Key research themes
1. How did German Romanticism negotiate the relationship between Enlightenment rationality and mythological cognition?
This theme investigates the Romantic movement's critical engagement with Enlightenment ideals of reason, particularly its perceived disenchantment of the world, and the Romantic effort to revive mythology as a source of unitive cognition. German Romantics like Schiller, Schlegel, Novalis, and their British counterparts sought to reconcile reason with imagination by reappropriating mythological narratives, viewing them as symbolic gateways to a holistic understanding of human and natural unity. This research area is pivotal for understanding how Romanticism challenged dominant epistemologies by embracing myth as a mode of philosophical and aesthetic insight that transcended rationalism.
2. What role did philosophical idealism and dynamics of matter and life play in shaping German Romantic thought?
This research theme explores German Romanticism’s engagement with evolving philosophies of nature, matter, and life, especially focusing on dynamical idealism as articulated by thinkers like Schelling, Novalis, and Coleridge. Emphasizing the interplay between scientific developments and metaphysical speculation, these thinkers contested mechanistic materialism by positing vital forces or energies (Kraft) as constitutive of living matter. This strand shaped Romantic conceptions of subjectivity, aesthetics, and the unity of nature, integrating empirical inquiry with idealist metaphysics.
3. How did German Romanticism engage with nationalism, identity, and cultural representation through arts and institutions?
This theme encompasses Romanticism’s role in articulating and shaping emerging national identities in 19th-century Germany and Europe more broadly. It focuses on the interplay between culture, politics, and historiography, investigating how museums, folklore, language, and visual arts functioned as vehicles for national consciousness. The work analyzes the complex dynamics of state-sponsored and grassroots nationalist movements intertwined with Romantic aesthetics and historiographical projects.