Irony and Romantic Subjectivity 1

It is still somewhat commonplace to chart the development of philosophical thought in Germany immediately following Kant as consisting in a series of sophisticated and highly complex systematic attempts to make more rigorously “scientific” Kant's own systematic philosophy. ² Thus do Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel still command center stage in most historical considerations of the period. Yet, there existed a competing strand of thought that developed alongside the great philosophical systems of the day in constant reaction against prevailing reductionist tendencies. This counter-movement to German idealism, which developed in Jena as a philosophical salon des refusés during the height of Fichte's influence in the 1790s, has received comparatively little attention. ³ Its major philosophical representatives were Friedrich von Hardenberg (writing under the pseudonym Novalis) ⁴ and Friedrich Schlegel. Both Novalis and Schlegel were also literary minds of the highest order — Novalis, a lyrical poet and poetic novelist, whose Heinrich von Ofterdingen is widely considered a canonical work of German romanticism, and Schlegel, one of the most original and influential literary critics of his time. The literary preoccupations of the Jena school of early German romanticism are not incidental to their philosophical concerns. Two of the main distinguishing features of early romantic philosophy are directly related to the proximity of literary and philosophical concerns. The first of these is the idea that art has an important, if not preeminent, philosophical function. Second, and closely connected with the first idea, is the belief that the form of writing in which philosophy is done and disseminated is itself philosophically crucial. ⁵