Romanticism and Literary Periods

To entertain the prospect of a serious discussion of the concept of period and periodization in literary history and theory is of necessity to confront a number of formidable problems. For our historical moment thinking literature and thinking history confront each other as antagonists on a variety of theoretical and ideological battlefields. Numerous examples show that we can think of literature or art more generally as having a life of its own, with the consequence that it has its own history which is not determined by whatever gives shape to the history of events. This freedom can even be raised to the position of control or ontological primacy, by maintaining that there is no valid category of the historical real. The opposite position can be maintained with equal force, and since each claims to be based on determination in the last instance it is difficult to find a neutral theoretical

Art · Literature · Romanticism · Comparative and World Literature · German Literature and Culture Studies · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography

• The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson

  Open Access•Jack Lynch•Age of Elizabeth in the Age of…•2002

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