German Romanticism Essay Example For Students

German Romanticism Essay The following six articles dealing with aspects of romanticism in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain were presented in 1937 and in 1938 before a Group of the Modern Language Association of America, General Topics Il: Critical Study of Romanticism. The Group has no responsibility for their publication.‘ Each discussion represents an individual method of approach to this broad and difï ¬ cult subject. If there is a consequent loss of such unity as might come from a series of articles written by a single author, there may be something gained in variety and comprehensiveness, No one article is written primarily for the specialist in its ï ¬ eld. Such a reader will no doubt ï ¬ nd the treatment of his own subject elementary and all too brief. It is hoped, however, that the same reader will find material to interest him in the discussions of other literatures, and that the elements of comparison and contrast between manifestations of romanticism in the different countries will contribute to broader understanding of the movement as a whole—G. H. THE DOMINANT CHARACTERISTICS OF GERMAN ROMANTICISM German romanticism extends over a relatively long period, since in part it goes back to the ideas of Herder and the Storm and Stress movement in the seventies of the eighteenth century. Within narrower limits, one may assign to it the period from the seventeen nineties to about 1830, when it was challenged by the Young German Movement. Obviously, however, this does not mark the end of its inï ¬â€šuence. To give a brief account of so complex and varied a movement, and to attempt to generalize in the face of marked individual differences is an undertaking beset with pitfalls. In dealing with German romanticism many scholars are reluctant to attempt sharp deï ¬ nition like that of romanticism given by Legouis and Cazamian in their history of English literature.‘ Instead, historians of German literature for some time endeavored to contrast classicism and romanticism for the purpose of bringing out in bold relief the essential characteristics of the latter. Subsequently, various critics became more strongly imbued with the thought that the two movements have much in common. For historically German romanticism proceeded from classicism. The older romanticists, the Schlegels and Novalis, did not think of themselves as being in opposition to classicism, but rather as intent upon supplementing and amplifying it. Consequently, romanticism did not begin in contradiction of classicism, but rather in the course of time became farther and farther removed from it. Thus Walther Linden asserts: The older romanticists renewed the irrationalism of the Storm and Stress movement, and they, too, strove for depth, for profound emotion and for totality freed from all limitations. But they by no means ignored the great intellectual achievements of classicism. In endeavoring to unite the two in a higher synthesis of irrational and rational forces, romanticism cultivated consciousness, reflection and the intellectual element almost more than did classicism itself; hence, in its origins romanticism is more inclined to be philosophically critical than poetimlly creative. On the other hand, romanticism penetrated more sensitively and much more deeply into the psychic, into dreams, and longings, the unconscious, the mysterious, into those regions in which we sense intuitively rather than know by dint of reasoning faculties and processes.‘ Fritz Strich, in his book Klassik und Romantik, attempted to distinguish between romanticism and the classicism of Goethe and Schiller by placing certain salient traits in opposition. According to him, German classicism is marked by unperturbed calmness, unity divided into the manifold, plastic compactness, insistence on the present, living form, deï ¬ niteness, perfection or completeness. By way of contrast he enumer   ated the characteristics of romanticism as restless movement, unity without division but in constant ï ¬â€šux, picturesque boundlessness in inexhaustible transformation, longing without goal, limit, or aim; arabesque, music that has become visible; vagueness, and the inï ¬ nite.‘ Whereas Strich tried to establish sharp lines of demarcation, Julius Petersen maintained that such categories are but relative, and furnish no absolute characterization. Moreover, he asserted that it is impossible to reduce the spirit of romanticism to a pure formula, because that does violence to one of its principal characteristics (namely, eternal becoming).