skip to content
Impossible individuality : Romanticism, revolution, and the origins of modern selfhood, 1787-1802
ClosePreview this item

Impossible individuality : Romanticism, revolution, and the origins of modern selfhood, 1787-1802

Author: Gerald N Izenberg
Publisher: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©1992.
Edition/Format:  Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Studying major writers and philosophers - Schlegel and Schleiermacher in Germany, Wordsworth in England, and Chateaubriand in France - Gerald Izenberg shows how a combination of political, social, and psychological developments resulted in the modern concept of selfhood. More than a study of one national culture influencing another, this work goes to the heart of kindred intellectual processes in three European  Read more...
Rating:

(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.

 

Find a copy in the library

&AllPage.SpinnerRetrieving; Finding libraries that hold this item...

Details

Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Gerald N Izenberg
ISBN: 0691069263 9780691069265
OCLC Number: 24319460
Description: 356 p. ; 25 cm.
Contents: 1. Two Concepts of Individuality. I). Friedrich Schleiermacher: The Divided Self. II). Wilhelm von Humboldt: The Whole Man. III). Politics and the Psyche. IV). Toward European Romanticism --
2. Friedrich Schlegel. I). Irony as Possession and Demystification of Infinity. II). The Road to Revolution. III). The Birth of Romanticism --
3. William Wordsworth. I). Criminals and Prophets. II). The Road To Revolution. III). The Radical Wordsworth. IV). A Tenuous Resolution --
4. Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand. I). Le Vague des Passions. II). Chateaubriand the Revolutionary. III). The Reversal. IV). Transition: Religion and Selfhood.
Responsibility: Gerald N. Izenberg.
More information:

Abstract:

Studying major writers and philosophers - Schlegel and Schleiermacher in Germany, Wordsworth in England, and Chateaubriand in France - Gerald Izenberg shows how a combination of political, social, and psychological developments resulted in the modern concept of selfhood. More than a study of one national culture influencing another, this work goes to the heart of kindred intellectual processes in three European countries. Izenberg makes two persuasive and related arguments. The first is that the Romantics developed a new idea of the self as characterized by fundamentally opposing impulses: a drive to assert the authority of the self and expand that authority to absorb the universe, and the contradictory impulse to surrender to a greater idealized entity as the condition of the self's infinity. The second argument seeks to explain these paradoxes historically, showing how romantic individuality emerged as a compromise. Izenberg demonstrates how the Romantics retreated, in part, from a preliminary, radically activist ideal of autonomy they had worked out under the impact of the French Revolution. They had begun by seeing the individual self as the sole source of meaning and authority, but the convergence of crises in their personal lives with the crises of the revolution revealed this ideal as dangerously aggressive and self-aggrandizing. In reaction, the Romantics shifted their absolute claims for the self to the realm of creativity and imagination, and made such claims less dangerous by attributing totality to nature, art, lover, or state, which in return gave that totality back to the self.

Reviews

User-contributed reviews

Tags

Be the first.
Confirm this request

You may have already requested this item. Please select Ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway.

Linked Data


<http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24319460>
library:oclcnum"24319460"
library:placeOfPublication
library:placeOfPublication
owl:sameAs<info:oclcnum/24319460>
rdf:typeschema:Book
rdfs:seeAlso
rdfs:seeAlso
schema:about
schema:about
rdf:typeschema:Intangible
schema:name"Littérature et révolutions."
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
rdf:typeschema:Intangible
schema:name"Moi (Psychologie) dans la littérature."
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:about
schema:author
schema:copyrightYear"1992"
schema:datePublished"1992"
schema:description"Studying major writers and philosophers - Schlegel and Schleiermacher in Germany, Wordsworth in England, and Chateaubriand in France - Gerald Izenberg shows how a combination of political, social, and psychological developments resulted in the modern concept of selfhood. More than a study of one national culture influencing another, this work goes to the heart of kindred intellectual processes in three European countries. Izenberg makes two persuasive and related arguments. The first is that the Romantics developed a new idea of the self as characterized by fundamentally opposing impulses: a drive to assert the authority of the self and expand that authority to absorb the universe, and the contradictory impulse to surrender to a greater idealized entity as the condition of the self's infinity. The second argument seeks to explain these paradoxes historically, showing how romantic individuality emerged as a compromise. Izenberg demonstrates how the Romantics retreated, in part, from a preliminary, radically activist ideal of autonomy they had worked out under the impact of the French Revolution. They had begun by seeing the individual self as the sole source of meaning and authority, but the convergence of crises in their personal lives with the crises of the revolution revealed this ideal as dangerously aggressive and self-aggrandizing. In reaction, the Romantics shifted their absolute claims for the self to the realm of creativity and imagination, and made such claims less dangerous by attributing totality to nature, art, lover, or state, which in return gave that totality back to the self."
schema:inLanguage"en"
schema:name"Impossible individuality : Romanticism, revolution, and the origins of modern selfhood, 1787-1802"
schema:numberOfPages"356"
schema:publisher
rdf:typeschema:Organization
schema:name"Princeton University Press"
Close Window

Please sign in to WorldCat 

Don't have an account? You can easily create a free account.

Cancel Forgot your password?