The Temporal Aside: “Transzendentale Buffonerie” in Two Works of Novalis

Abstract

Expanding on Friedrich Schlegel's multifarious account of irony, this article examines a further form of irony in Novalis's “Wenn nicht mehr Zahlen und Figuren” and his “Monolog.” The article argues that there is an ironic relationship between the temporality portrayed within these literary works and the temporality that structures them, that is, their “transcendental temporality.” The ironic relation of these two literary temporalities resists theoretization and requires instead a figural approach.