Romantic Irony Research Articles

Irony in earnest: rethinking Hegel’s critique of romantic irony

ABSTRACT In the so-called ‘irony debate,’ one of the most infamous polemics of modern intellectual history, G.W.F. Hegel accuses his German romantic contemporaries of being ‘nicht im Ernst’—not in earnest—with respect to irony. Given how this complaint is lodged alongside other, highly charged accusations (e.g. ‘hypocrisy,’ ‘absolute sophistry’ and ‘evil’), the unsurprising consensus among scholars today is that Hegel’s critique does injustice to the philosophically rich account of romantic irony. Acknowledging this vindication of romantic irony, however, I want to revisit and revise this criticism in a way that makes sense of the seemingly paradoxical claim that earnestness, rather than being the opposite of irony, is the very condition of it. Having clarified both the robust normativity of romantic irony as well as the specific shortcomings of Hegel’s critique in the first part of this paper, I then articulate what I call the ‘earnestness condition,’ or EC, according to which irony is in earnest when (a) it has substance, and (b) is grounded in its substance. Developing this account both advances a largely stalled scholarly discussion of the irony debate and develops a conceptual language useful for distinguishing between thick and thin kinds of irony in use today.

Tieck’s Alternative Theory of Romantic Irony

ABSTRACT: This paper reexamines Ludwig Tieck’s theoretical contributions to Romantic irony and contrasts Tieck’s underacknowledged importance in this area with Friedrich Schlegel’s usual characterization as the progenitor of widely adopted ironic theory. With a unique understanding of dialogic self-creation, Tieck’s 1795 epistolary novel William Lovell proleptically critiques features of what will become the dominant Romantic-ironic worldviews articulated by Schlegel. More specifically, Tieck’s novel stresses the existence of a blind spot within the otherwise circumspect character of irony, foregrounding the risk of egoistic behavior that arises from Schlegel’s positive evaluation of constant subjective activity. Wary of such a risk, Tieck’s theory of irony represents a road not taken with respect to irony’s use as a tool to control and limit the self.

Narrative Point of View and Romantic Irony in Melville’s “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids”

The short fiction “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” is written in first-person narration as a diptych in which Melville ponders the human spiritual crisis in the industrialized world. This article explores the contradiction of the narrator’s spiritual liberation and others’ exclusion employing the narrator’s shifting experiencing and retrospective viewpoints, with the engagement of Romantic Irony. Through the dual viewpoints, the subjectivity and uncertainty of the first-person Romantic ironist manifest the uncertainty of the human spiritual crisis in industrialization. Melville questions human spirits and technology to elevate his ambiguous narration and philosophical concerns.

Homo viator Olav Audunssøn

Sigrid Undset published the historical novel entitled Olav Audunssøn (The Master of Hestviken) relatively shortly after the international success of her trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. The reception process of the second work was strongly affected by the reader’s expectation horizon, which turned out to be inadequate in view of the complexity of artistic values of the text and its psychological aspects. The article focuses on the structure of the fiction and points out the function of so called romantic irony. It also provides a brief overview of Czech translations of Undset’s works.

ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილის პოლიტიკური ორიენტაციისა და მრწამსის შესახებ

The political orientation and creed of Nikoloz Baratashvili are some of the issues that caused the scientific interest of the researchers of his life and work. They tried and are still trying to find out the attitude of the poet towards such historical events, which are the signing of the 1783 Georgievsky treaty by the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti to get the Russian protectorate and its political consequences (loss of the country’s independence, abolition of the royal throne...). This research of scientists is characterized by one feature – when discussing the issue, the poetry by Nikoloz Baratashvili, especially his historical poem “Fate of Kartli” is chosen. As it is known, the characters of this poem – King Erekle and his judge Solomon Lionidze have a heated polemic on the controversial issue of entrusting the fate of the country to Russia and are trying to justify their conflicting attitudes.
 Recently, remarkable works of Georgian literary scholars were published, the authors of which (T. Doiashvili, L. Bregadze) consider such attempts to clarify the poet’s political orientation and creed as inappropriate. According to them, the main mistake here was and is the fact that the artistic character of texts chosen for analysis is not taken into account, in particular, the worldview principle of romantic irony, which is characteristic of romantic authors and which is reflected in their prose or poetic texts, is neglected.
 We fully share the argumentation and point of view of the abovementioned scholars and consider that the study of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s political creed should be continued in such a way as to distinguish him, on the one hand, as a romantic poet, and on the other hand, as a historical person. In research, we should focus not on his poetry, but on the biographical material that we have mainly as a result of the critical study of the memories of the poet’s contemporaries and other sources, and his epistolary heritage –nonfiction, which is more reliable for our intended purposes than his poetic works.
 The presented article is an attempt to clarify the poet’s political orientation and creed on this basis.

Narrative Point of View and Romantic Irony in Melville’s “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids”

The short fiction “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” is written in first-person narration as a diptych in which Melville ponders the human spiritual crisis in the industrialized world. This article explores the contradiction of the narrator’s spiritual liberation and others’ exclusion employing the narrator’s shifting experiencing and retrospective viewpoints, with the engagement of Romantic Irony. Through the dual viewpoints, the subjectivity and uncertainty of the first-person Romantic ironist manifest the uncertainty of the human spiritual crisis in industrialization. Melville questions human spirits and technology to elevate his ambiguous narration and philosophical concerns.

