Title The anxiety of autonomy and the aesthetics of German orientalism / Nicholas A. Germana

Published Rochester, New York : Camden House, 2017 ©2017

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 266 pages) Series Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture. Contents What Is Enlightenment? -- Moral Feeling -- The Philosophy of Art -- The Poetic State -- The Life of the Notion -- The End of Art Summary "German orientalism has been understood, variously, as a form of latent colonialism, as a quest for academic hegemony in Europe, and as an effort to diagnose and treat the ills of modern Western culture. Nicholas Germana identifies a different impetus for orientalism in German thought, seeing it as an effort to come to grips with the Other within German society at the turn of the nineteenth century and within the dynamics of subjectivity itself. Drawing largely on work by feminist scholars, the book uncovers an anxiety at the core of Kantian and post-Kantian thought, thus shedding light on its derogation (or elevation) of Oriental cultures. Kant's philosophy of freedom is a construction of modern, Western masculinity. Reason, which alone can make freedom possible, subverts and orders chaotic nature and protects the rational subject from the enervating influences of the senses and the imagination. The feminized, sexually-charged Orient is a threat to the historical achievement of Western male rationality. Germana's book emphasizes aesthetics in the German orientalist discourse, a subject that has received little attention to date. In this tradition of German thought, aesthetics became a form of spiritual anthropology, ordering and classifying societies, races, and genders in terms of their ability to master the senses and the imagination, forces that undermine rational autonomy, the very source of human (i.e. masculine) dignity."--Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 -- Influence SUBJECT Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 fast Kant, Immanuel 1724-1804 gnd Subject Orientalism -- Germany -- History Philosophy, German. East and West -- History SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General. PHILOSOPHY -- History & Surveys -- General. East and West Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) Intellectual life Orientalism Philosophy, German Deutsch Orientalisierende Literatur Ästhetik Philosophie SUBJECT Germany -- Intellectual life. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85054607 Subject Germany Deutschland Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781787440609 1787440605

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