Romantic irony

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The romantic irony is an aesthetic theory for the creation of works of art, which was negotiated by the theorists of romanticism especially under that name. It describes an aesthetic process that consists in reflecting the production conditions of art in the work of art itself, (or in Friedrich Schlegel's words) depicting what is producing with the product . The work of art should be kept in suspension from a constant alternation between self-creation and self-destruction , and in relation to both content and formal elements.

Problematization

With Friedrich Schlegel in particular, German Romanticism developed its own and rather idiosyncratic theoretical concept of irony in art, especially in literature. Its exact definition - and a practical derivation - is particularly difficult due to the rather vague and often seemingly contradictory theoretical definitions by the romantic theorists. I.a. Adam Müller took up Schlegel's conception and expanded it.

The feasibility of this theoretical artistic process is controversial; Above all, Ludwig Tieck's dramatic implementation of the fairy tale Puss in Boots is often used as an example. ETA Hoffmann's work is also repeatedly seen as an example of a practical implementation of romantic irony. However, this assumption is also controversial, as Hoffmann's knowledge of the literary theoretical and literary aesthetic writings of Schlegel cannot be clearly demonstrated.

Since then, the main controversy has been whether the use of a romantic irony technique should serve to objectify the respective work of art or, on the contrary, allow subjective arbitrariness in the work of art. Romantic irony does not simply mean the ironic breaking of romantic aesthetic elements, rather it counts itself among these elements of romantic aesthetics. Romantic irony cannot be completely separated from processes of aesthetic illusion breaking, nor can it be simply equated with such - the subsequent disruption of initially established aesthetic illusion is part of their repertoire, but also the subsequent undermining of previously established positions.

Above all, romantic irony is a historically so-named aesthetic technique; it does not describe a timeless and independent type, but elements of romantic irony can also be found outside of romantic aesthetics (under other names).

Romantic irony in Friedrich Schlegel

Schlegel's concept of objectivity

The idea of ​​(artistic) objectivity is not itself clearly defined. Around 1800 this idea was booming among German theorists: the search for an absolute truth (and reality), i.e. for an objective one, and the question of its possibility in general, was hotly debated. Schlegel understood objectivity in an emphatically aesthetic sense. Objectivity for him means the inner correspondence of the work of art, its perfect form, its perfect, beautiful organization , the completeness of the connections and the right measure of the relationships in it, between general [m] and individual [m] (Schlegel). Schlegel tries to determine the inner organization of (at its time) modern art, its proportions, its style from freedom as the principle of the individuality of artist and work of art. Freedom and individuality are of course reminiscent of subjective arbitrariness, but Schlegel is far from being irresponsible (see below). The problem with this definition is the connection between an organizational principle of art and the principle of freedom. Here Schlegel resorts to Fichte's philosophy.

The transcendental standpoint Fichte

According to Johann Gottlieb Fichte , the objective world is a non-ego posited by the ego and in an inseparable interrelation with it . The ego is thus determined by setting itself apart from the external, the non-ego; accordingly, the boundary around the ego also defines the non-ego and vice versa. But if the ego turns to this relationship, then it becomes aware that the interaction between ego and not-ego is basically an interaction of the ego with itself (Fichte). Fichte calls this point of view, since the real and the ideal are actually one and the same in the ego, transcendental .

This term was not new in Schlegel's time, but purposely refers to an identical term in Immanuel Kant . With transcendental , Kant describes an attitude of reflection that is no longer directed only towards the objective mode of being of objects, but always considers it in connection with the subject of knowledge . When asked about the objective, the individual point of view came to the fore.

For Fichte, the transcendental standpoint generally means the form of the cyclical of reason, the reciprocal interaction of the ego, which was discussed above. For Fichte, the ego is determined from two directions of movement: a centrifugal, creative striving that emerges from itself and a centripetal striving that returns to itself and thus determines and limits itself.

The transcendental in Schlegel

Schlegel sees the essence of the transcendental standpoint in the dialectical process contained therein: a synthesis is formed from thesis and antithesis. He now transfers this transcendental point of view to poetry: sitting down, stepping out of oneself and returning to oneself, that is, reflecting describes his basic conception of irony. For Schlegel, too, the creative force is determined from two poles: the positive, creative striving out of enthusiasm and enthusiasm (cf. Plato ) and the negative, limiting, correcting and restricting striving. For Schlegel, irony is a constant alternation between self-creation and self-annihilation , thus also the cyclical form of Fichte: a reflection, a change, whose limbo he also describes as self-limitation . Irony is therefore not a nullifying skepticism, but the intermediate position between poetic enthusiasm and skepticism; Irony is the mastery of artistic creation - and this is where Schlegel's concept of freedom comes into play again - irony is the freedom of man and artist from himself or from a false or too strong attachment to the artistic object and the will to express himself (Strohschneider-Kohrs ). Formed to the point of irony - a term that Schlegel often uses in his later writings - thus also means a degree of perfection which, precisely because of its perfection, is permeated with self-criticism and can turn into something opposite.

Schlegel's three definitions of irony

That constant alternation between self-creation and self-destruction , self-restraint (Schlegel) is the first of three basic concepts of irony in Schlegel's Athenaeum, which, however, all build on one another; it thus describes the relationship between author and work of art.

This is followed by Schlegel's understanding of irony as poetic reflection , according to which modern poetry not only has to unite its material in artistic reflection and self-reflection, but also has to present itself in every representation. It must therefore represent what is producing with the product , be the poetry of poetry , must reflect the relationship of the work of art to its object and to itself. Schlegel names the buffo and the parekbase as formal possibilities , ie a level of reflection that is to be emphasized in a work and that names the artist, the conditions and principles of its creation and representation.

Schlegel's third conception of irony is more symbolic and philosophical. In irony everything is only a sign, a means of looking at the whole, irony is a symbolic understanding of everything individual and necessarily limited being as part of the infinite abundance of life, the awareness of eternal agility, of the infinitely full chaos. For Schlegel, philosophy is also the actual home of irony ; Irony is a philosophical, not a poetic ability (Schlegel), so not the usual rhetorical, but Socratic irony - which does not convey fixed knowledge, but aims to achieve its own reflection in the changing stream of question and answer. Perfect irony ceases to be irony and becomes serious , says Schlegel. Because she questions herself, she can be funny, but in her constant will to such self-criticism she achieves a higher level of seriousness. In that original Socratic sense […] irony means nothing else than this astonishment of the thinking mind about itself, which often dissolves into a faint smile . (Schlegel)

literature

  • Ernst Behler : Classic irony. Romantic irony. Tragic irony. To the origin of these terms . Darmstadt 1972, ISBN 3-534-05741-4 .
  • Paul de Man : The Concept of Irony. In: Ders .: Aesthetic Ideology. Minneapolis 1996, ISBN 978-0-8166-2204-7 , pp. 163-184.
  • Fritz Ernst : The romantic irony. Schulthess, Zurich 1915, DNB 362471622 , (dissertation).
  • Helmut Prang: The Romantic Irony. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1972, ISBN 3-534-05404-0 .
  • Ingrid Strohschneider-Kohrs: The romantic irony in theory and design . Tübingen 1960, DNB 454937148 .
  • Peter Szondi : Friedrich Schlegel and the romantic irony. In: Ders .: Schriften II. Ed. V. Jean Bollack et al. a. Frankfurt am Main 1978, ISBN 3-518-07485-7 , pp. 11-58.
  • Werner Wolf: Aesthetic illusion and the breaking of illusions in storytelling. Theory and history with an emphasis on English illusion-disrupting storytelling. Tübingen 1993, ISBN 3-484-42132-0 , p. 566 ff.