Friedrich Schlegels Literary Criticism

Author(s)

Constantino Luz de Medeiros

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-01-19

Examining board members

Regina Lucia Pontieri; Marta Kawano; Renata Philippov; Marcio Suzuki; Karin Volobuef

• Advisor: Regina Lucia Pontieri

Abstract

The present thesis investigates and discusses Friedrich Schlegels concept of literary criticism in order to demonstrate how the German critic, philosopher and philologist contributed to a change in the studies of literature of his age and anticipated many problems of contemporary criticism by postulating the necessity of an approximation between the aesthetic and the historical visions of the literary phenomena. Schlegels contribution to the emergence of a new era of literary criticism lies in his usage of both paradigms of the philosophy of history as well as aesthetics for the understanding of different periods of literature and in his recognition and application of history as a critical category. Schlegels contact with the heritage of the Enlightenment, as well as with the writings of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schiller, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Johann Wolfgang Goethe, among others, influenced the critic to develop a new modus of literary criticism that takes into consideration both the reflexive and the creative activity of the critical spirit. Inserted in this new scientific paradigm, Schlegels activity as a critic and historian of literature is characterized by his constant search for the infinite perfectibility, or to use one of his favorite expressions a longing for the infinite [Sehnsuch nach dem Unendlichen], and is thus the impetus for the complementation [Diaskeuase] of the literary opus with the philosophical reflection. Friedrich Schlegels contributions to the alterations into the way in which literature is to be understood, as well as his effort to establish universal principles for literary criticism places his name in the ranks of the forerunners of modern literary criticism. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/21563-8 - The concept of literary criticism of Friedrich Schlegel
• Grantee: Constantino Luz de Medeiros
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate