Between Philosophy and Literature. Friedrich Schlegel’s Concept of Romantic Irony in Fragments and in Lucinde

Abstract

The concept of romantic irony developed by Friedrich Schlegel is one of the most powerful and productive elements of the Jena Romanticism, which, to this day, stirs interest among the researchers of the German culture of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. In thus-oriented studies, however, most scholars emphasize the Fragments published by the philosopher in the years 1797–1800, while relegating Lucinde—Schlegel’s controversial novel written in 1799—to the margins of their reflection. Although underappreciated by the academia, Lucinde, in its fundamental assumptions, was supposed to be an exercise in both the theory and the practice of irony. Bearing this in mind, in the present article I attempt to reconstruct Schlegel’s groundbreaking concept by taking into account both these sources. In the analysis, I focus on the notions of dissimulation, dialectics, and reflection: three descriptive categories, which ultimately account for the innovative character of Schlegelian vision of irony.

Keywords

• romantic irony
• dissimulation
• dialectics
• reflection