French Literature Reviews - 2026
Anthology of German Romanticism
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
The Poetic Shape of the World: An Anthology of German Romanticism
Éditions Corti, 2003. 760 pages
ISBN : 2-7143-0816-3
28 Euros
Review published in Acta Fabula (Spring 2001, vol. 1, no. 3): D. Peyrache‑Leborgne, “The Romantic Totality”
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Conceived by three young specialists (Olivier Schefer, Laurent Margantin, and Charles Leblanc), this anthology fills a significant gap, both through its introductions to what German Romanticism actually was and through the sheer scope of the authors and works cited (the vast majority of which were previously unpublished). The chronology, bibliography, and index will allow readers to navigate the volume with ease.
Romanticism cannot be contained within a single formula or axiom. Friedrich Schlegel's famous letter to his brother confiding that he would need 2,000 pages just to set down his own definition of the word "romantic" is, in all its extravagance, an illustration of the inherent ambiguity attached to this concept.
In literary history, few words have been as cheapened as Romanticism. Once its representatives had passed away, surrealism fed the discourse and imagery of advertising. As for the term "romanticism," it was continually co-opted throughout the nineteenth century by "descendants" who often knew nothing of that early romanticism which emerged in Germany at the turn of the century. Overlaid in a sense by subsequent works and discourses that laid claim to this aesthetic, *Romantik* ended up evoking merely a very vague set of literary notions, a nebula of sentiments that had little to do with the early writings of its most illustrious representatives. A curious phenomenon even occurred: people came to interpret, read, and even publish the latter—whether Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, or Tieck—solely through the hazy idea they had formed of romanticism, a literary movement supposedly concerned only with the universe of dreams and fantasy, entirely detached from the real world.
Why retrace the footsteps of romanticism? What is the point of reading authors who speak to us of times, places, and hopes that no longer exist? To dream for a few hours, some will say, escaping the world and our burdensome tasks. Anywhere out of the World. But here, the dream is the reverse side of reason, just as the body is the lining of the soul. The early German romantics fascinate us because they were the freest and most inventive of all our moderns.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: What is Romanticism?
1. The Inner Event 9
1. 1. From Word to Idea 9
1. 2. On Sturm und Drang 13
1. 3. Immediate Knowledge 18
1. 4. Romantic Immediacy 23
1. 5. The Completion of Criticism 26
1. 6. From the Discovery of the Self to That of the Unconscious 30
1. 7. The Inner Event 35
2. Romantic Knowledge 38
2. 1. Romantic Affinities: Friendship 39
2. 2. Moralizing the Universe 41
2. 3. The Question of the Sciences: From Chaos to Harmony 45
2. 4. The Functions of the System, or Grand Romantic Health 54
2.4.1. System and Combinatorics 54
2.4.2. Music of Chaos 59
2.4.3. The Body-System: Technique and Religion 63
3. The Aesthetics of Totality 67
3. 1. Problems of Definition 67
3. 2. History and Revolution, or Romantic Modernity 70
3. 3. Romantic Philosophy 76
3.3.1. The Fichtean Matrix 78
3.3.2. Nature, Dialogue, and Imagination 82
3. 4. The Infinite Work 85
3.4.1. A Poetics of the Creative Subject 85
3.4. 2. Poetry, Philosophy, and Art Criticism 87
3.4. 3. Incompleteness and the Question of the Fragment 92
3.4. 4. The Total Work of Art and Aesthetic Mixes 94
I. FROM CRITICAL REASON
TO ABSOLUTE REASON
1. The Problems of Kantianism 99
1. 1. The Question of Freedom 99
1. 2. The Pitfall of the Noumenon 104
Text 1: K. Reinhold: “The thing-in-itself is representable not as an object, but as a concept” 109
Text 2: G. E. Schulze: “The thing-in-itself is contradictory” 113
Text 3: S. Maimon: “The thing-in-itself is impossible” 122
2. Sturm und Drang 127
2. 1. General Considerations 127
2. 2. The Problem of Taste 127
2. 3. From Paradigm to Instant 129
2. 4. Intersubjective Space 130
2. 5. The Faustian Spirit 132
Text 4: J. G. Herder: “The current condition of man is presumably the transitional space uniting two worlds” 135
Text 5: J. G. Hamann: “Poetry is the mother tongue of humanity” 143
Text 6: F. H. Jacobi: “Propositions on the subjection and freedom of man” 155
Text 7: G. A. Bürger: “The dead ride fiercely” 163
3. Idealism 168
3. 1. The Synthesis of Thought and Being 168
3. 2. The Infinity of the Self and Openness to Totality 170
3. 3. The Romantic Totality 173
3. 4. Perspectives 176
Text 8: J. G. Fichte: “The Three Principles of the Science of Knowledge” 178
