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Although primarily known as an eminent historian of Russia, Nicholas Riasanovsky has been a longtime student of European Romanticism. In this book, Riasanovsky offers a refreshing and appealing new interpretation of Romanticism's goals and influence. He searches for the origins of the dazzling vision that made the great early Romantic poets in England and Germany--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Novalis, and Friedrich Schlegel--look at the world in a new way. He stresses that Romanticism was produced only by Western Christian civilization, with its unique view of humankind's relationship to God. The Romantic's frantic and heroic striving after unreachable goals mirrors Christian beliefs in human inability to adequately address God, speak to God, or praise God. Further, Riasanovsky argues that Romantic thought had important political implications, playing a key role in the rise of nationalism in Europe. Offering a historical examination of an area often limited to literary analysis, this book gracefully makes a larger historical statement about the nature and centrality of European Romanticism.
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The Emergence of Romanticism This page intentionally left blank The Emergence of Romanticism NICHOLAS V. R I A S A N O V S K Y New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland Madrid and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1992 by Oxford University Press, Inc. First published in 1992 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1995 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Riasanovsky, Nicholas Valentine, 1923The emergence of romanticism / Nicholas V. Riasanovsky. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN (M9-507341-X; 0-19-509646-0 (pbk) 1. English literature—18th century—History and criticism. 2. Romanticism—Great Britain—History—18th century. 3. German literature—18th century—History and criticism. 4. Literature, Comparative—English and German. 5. Literature, Comparative—German and English. 6. Romanticism—Germany—History—18th century. 7. Christianity and literature. 8. God in literature. I. Title. PR447.R48 1992 820.9'145—dc20 91-46113 Permission to reproduce translations of poems from the following works is gratefully acknowledged: From Hymns to the Night by Novalis, translated by Richard C. Higgins. Copyright © 1978, 1984, 1988 by Richard C. Higgins, by permission of the publishers, McPherson & Company, Kingston, New York. From Russian Metaphysical Romanticism by Sarah Pratt. Copyright © 1984 by Stanford University Press. Reprinted by permission. From Friedrich Schickel's Lncinde and the Fragments, translated by Peter Firchow. Copyright © 1971 by the University of Minnesota Press. Reprinted by permission. 1 35798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Sir Isaiah Berlin and the late Dr. H. G. Schenk This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments As I grow older, appropriate acknowledgments become more numerous and crowding. This is especially true of the present study, based as it is on an interest of very long standing and wide compass. Whereas some of my debts can be found in the footnotes—and two even appear in the dedication-— others (notably to my wife and to so