Jean Paul's travels through the galaxy of German literature

• Grant number: 15/03046-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2015
• End date: May 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Oliver Tolle
• Grantee: Juliana Ferraci Martone
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/21129-7 - Jean Paul: the German literary firmament, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This research project could be divided into two complementary moments. The first one consists in an essay regarding the aesthetic theory of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter's (Jean Paul) included in his work Vorschule der Asthetik, and the second one in a translation from selected passages of this theoretical text, first printed in 1804. The characteristics of Jean Pauls aesthetic thought are to be investigated in his work Vorschule der Asthetik, in his lectures held in Leipzig and in the complementary text, printed in 1825, Kleine Nachschule der Asthetik. The theory of humour, developed in such texts, is a type of common centre, in which his thoughts converge. It will be enquired how the failure from philosophy turns into infinite possibilities in the domains of poetry; how Jean Paul converts fantasy (Phantasie) into the primary faculty, and "epistemology" not into a single-principle well concluded system, but into an encyclopaedia of human knowledge. With that in mind, we intend to understand how Jean Paul, situated in the most vivacious intellectual context - oscillating between the 17th century philosophy, the Aufklarung, Fichte's idealism and the German romanticism -, is able to develop his own ideas, that discuss with his epoch and, at the same time, distance themselves from any possible common-place. (AU)