Beyond posthumanism : the German humanist tradition and the future of the humanities / Alexander Mathäs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mathäs, Alexander, 1951- author.

Series:

Spektrum (New York, N.Y.) ; 22.

Spektrum ; 22

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Humanism--Germany--History.

Humanism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 pages).

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Berghahn, [2020]

Summary:

Kant, Goethe, Schiller and other eighteenth-century German intellectuals loom large in the history of the humanities—both in terms of their individual achievements and their collective embodiment of the values that inform modern humanistic inquiry. Taking full account of the manifold challenges that the humanities face today, this volume recasts the question of their viability by tracing their long-disputed premises in German literature and philosophy. Through insightful analyses of key texts, Alexander Mathäs mounts a broad defense of the humanistic tradition, emphasizing its pursuit of a universal ethics and ability to render human experiences comprehensible through literary imagination.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

Introduction

Chapter 1. Signs and Wonders: Th e Humanist Pedagogy of Eighteenth-Century Universal Histories of Mankind

Chapter 2. Religion, Anthropology, and the Mission of Literature in Schiller’s Universalgeschichte

Chapter 3. The Sublime as an Objectivist Strategy

Chapter 4. The Importance of Herder’s Humanism and the Posthumanist Challenge

Chapter 5. Humanist Antinomies: Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris and Torquato Tasso

Chapter 6. Incorporating Change: Th e Role of Science in Goethe’s and Carl Gustav Carus’s Humanist Aesthetics

Chapter 7. Karl Marx’s and Ludwig Feuerbach’s Materialism in Gottfried Keller’s “Kleider Machen Leute”

Chapter 8. Th e End of Pathos and of Humanist Illusions: Schiller and Schnitzler

Chapter 9. Blurring the Human/Animal Boundary: Hofmannsthal’s Andreas

Chapter 10. Humanism and Ideology: Thomas Mann’s Writings (1914–30)

Chapter 11. Between Humanism and Posthumanism: Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf

Conclusion

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781789205640

1789205646

OCLC:

1139925213