Text 9: Novalis: “Being does not express identity” 186
Text 10: F. W. J. Schelling: “Reconciliation of realism and idealism” 197
Text 11: Fr. Schlegel: “All truth is relative; all knowledge is symbolic; philosophy is infinite” 203
Text 12: G. W. F. Hegel: “Philosophy as the totality of knowledge” 221
II. RELIGION AND SENTIMENT
1. The Romantic Quest for the Absolute 225
1. 1. The Primacy of Ontology over Epistemology 225
1. 2. Sources of Romantic Religiosity 230
Text 1: J. G. Fichte, “Freedom requires an infinite existence” 233
Text 2: W. H. Wackenroder / L. Tieck: “He who believes in a system has eradicated universal love from his heart” 236
Text 3: Novalis: “God is love. Love is the supreme reality – the primordial ground” 241
Text 4: F. W. J. Schelling: “God is the immediate cause of all art” 246
Text 5: H. von Kleist: “Do your duty! This proposition contains the doctrines of all religions” 248
2. The Sentiment of the Infinite 252
2. 1. Religion as the Moral Action of the Self 252
2. 2. Religion as Sentiment 255
2. 3. The Intuition of the Infinite 257
Text 6: Fr. Schlegel: “Every relation of man to the infinite is religion” 261
Text 7: F. D. E. Schleiermacher: “Religion is sentiment, a taste for the infinite” 268
Text 8: J. G. Fichte: “Religion is the intimate spirit that permeates and quickens each of our thoughts and actions” 274
Text 9: Novalis: “God Himself is actual for us only through faith” 277
3. Mythology, Christianity, and the World Soul 281
3. 1. Romantic Theophany 281
3. 2. Mythology and Aesthetics 283
3. 3. God as Becoming 284
Text 10: J. G. Fichte: “God as the moral order of the world” 286
Text 11: Fr. Schlegel: “Mythology is the hieroglyphic expression of surrounding nature” 293
Text 12: Novalis: “It seems to me that from the abyss / An echo answers our grief” 297
Text 13: Jean Paul: “There is no God” 302
Text 14: F. W. J. Schelling: “Every finite is merely the modification of the infinite” 308
Text 15: G. W. F. Hegel: “Desire is the aspiration toward religion” 315
III. ROMANTIC SCIENCE
1. A Renaissance of the Philosophy of Nature 323
1. 1. Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and the Leibnizian Heritage 323
1. 2. An Active Empiricism 326
1. 3. The Question of the System 330
Text 1: Schiller: “The world and the thinking creature” 332Text 2: Kant: “On the necessary subordination of the principle of mechanism to the teleological principle in the explanation of a thing as a natural end” 338
Text 3: F. W. J. Schelling: “Nature is merely the visible organism of our understanding” 342
Text 4: Goethe: “Theory of the metamorphosis of plants in all its dimension” 345
Text 5: Hemsterhuis: “That order is relative, and that there is no such thing as order in general” 355
Text 6: Novalis: “The idea of order [...] stems from our way of thinking in our current state” 360
2. The Experimental Fragment 364
2. 1. Fragmentation as Method 364
2. 2. The Science of the Fragment 366
Text 7: Fr. Schlegel: “Precious stones are mineral flowers” 368
Text 8: J. W. Ritter: “Our task is to be first men” 380
Text 9: Novalis: “Mathematical force is the force of organization” 387
Text 10: Novalis: “Medicine must become something entirely different” 391
Text 11: Hölderlin? / Hegel? / Schelling?: “The supreme act of reason [...] is an aesthetic act” 397
3. Science and Art – Poetic Landscape and Historical Landscape 400
3. 1. The Original *Tekhnè* 400
3. 2. From Goethe to Schelling: Art as the Apogee of Science 402
3. 3. The Question of Representation 406
3. 4. Poem of the Earth or End of Art? 408
Text 12: Goethe: “The author recounts the history of his botanical studies” 411
Text 13: Novalis: “Goethe is the premier physicist of his time” 415
Text 14: Ph. O. Runge: “Letter to Goethe, July 3, 1806” 420
Text 15: C. G. Carus: “Letter on the physiognomy of mountains” 428
Text 16: A. von Humboldt: “Culture erodes something of the natural and primordial character” 433
IV. ROMANTIC AESTHETICS 439
1. Fundamental Problems of Romantic Aesthetics 439
1. 1. Ancients and Moderns 439
1. 2. From Neoclassicism to Romanticism 440
1. 3. The Birth of Aesthetics as an Autonomous Discipline 444
Text 1: Schiller: “The ultimate end of art is the presentation of the supersensible” 447
Text 2: Hölderlin: “Art is the first child of human beauty, of divine beauty” 452
Text 3: A. W. Schlegel: “Beauty without character is unthinkable” 460
Text 4: Novalis: “Superior works of art are displeasing” 462
Text 5: A. W. Schlegel: “The poetry of the Ancients was characterized by possession; ours is defined by aspiration” 464
Text 6: Jean Paul: “As inverted sublime, humor” 477
Text 7: Fr. Schlegel: “Witz is an explosion of compressed spirit” 484
Text 8: Novalis: “The productive force of the imagination” 489
Text 9: F. W. J. Schelling: “Aesthetic intuition is intellectual intuition become objective” 496
