Title Pretexts for writing : German Romantic prefaces, literature, and philosophy / Sean M. Williams

Published Lewisburg : Bucknell University Press, 2019

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Description 1 online resource Series New studies in the age of Goethe New studies in the age of Goethe. Contents Introduction: What prefaces are not : pedantic notes -- Chapter 1. Goethe : a playful and resistive set of preface strategies -- Chapter 2. Jean Paul: autoprefacing -- Chapter 3. Hegel : prefatorial polemic becomes philosophy Summary "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 "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 Notes Electronic version record Subject Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 -- Criticism and interpretation Jean Paul, 1763-1825 -- Criticism and interpretation Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 -- Criticism and interpretation SUBJECT 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 Jean Paul, 1763-1825 fast Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 fast Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832 fast Subject German literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism. Prefaces -- History and criticism LITERARY CRITICISM / General. German literature Prefaces Genre/Form Electronic books Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book Author Bucknell University Press. ISBN 1684480663 9781684480661

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