Pretexts for Writing German Romantic Prefaces, Literature, and Philosophy / Sean M. Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Seán M. (Seán Martin), 1985- author.

Series:

New studies in the age of Goethe.

New studies in the age of Goethe

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jean Paul, 1763-1825.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831--Criticism and interpretation.

Jean Paul, 1763-1825--Criticism and interpretation.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832--Criticism and interpretation.

Prefaces.

German literature.

Prefaces--History and criticism.

German literature--18th century--History and criticism.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (242 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lewisburg : Bucknell University Press, 2019.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"In this incisive, original book, S. Williams reads prefaces to German literature and philosophy around 1800 as pretexts for writing, examining three of the most remarkable preface-writers of that era--Goethe, Jean Paul, and Hegel--in the contexts not only of German, but also European print culture, thought, and literature"-- Provided by publisher.

"Around 1800, print culture became a particularly rich source for metaphors about thinking as well as writing, nowhere more so than in the German tradition of Dichter und Denker. Goethe, Jean Paul, and Hegel (among many others) used the preface in order to reflect on the problems of writing itself, and its interpretation. If Sterne teaches us that a material book enables mind games as much as it gives expression to them, the Germans made these games more theoretical still. Weaving in authors from Antiquity to Agamben, Williams shows how European-and, above all, German-Romanticism was a watershed in the history of the preface. The playful, paradoxical strategies that Romantic writers invented are later played out in continental philosophy, and in post-Structuralist literature. The preface is a prompt for playful thinking with texts, as much as it is conventionally the prosaic product of such an exercise"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Abbreviations

A Note on Translations

Introduction What Prefaces Are Not: Pedantic Notes

CHAPTER ONE. Goethe: A Playful and Resistive Set of Preface Strategies

CHAPTER TWO. Jean Paul: Autoprefacing

CHAPTER THREE. Hegel: Prefatorial Polemic Becomes Philosophy

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-68448-066-3

OCLC:

1100970598