ABSTRACT
Romantic literature has been predominantly interpreted within the traditional context of mimesis. This chapter does not take issue with mimesis as such, but acknowledges its importance for literary studies. It focuses on the relationship between poetry and philosophy to explore Walter Benjamin's, Paul Celan's, and Martin Heidegger's respective readings of Friedrich Hlderlin. In his early Hlderlin essay, Benjamin grounds the notion of the unfinished not so much in the relationship between art and its criticism but within the infinite unfolding of what he calls the poetic law. Benjamin's emphasis shifts critical attention away from the focus on the lamp-like illumination of the poet's profound interiority toward the socially liberating potential of Romantic poetry. Diverging from the mimetic approach that conceptualises literature as continuous representation of the past and the present, Benjamin's nascent theory of literature provides a novel perspective on art: as a break away from the continuity of harmful practices.
