Radical enlightenment in German literature 1771-1811

Chambers, Adam

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/44369 Copy

Description

Title

Radical enlightenment in German literature 1771-1811

Author(s)

Chambers, Adam

Issue Date

2013-05-24T22:09:13Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Niekerk, Carl

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Niekerk, Carl

Committee Member(s)

• Johnson, Laurie R.
• Hilger, Stephanie M.
• Pinkert, Anke
• Rosenstock, Bruce

Department of Study

Germanic Languages & Lit

Discipline

German

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• German Literature
• Jonathan Israel
• Intellectual History
• History of Philosophy
• Spinoza
• Radical Enlightenment
• Moderate Enlightenment
• German Enlightenment
• Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
• Nathan der Weise
• Die Räuber
• Die Verlobung in St. Domingo
• Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim
• Enlightenment Contested
• Democratic Enlightenment
• A Revolution of the Mind

Abstract

The Enlightenment was an intellectual and social movement that had a profound impact on the development of Western society, yet its complexity and impact on literature are not often fully understood. The values of freedom, equality, and brotherhood as well as the rise of the roles of reason, science, and tolerance are products of the European Enlightenment, but the Enlightenment has become a villain blamed for abuses against many of those same principles by many scholars. It is therefore important to understand what the Enlightenment was, and what its true legacy is. This study makes use of recent research on the Radical Enlightenment by Princeton historian Jonathan Israel and others to investigate if German literature of the late Enlightenment supports the idea that the Enlightenment is better understood as having a Radical and a Moderate side. The following works of German literature serve as primary historical evidence in considering Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment hypothesis: Lessing’s Nathan der Weise, Schiller’s Die Räuber, Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, La Roche’s Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim, and Kleist’s Die Verlobung in St. Domingo. Each work is examined for an exchange of Radical and Moderate Enlightenment ideas regarding specific philosophical issues discussed in each work such as religion, politics, nature, aristocratic privilege, and race, among other topics. This study discusses the recent hypothesis of a prominent intellectual historian, as well as scholars from other fields, while also investigating closely the discussion of important philosophical issues in German literature of a time that brought Western society many of the values it still holds today.

Graduation Semester

2013-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44369

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2013 Adam Chambers

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