Novalis' Apocalyptic Visions. From Enlightenment to the End of Times

Abstract

This article reassesses Novalis’ critical position towards the Enlightenment. Traditionally, Novalis has been considered one of the spearheads of the German reaction against the Enlightenment. However, recent scholarship has nuanced the poet’s reactionary attitude, pointing out certain agreements, concordances and negotiations between the philosophical movements of the eighteenth century and Novalis’s thinking. Most of these recent readings would agree that, according to Novalis’ understanding of history, Enlightenment was necessary, even beneficial. This paper draws attention to some texts that are usually ignored in this debate to demonstrate that Novalis’ regard of nlightenment was not so positive as late scholarship asserts. This investigation analyses Hymnen an die Nacht and Europa side by side. Although these two texts seem completely different in their form and purpose, a same trope is dominant in both writings: the Apocalypse, the end of time(s) and the birth of a new world. This new world is a Golden Age: both the eternity where Novalis meets his Beloved in an afterlife wedding and the peaceful kingdom where all nations reunite. To conclude, the article shows that Novalis understood the Enlightenment as the main obstacle for the coming of that Golden Age. No reconciliation, then, is possible.

Keywords

• novalis
• counter - enlightenment
• apocalypse
• europa
• mysticism