Schiller to Derrida: Idealism in Aesthetics

by Juliet Sychrava

Overview

Schiller to Derrida is a historical critique of literary theory in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Starting with the work of Kant and Schiller, it traces an idealist tradition through nineteenth-century Romantic theory (including Wordsworth and Coleridge) and the New Critics to post-structuralists, notably Derrida. The book argues that these diverse and often apparently radical critics in fact only revise and distort Kant's idealist aesthetics. It shows how this dominant idealism has prejudiced critical opinion against certain non-idealist writers, and takes the example of John Clare as illustration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521131643
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/18/2010
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Schiller and the sentimental tradition; 2. Myths of romanticism; 3. Critics of Clare and Wordsworth; 4. Ut pictura poesis; 5. Post-Kantians and post-structuralists; 6. The peasant poet; Notes; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

Review of the hardback: 'An outstandingly good piece of work: theoretically sophisticated, excellently knowledgeable about German philosophy and aesthetics, and really quite bold and challenging in its querying of a whole range of orthodox Romantic critical assumptions.' Terry Eagleton, Linacre College, Oxford

'This is one of the most exciting and stimulating texts in aesthetics that I have read in a long while.' Stephen Houlgate, DePaul University

From the Publisher

A historical critique of literary theory in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Beginning with Kant and Schiller, Sychrava traces an idealist tradition through 19th-century Romantic theory and the New Critics to the post-structuralists. She argues that these diverse and apparently radical critics in fact only revise and distort Kant's idealist aesthetics. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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