ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how a Kantian idea of the sublime helps in understanding the ways that transcendence is important to the claims of monarchical government, a convenient starting place in studying the transitional nature of the sublime. It explains how the differences between Kantian Idealism and Burkean empiricism are symptomatic of a split that exists in the sublime from the time it is formulated as a discourse in the eighteenth century between the absolutely great and the absolutely small. The sublime of greatness is a conservative influence as regards the shift from a centralized, powerful authority that was concerned with a universally comprehensive body. The body of the king is, in essence, an object that inspires the sublime, though the term “sublime” would only become of use later as an attempt to shore up the authority of a transcendence which no longer seemed viable to many. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
