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Prager, Brad. Aesthetic Vision and German Romanticism: Writing Images. Rochester & Woodbridge: Camden House, 2007. viii + 287 pp. £45.00/$75.00. ISBN (13): 987–1–57113–341–0/(10): 1–57113–341–0, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 96–97, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqm151
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Extract
Kant's attack on the sure foundation of the objective world, argues Prager, opened up an abyss; this situation of crisis compelled the Romantics to construct new fundamental principles that described how we perceive; they deal with the subject–object division. The author considers these redefinitions of the subject as experimentations for the sake of stability. After discussion of the debate around Lessing's Laocoon, Kantian and Fichtean philosophy, he moves on to analyse multiple romantic reactions to these issues. Detailed readings of Wackenroder, Tieck, Brentano, Kleist and Eichendorff always emphasise the encounters with visual art in their texts. Two chapters on the painters C. D. Friedrich and P. O. Runge demonstrate the common search for first principles of perception of the diverse art forms. Claiming that the obligation Kant forced upon us to go back to the point of origin, the self, is by no means a dead end but an opening, the author stresses the ongoing importance of romantic preoccupations. He presents his study as a philosophical approach not just in the sense of an historical reconstruction but as a contribution to the philosophy of the subject. He thus claims to extend the project of Romanticism.