‘ In the Atlwmium (1798—1800), the organ of the early German romanticists, Friedrich Schlegel set forth his conception of romantic literature in part as follows: Romantic poetry (Poesie) is progressive universal poetry. Its aim is not merely to re-unite all separated literary forms and to bring poetry in touch with philosophy and rhetoric; but poetry and prose, creative genius and criticism, subtly reï ¬ ned poetry (Kunstpoesie) and folk »poetry (\iolkspoesie) are to be mingled and blended . . . Romantic poetry is still in the process of development; indeed, its very essence is eternal becoming and not complete realization (Vollendung), . . . It can be fathomed (erschoplt) by no theory, and only divinatory criticism could presume to characterize its ideal. It alone is inï ¬ nite, because it alone is free, and recognizes as its ï ¬ rst law that the caprice (Willkà ¼r) of the poet tolerates no law.‘ By virtue of this deï ¬ nition, border lines vanish between the arts as well as between literary forms—the drama, lyric, and narrative. All arts are brought into touch with each other and merge; for tones, colors, and words were regarded merely as different forms of the one language of the soul which should be able to react to any mood and to any mode of thought. And thus poetry is characterized as music for the inner ear, and painting for the inner eye; but it is soft music, and painting devoid of sharpness of outline (verschwebende Malerei). ° Moreover, transitions from one art to another are to be sought. Then statues may become paintings, paintings become poems, poems become music, and solemn sacred music may become a towering temple.l Romanticists were fond of such expressions as hearing colors and seeing music. There are golden tones, colors speak, and love thinks in sweet musical sounds. This eï ¬ acing of border lines, this dissolution and fusion, is directly connected with other views of the romanticists. For they regarded life as one and inseparable, as a unit. For them religion, philosophy, art, and life are one. Life is poetry, and the world a living entity in which poetry is the essential expression of mankind and of human activity. Thus, early German romanticism stresses the intimate union of imaginative literature, criticism, philosophy, and religion. Poetry becomes a symbol of the inï ¬ nite. And according to Friedrich Schlegel, romantic poetry becomes transcendental poetry, which has for its aim the relation of the ideal and the real, as exempliï ¬ ed among the modems by Goethe. Friedrich Schlegel asserted that poetry and philosophy are an in- separable whole; they share the whole range of great, exalted human nature. They meet, supplement each other, and are blended into a unit.’ Poetry is nearer to the earth, philosophy is holier and more closely related to the deity.† Only the union of the two can lend permanence and abiding value.â€Å" Poetry and philosophy are, depending on the point of View, diï ¬ erent spheres, diï ¬â€šerent forms or factors of religion. Their union can be nothing other than religion Architecture: Ancient and Modern EssayIn the poetic treatment of nature the romanticists manifested fondness for picturesque change and for inï ¬ nite distance which stimulates longing and calls up memories. Theirs was a predilection for the mysterious forest, solitude, stillness, for night which stimulates the imagination, for moonlight which ï ¬ lls man with longing, for clouds which journey afar like dreams, and for twilight which eï ¬ aces sharp outlines and gives rise to vagueness of mood. A signiï ¬ cant aspect of German romanticism is romantic irony. Ludwig Tieck is fond of treating his fantastic creations with a playful, mocking romantic irony. This he deï ¬ nes as the ï ¬ nal perfection of a work of art, as that ethereal, transcending spirit that hovers over poetry. The romanticist wishes to demonstrate that he can not merely fashion but also dispel an emotion or an image. He does not lose himself in his work, but remains a free spirit, having the ability to rise above his creation, and to treat it with playful ridicule. Friedrich Schlegel said: †We must be able to rise above our own love; in our thoughts we must be able to destroy what we worship; otherwise, no matter what other capacities we have, we lack a sense of the inï ¬ nite and of the world.† †A truly free and cultured (gebildet) being should be able to attune himself at will, and become philosophical or philological, critical or poetical, historical or rhetorical, ancient or modern; he should be able to do this quite arbitrarily at any time and to any degree as one tunes an instrument.â€Å" Fundamentally, romantic irony i mplies urbanity and complete freedom, mastery, and a sense of sovereign detachment. Philosophically, it is rooted in Fichte’s idea of the sovereignty of Free Spirit. In practice, romantic irony often produced the impression of insincerity; in some of Heines lyrics it made for dissonance. In the ï ¬ eld of literary criticism Novalis stated that one way of proving that he had understood an author was to be able to act in his spirit.‘The province of criticism, said August Schlegel, is to grasp completely, clearly, and with sharp precision the profound meaning which a creative genius has laid in his work, to interpret it, and thereby to bring less in— dependent but receptive observers to a higher, correct point of view.â€Å" Similarly Wackenroder says: â€Å"Every work of art can be comprehended and grasped inwardly only out of the same emotion which gave rise to it; and emotion can be grasped only by emotion.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ7 Friedrich Schlegel states that criticism is to teach man to comprehend every form of poetry in its classic vigor and fullness, and thus to fructify the imagination.â€Å" Thus romantic criticism or characterization desires to give the already initiated a deeper insight into the inexhaustible spirit of an original poem. It need hardly be said that theory and practice were not always in accord, and that the interpreter at times became a judge. And yet this very eï ¬ ort at recreating an experience, the ability to enter into the spirit of a work of art, enabled August Wilhelm Schlegel to reproduce the spirit of Shakespeare in German translation as no one had done before him. The novel is a genre which a number of romanticists cultivated, because it allowed them the greatest freedom in structure, form, and technique. Friedrich Schlegel regarded it as an admixture of narrative, song, and other forms?0 the best element in the best novels seemed to him to be a more or less veiled self—confession of the author, the fruit of his experience, the quintessence of his lndividuality.‘l Hence he considered Rousseau’s Confession: a most excellent novel.â€Å" On the whole, the German romantic novel is marked by looseness of structure, lack of unity, a wealth of episodes, and discursiveness; it abounds in adventures encountered in rather aimless wanderings. There is a variety of moods which frequently ï ¬ nd expression in lyrical interpolations. The Novella, as an account of striking happenings, conditions, or individuals was cultivated to a high degree of excellence. Friedrich Schlegel considered the Novella admirably suited to the indirect and symbolical portrayal of subjective mood and viewpoint in a most profound and individualistic manner. The drama was ill suited to the romanticist’s dislike of formal restraint; hence, obvious weaknesses are superï ¬ cial, unconvincing motivation; inadequacy of character portrayal; lack of unity; and general looseness of structure. The fate tragedy and the fairy drama are in evidence; in the latter, the dream world is looked upon as the world of actuality, and the world becomes a. dream. One of the ï ¬ nest ï ¬â€šowers of creative romanticism was the fairy tale. The fairy tale appealed to the romanticists because it entered the realm of the fanciful, the imaginative, and the supernatural—which to them was the realm of genuine truth. It represented the fulï ¬ llment of romantic longing; here the romantic spirit was quite untrammeled and magically creative, since in this realm the laws of experience, of time, place, and causality have no validity. The Grimm brothers collected and published folk fairy tales which hitherto had been transmitted orally from one generation to another. Art fairy tales received a stimulus from the popular tale. The rich collection of folksongs published by Arnim and Brentano (18064808) under the title Dc: Knabcn Wundcrham exerted a profound inï ¬â€šuence upon German lyric poetry. It occupies a place in the history of German poetry somewhat comparable to that of Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) in England. In the days of the Storm and Stress movement Herder’s collections and translations of folksongs had stressed the cosmopolitan, international aspects of poetry. But Arnim and Brentano in their collection emphasized the German element, and regarded these songs as expressive of the spirit of the German people. Numerous German lyric poets were inspired to write in the manner of the folksong. As a result, much of the lyric poetry of the period is marked by simplicity, unity, directness, genuineness, and spontaneity. This is of particular importance, because lyric poetry is undoubtedly the most significant creative contribution of German romanticism. Under the stimulus of the wars of liberation, later romanticism became patriotic and nationalistic. The earlier cosmopolitan, individualistic attitude gave way to the desire to subordinate self to the state and the nation. Nationalistic feeling welled up in powerful patriotic lyrics. Men like Fichte, in his detn an die deutschz Nalion, and Kleist, in drama and journalism, were profoundly conscious of the obligation of the individual to the state. The interest in Germany’s past manifested itself in the emphasis upon older German literature and philology, folk lore, folksong, folk fairy tale, and chap—books. The idea of totality and of organic development held by early romanticists was now applied in a new and more realistic manner to the state, society, and history. Nevertheless, the interest in the subconscious, hallucinations, hypnotic suggestion, the occult, dreams, morbidity, the gruesome, the fantastic, the  emotional element, irrationalism, and phantasmagoria persisted. Between early and later romanticism there was a difference of emphasis rather than fundamental opposition of tendencies.