

"What is impressive about Eldrige's work is that he is able to keep an eye on the important literary legacy of Romanticism without failing to provide sharp analysis of the central philosophical commitments that shaped early German Romantic philosophy, for example, anti-foundationalism and mediality." Philosophy Today, Elizabeth MilliÂn-Zaibert

These challenging essays in this volume, first published in 2001, defend Romanticism against its critics. They argue that Romantic thought, interpreted as the pursuit of freedom in concrete contexts, remains a central and exemplary form of both artistic work and philosophical understanding. Marshalling a wide range of texts from literature, philosophy and criticism, Richard Eldridge traces the central themes and stylistic features of Romantic thinking in the work of Kant, Hölderlin, Wordsworth, Hardy, Wittgenstein, Cavell and Updike. Through his analysis he shows that Romanticism is neither emptily literary and escapist nor dogmatically optimistic and sentimental. This is the first serious philosophical defense of the ethical ideals of Romanticism and will appeal particularly to all professionals and students in philosophy, literature and aesthetics who are interested in what, philosophically, literature can show that philosophy cannot say.

1. Introduction: the persistence of Romanticism
Part I. Kant and Post-Kantian Romanticism: 2. Kant, Hölderlin, and the experience of longing
3. Kant and the value of absolute music
4. How is the Kantian moral criticism of literature possible?
5. Hölderlin's ethical thinking: 'the processes of the actual' in 'Heidelberg'
6. Internal transcendentalism: Wordsworth and 'a new condition of philosophy'
Part II. Twentieth Century Philosophical Romanticisms: Wittgenstein, Cavell and the arts: 7. Hypotheses, criterial claims, and perspicuous representations: Wittgenstein's 'remarks on Frazer's The Golden Bough'
8. How can tragedy matter for us?
9. Althusser and ideological criticism of the arts
10. 'A continuing task': Cavell and the truth of skepticism
11. Plights of embodied soul: dramas of sin and salvation in Augustine and Updike
12. Cavell and Hölderlin on human immigrancy.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Literature: history & criticism [DS]