Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode

<p>This thesis looks at poetic metaphysics in the work of the Romantic poet and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806). There has hitherto been no attempt to write Günderrode into a <em>Problemgeschichte</em> that would account for her significance as both a poet and a phi...

詳細記述

書誌詳細
第一著者: Raisbeck, J
その他の著者: Hilliard, K
フォーマット: 学位論文
言語:English
German
出版事項: 2019
主題:
_version_ 1826315123725172736
author Raisbeck, J
author2 Hilliard, K
author_facet Hilliard, K
Raisbeck, J
author_sort Raisbeck, J
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis looks at poetic metaphysics in the work of the Romantic poet and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806). There has hitherto been no attempt to write Günderrode into a <em>Problemgeschichte</em> that would account for her significance as both a poet and a philosopher in the late eighteenth century. This thesis recontextualises Günderrode in the aftermath of the <em>Pantheismusstreit</em> of the 1780s. Günderrode’s work is underpinned by series of metaphysical commitments that correspond to Spinozist panentheism, and specifically to the variant that emerged with Herder’s vitalist reading of Spinoza. When viewed in this context, Günderrode emerges as the most consistent adherent to panentheism not just in Romanticism, but also in the period more generally.</p> <p>Panentheism is an attractive construct since it lies between deism and deterministic materialism (the latter carrying associations with fatalism and atheism) and presents a heterodox way of retaining certain cherished concepts, such as teleology, perfectibility, and the development of the self. This thesis interprets Günderrode’s recourse to panentheism as significant because her political texts cannot be understood without presupposing a metaphysical grounding of reality, since they make use of an understanding of individual agency that rests on a form of moral universalism. Broadly speaking, Günderrode’s more metaphysical texts are engaged in a project of naturalisation: of re-writing the individual into nature, as a riposte to extreme forms of scientific empiricism and instrumentalising reason. The logical endpoint of this project is that panentheism absorbs materialism entirely: it becomes a form of spiritualised materialism, inflected with Platonic and Neoplatonist ideas. Günderrode’s distinctiveness also lies in how far she pushes this idea of naturalising the individual, to the point where nature and the human are no longer separate orders of being. Rather, all is subsumed into the subjectivity of nature. </p>
first_indexed 2024-03-06T22:39:47Z
format Thesis
id oxford-uuid:5b24d68b-74b3-41d4-bd61-178a6e59ad8f
institution University of Oxford
language English
German
last_indexed 2024-12-09T03:20:13Z
publishDate 2019
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:5b24d68b-74b3-41d4-bd61-178a6e59ad8f2024-11-11T11:44:42ZPoetic metaphysics in Karoline von GünderrodeThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:5b24d68b-74b3-41d4-bd61-178a6e59ad8fPoetryGerman LiteratureGerman PhilosophyEnglishGermanHyrax Deposit2019Raisbeck, JHilliard, KRobertson, RNitschke, C<p>This thesis looks at poetic metaphysics in the work of the Romantic poet and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806). There has hitherto been no attempt to write Günderrode into a <em>Problemgeschichte</em> that would account for her significance as both a poet and a philosopher in the late eighteenth century. This thesis recontextualises Günderrode in the aftermath of the <em>Pantheismusstreit</em> of the 1780s. Günderrode’s work is underpinned by series of metaphysical commitments that correspond to Spinozist panentheism, and specifically to the variant that emerged with Herder’s vitalist reading of Spinoza. When viewed in this context, Günderrode emerges as the most consistent adherent to panentheism not just in Romanticism, but also in the period more generally.</p> <p>Panentheism is an attractive construct since it lies between deism and deterministic materialism (the latter carrying associations with fatalism and atheism) and presents a heterodox way of retaining certain cherished concepts, such as teleology, perfectibility, and the development of the self. This thesis interprets Günderrode’s recourse to panentheism as significant because her political texts cannot be understood without presupposing a metaphysical grounding of reality, since they make use of an understanding of individual agency that rests on a form of moral universalism. Broadly speaking, Günderrode’s more metaphysical texts are engaged in a project of naturalisation: of re-writing the individual into nature, as a riposte to extreme forms of scientific empiricism and instrumentalising reason. The logical endpoint of this project is that panentheism absorbs materialism entirely: it becomes a form of spiritualised materialism, inflected with Platonic and Neoplatonist ideas. Günderrode’s distinctiveness also lies in how far she pushes this idea of naturalising the individual, to the point where nature and the human are no longer separate orders of being. Rather, all is subsumed into the subjectivity of nature. </p>
spellingShingle Poetry
German Literature
German Philosophy
Raisbeck, J
Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode
title Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode
title_full Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode
title_fullStr Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode
title_full_unstemmed Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode
title_short Poetic metaphysics in Karoline von Günderrode
title_sort poetic metaphysics in karoline von gunderrode
topic Poetry
German Literature
German Philosophy
work_keys_str_mv AT raisbeckj poeticmetaphysicsinkarolinevongunderrode