Romanticism: A German Affair

Description

The renowned scholar Rüdiger Safranski’s Romanticism: A German Affair both offers an accessible overview of Romanticism and, more critically, traces its lasting influence, for better and for ill, on German culture. Safranski begins with the eighteenthcentury Sturm und Drang movement, which would sow the seeds for Romanticism in Germany. While Romanticism was a broad artistic, literary, and intellectual movement, German thinkers were especially concerned with its strong philosophical-metaphysical and religious dimension. Safranski follows this spirit in its afterlife in the work of Heinrich Heine, Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, and through the later artistic upheavals of the twentieth century. He concludes by carefully considering Romanticism’s possible influence in the rise of National Socialism and the student revolt of 1968. Romanticism: A German Affair is essential reading for anyone interested in the power of art, culture, and ideas in the life of a nation. Contents Translator's Foreword Author's Preface Book One: Romanticism Chapter One: Romantic starting point Chapter Two: From political to aesthetical revolution Chapter Three: The age of scribblers Chapter Four: Fichte and the Romantic desire to be an I Chapter Five: Ludwig Tieck Chapter Six: Novalis Chapter Seven: Romantic Religion Chapter Eight: Mythology and the Beautiful Chapter Nine: Poetical politics Chapter Ten: Romantic discontent with normality Chapter Eleven: Setting out and breaking off Book Two: The Romantic Chapter Twelve: Looking back at the chaos of ideas Chapter Thirteen: Wagner and the Young German Chapter Fourteen: Nietzsche on Wagner: art's first circumnavigation of the world Chapter Fifteen: Life, nothing but life Chapter Sixteen: From the Magic Mountain down to the plain Chapter Seventeen: Romanticism accused Chapter Eighteen: The catastrophe and its Romantic interpretation Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index About the Author