Text 10: K. W. F. Solger: “Irony is the most intimate essence of all art life” 501
2. Poetology 514
2. 1. Poetry and Philosophy: A New Alliance 514
2. 2. The “poetry of poetry” 516
2. 3. The Romantic Novel and the Poetic Tale 518
2. 4. Reflexive and Poietic Criticism 521
2. 5. Art Poetry and Nature Poetry 522
Text 11: Fr. Schlegel: “Romantic poetry is progressive universal poetry” 524
Text 12: A. W. Schlegel: “Art and romantic poetry express the mysterious aspiration to chaos” 526
Text 13: Fr. Schlegel: “Poetry brings the gods to Earth” 528
Text 14: Novalis: “Poetry is ultimately the key to philosophy” 537
Text 15: Novalis: “It is truly a quite foolish thing to speak and write” 542
Text 16: W. H. Wackenroder: “The language of words is a great gift from heaven” 545
Text 17: G. H. Schubert: “This language of abbreviations and hieroglyphs” 549
Text 18: Fr. Schlegel: “This is one of those books that judge themselves” 551
Text 19: Fr. Schlegel: “Among us moderns, criticism and literature were born together” 558
Text 20: L. Tieck: “The poets of Provence were the models for German, French, and Italian poets” 563
3. Music and Plastic Arts 568
3. 1. Music and Poetry 568
3. 2. Landscape Painting and Natural Religion 570
3. 3. Gothic Architecture and the Middle Ages 573
3. 4. Correspondence of the Arts and the Total Work of Art 575
Text 21: W. H. Wackenroder: “The enthusiasms of painters and poets” 577
Text 22: Ph. O. Runge: “A work of art that is not founded on our own eternal existence does not endure” 582
Text 23: Ph. O. Runge: “The point [...] comes from God” 592
Text 24: C. D. Friedrich: “Only the narrow-mindedness of heartless art critics [...] makes them believe that one and only one path leads to art” 592
Text 25: H. von Kleist: “One has the impression, while gazing at it, of having one's eyelids cut off” 603
Text 26: E. T. A. Hoffmann: “Highly detached thoughts” 604
Text 27: W. H. Wackenroder: “Music is the only art that reduces the most diverse and opposed movements of our soul to a single, beautiful harmony” 609
Text 28: Fr. Schlegel: “Gothic architecture can directly present the infinite” 615
Text 29: Ph. O. Runge: “Dialogue on the analogy between colors and sounds” 620
Text 30: A. W. Schlegel: “...paintings would transform into poems, poems into music...” 623
V. HISTORY AND POLITICS
1. A Romantic Approach to History 627
1. 1. From the *Aufklärung* to Romanticism 627
1. 2. Aesthetics of History 630
1. 3. History and Combinatorics 633
1. 4. From the Historical Stage to the Romantic World 636
Text 1: J. G. Herder: “Another philosophy of History for the education of humanity” 639
Text 2: J. G. Fichte: “All individuals are part of the great unity of pure spirit” 642
Text 3: Fr. Schlegel: “Condorcet and the philosophy of History” 646
Text 4: Fr. Schlegel: “On the earliest migrations of peoples” 650
Text 5: J. Görres: “Germany and the Revolution” 654
2. The *Polis* and the Question of the State 658
2. 1. Critique of the State 658
2. 2. From the Poetic State to the Absolute State 661
2. 3. The Question of the Nation 664
Text 6: Fr. Schlegel: “There must be a State, and it must be republican” 666
Text 7: Novalis: “Man must obey only his own laws” 670
Text 8: A. Müller: “Man cannot be conceived outside of the State” 676
Text 9: Schiller: “The Aesthetic State” 682
3. Utopia and New Mythology 685
3. 1. Utopia and Revolt 685
3. 2. “The poetic shape of the world” 687
Text 10: Novalis: “A new golden age with a dark and infinite gaze” 691
Text 11: F. W. J. Schelling: “One can seek in higher speculative physics the possibility of a future mythology and symbolism” 695
Chronology 701
Bibliography 709
Thematic Index 725
Conceived by three young specialists, this volume fills a significant gap through its introductions to what German Romanticism actually was and through the sheer scope of the authors and works cited. The chronology, bibliography, and index allow readers to navigate the volume with ease. The collection addresses the complex philosophical, aesthetic, and scientific inquiries that defined the movement, challenging common misconceptions that reduce these early writings to a nebula of sentiments detached from the real world, while featuring authors such as Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, and Tieck.
The texts assembled within this anthology trace the evolution of German Romantic thought from critical philosophy to absolute reason, exploring intersections between art, religion, and the philosophy of nature. Readers interested in the historical development of modern aesthetics, idealism, and the conceptual frameworks surrounding the romantic totality may find this volume particularly illuminating. The early German romantics fascinate modern readers because they were among the freest and most inventive of all our moderns.