To my way of thinking, one of the most interesting developments in recent American intellectual life has been the rediscovery of, and a renewed appreciation for, the neglected figure of Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829). I suspect--but question whether it is worth taking the time to prove--that the Schlegel revival is in some way connected with Richard Rorty's late attempt to give academic philosophy a decent burial.
I have noticed that recent treatments of Schlegel's legacy (beginning at least as far back as Adam Carter's article in parallax, vol. 4, no. 4 (1998) "'Self-Creation and Self-Destruction': Irony, Ideology, and Politics in Richard Rorty and Friedrich Schlegel") have attempted to offer Schlegel as something of a palliative for those who recognize the significance of Rorty's call for a Pragmatic and Romantic and ultimately post-philosophical approach to life but who--for a variety of reasons--cannot bring themselves to let go of philosophy's lure.
Carter has genuine disagreements with Rorty's politics (which he finds insufficiently left-leaning-radical) and questions the consistency with which the late philosopher presented his views; others, like DePaul University's Elizabeth Millan-Zaibert, author of Friedrich Schlegel and the Emergence of Romantic Philosophy (SUNY 2007), argue that Romantic philosophy in the wake of Schlegel is an attempt to reform the philosophical inheritance bequeathed by Kant and Fichte rather than an attempt to abandon it.
In any case, F. Schlegel emerges from these studies as a formidable intellect whose interests and literary output enrich and deepen our understanding of what Romanticism has to offer us after what Walter Pater termed the "long ennui" induced by the Kantian and post-Kantian attempts to marry philosophy to the model of the natural sciences.
I shall be returning to Pater and Schlegel (among many others) again and again as I attempt to chart New Romantic approaches to life, religion, and literature in subsequent posts.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Not Another Blog!
Oh yes. Another one. Though not intended to replace its sibloglings (The Mazeppist and Ghaffar Khan Society--see below), An American Athenaeum will serve as a repository of material that reflects (in a more academic vein than my other blogs) my three inter-related intellectual projects:
(1) “Islam in the American Grain,” a study of the phenomenon of Romantic Orientalism in American literature and intellectual life since the 18th century; included in this research is my investigation into Norman O. Brown’s late-life turn to Islamic studies.
(2) “The Romantic Roots of Religious Studies,” a re-description of the modern study of religion as inquiry into the religious imagination and, hence, a specific moment in the development of a more general theory of human creativity.
(3) Further development of Modern Qur’anic Hermeneutics, an approach to Qur’anic study which emerged from the early 20th century Egyptian Literary Renaissance (itself a product of Egyptian engagement with British and French Romanticism). I continue to apply the techniques of recent allusion theory and other literary critical and rhetorical tools to unpack Qur’anic meanings.
Some of this material has found its way (and will no doubt continue to do so) into the posts of the Ghaffar Khan Society and The Mazeppist with the provocativeness (even contentiousness) of the mode of Romantic irony that I have termed "Pantagruelism."
I cannot promise that I will not wear my lacerated Swiftian heart on my blogging sleeve when posting to An American Athenaeum, but I shall attempt to tone down the indignation a bit in the interests of minimizing distractions. Commentary upon subjects that beg for satire will continue to be posted at this blog's sibloglings--and, yes, as far as I know, I have this day coined that term.
(1) “Islam in the American Grain,” a study of the phenomenon of Romantic Orientalism in American literature and intellectual life since the 18th century; included in this research is my investigation into Norman O. Brown’s late-life turn to Islamic studies.
(2) “The Romantic Roots of Religious Studies,” a re-description of the modern study of religion as inquiry into the religious imagination and, hence, a specific moment in the development of a more general theory of human creativity.
(3) Further development of Modern Qur’anic Hermeneutics, an approach to Qur’anic study which emerged from the early 20th century Egyptian Literary Renaissance (itself a product of Egyptian engagement with British and French Romanticism). I continue to apply the techniques of recent allusion theory and other literary critical and rhetorical tools to unpack Qur’anic meanings.
Some of this material has found its way (and will no doubt continue to do so) into the posts of the Ghaffar Khan Society and The Mazeppist with the provocativeness (even contentiousness) of the mode of Romantic irony that I have termed "Pantagruelism."
I cannot promise that I will not wear my lacerated Swiftian heart on my blogging sleeve when posting to An American Athenaeum, but I shall attempt to tone down the indignation a bit in the interests of minimizing distractions. Commentary upon subjects that beg for satire will continue to be posted at this blog's sibloglings--and, yes, as far as I know, I have this day coined that term.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
