Abstract
The article recasts the pre-history of philosophy as it is understood by G. W. F. Hegel, so as to examine what a “Lyrical Presentation of History” might have been. The essay argues that Hegel’s treatment of history at the end of his Lectures on Aesthetics suffers from an inattention to the specific philosophical content of modern lyrical poetry, which can be located in his claim that lyrical poetry is primarily concerned with the subject. In contrast, the author argues that Hegel’s account ought to have led him to hold that lyrical poetry is primarily concerned with subjective, alienated worlds, which he calls “counterworlds”. The essay ends with a brief treatment of three poems by Paul Celan to show how this shift in the meaning of lyrical poetry would have led Hegel to give greater weight to lyrical poetry in his theory of history.
Highlights
The article recasts the pre-history of philosophy as it is understood by G
I argue that Hegel’s account ought to have led him to hold that lyrical poetry is primarily concerned with subjective, alienated worlds, which I call “counterworlds.” I end with a brief treatment of three poems by Paul Celan to show how this shift in the meaning of lyrical poetry would have led Hegel to give greater weight to lyrical poetry in his theory of history
I begin by situating Hegel’s understanding of the importance of art, poetry, within the understanding of temporality and historicality that he advances at the end of the Phenomenology of Spirit
Summary
I begin by situating Hegel’s understanding of the importance of art, poetry, within the understanding of temporality and historicality that he advances at the end of the Phenomenology of Spirit. there are slight differences in the accounts of the history of art in the Phenomenology and the Aesthetics, if we examine either account on its own, we will come to the same conclusion: it is somewhat odd to believe that lyricism, that most poetic form of poetry, has anything interesting to say at all about history. Their conversion is by no means an alchemical transmutation or transubstantiation; recollection is certainly not a foreign catalyst (see PS, ¶¶677-680) To put this into the technical terminology of the Aesthetics, the recollective character of religion (and art) provides the basis upon which externality can pass into internality through the identity of both in the concept. The treatment of poetry at the end of the Aesthetics does not really continue the historical development of paradigmatic arts through symbolic, classical and romantic art as the treatments of architecture, sculpture, painting and music had done Poetry, because it is at least partially ideal, does not merely represent the succession of time. While Hegel suggests more than one way in which poetry accomplishes the gathering and reconciling work of mediation, in his attempt to explain how poetry must give way to conceptual knowledge, he is forced to disown his own accomplishment
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