On the Roots of Romantic Irony and the Pleasure of Being (Mis)understood

Abstract The aim of this paper is twofold. In the first instance it is an attempt to offer a new perspective from which to reflect on the meaning and philosophical presuppositions of Friedrich Schlegel’s defence and use of (romantic) irony, as well other related notions: humour, wit, and other comic devices. I propose to situate this perspective within a revaluation of pleasure and joy. To do this in a new way (although not in opposition to authors such as Manfred Frank, Elizabeth Millan-Zaibert, or Gary Handwerk), I refer to one of Schlegel’s earliest texts devoted to The Aesthetic Value of Greek Comedy from 1794. In addition, this paper questions the extent to which Schlegel’s position is tenable in the aftermath of the ‘death of God’. For this, I reflect briefly on the ways in which Nietzsche’s writings and notion of life-affirmation respond to Schlegel’s vindication of romantic irony.

„Wiadomości Brukowe” (1816–1822) – From Satire to Absurdity. Some Comments

At the beginning of the 19th century, the absurd as a term functioned primarily in the Latin version,and in the colloquial meaning it was understood as ‘nonsense’. The article discusses itsuses in „Wiadomości Brukowe”, one of the most important and most representative periodicalsof the early 19th century for the intellectual climate of Vilnius. Its authors, embracing the traditionsof Enlightenment satire and early Romantic irony, linked absurdity with the observation of reality,as exemplifi ed by three texts analyzed in the article: an advertisement of the sale of Honestyand Conscience, a criticism of the Pacanowska Academy, and an advertisement of a subscriptionto the project of developing a machine for beating peasants. The absurd becomes here a significant element of journalistic description. The use of the absurd was not a staple in „WiadomościBrukowe”, but it was visible enough to help establish a tradition of the magazine and to allow itsauthors to gain important social and aesthetic experience.

Interpretation of Schumann's 'Humoreske' in B flat major, op. 20, within the context of Jean Paul Richter's romantic concept of 'humor'

This research began with the realization that Schumann's idea of "humor" (which the title of his work implies) might be very different from our own, and should be understood within the cultural and philosophical context of his time. To this end, I decided to base my research on the writings of celebrated author Jean Paul Richter, whom Schumann idolized, and who devoted a large section of his "Introduction to Aesthetics" to the subject of humor; the profound psychological connections between Schumann and Jean Paul, which I point out, are also very revealing. I went on to summarize some concepts within Jean Paul's definition of humor which seemed the most naturally analogous with the act of musical interpretation, such as romantic irony, "the Absurd" and "humorous sensuousness". In the final part of the research I put these ideas to use by experimenting with the interpretation of different sections of the "Humoreske"; in the written exposition I provided recordings to demonstrate the different possibilities which arise from this analogy, as well as a written explanation of the thought process behind each one. For the presentation I will demonstrate this at the piano. These recordings are the "final" result of my research in the sense that they represent a clear answer to the research question. However, while the process of conscious experimentation was illuminating- and can be repeated with any other work by the composer!- I believe that the most important result of this research would be impossible to document or present here: that is, the more subtle, subconscious way in which understanding Schumann's connection with the spirit of his time will continue to influence my playing.

The Japanese preoccupation with Osamu Dazai in the twenty-first century

This paper considers the underlying factors that dictated Osamu Dazai's adaptation of Hamlet in 1941, The New Hamlet, alongside the intellectual background against which he rewrote the play. Despite his reference to the critique of the Romantic interpretations of the play, Dazai's protagonist is represented as an indecisive man who is seized by what Carl Schmitt called ‘Romantic irony’, namely an impulse to suspend practical judgements. Underlying such a representation of Hamlet is Dazai's lack of a criterion of justice (or belief systems), which can be seen as a tragedy not only for Dazai and his contemporary young people but also for young people living in twenty-first century Japan.

Dialectics between Consciousnesses and Illusion in Keats’s Poem The Eve of St. Agnes

The research paper attempts to explore the dialectics between consciousness and illusion in John Keats’s poem The Eve of St. Agnes. The contradiction between the conscious state and dream in the poem shows the incongruency and ambiguity that gives a fine vein of Romantic irony in the poem. It is a stance of isolated skepticism carried by an author towards his or her work, typically manifesting in literary self-consciousness and self reflection. The symmetrical paradox between two different realms of human life in the poem exposes the inherent contradictions provoked the interplay between reality and dream. To reveal the relationship and hostility between the ideal and the real empathically focusing into the contradictory existence of ultimate human reality is a key to Romantic irony. Madeline's spirit to celebrate her chastity on the eve of St. Agnes enables her to celebrate consciousness as the bliss of ritual. The paper revolves around the unearthing of the inherent contradiction in the poem in reference to the theoretical illumination of Romantic irony using the critical perspectives of Schlegel, Colebrook and Mellor.

Critical Reassessments: “My Heart Laid Bare”: A Deep Rereading of Daniel Hoffman’s Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe

Critical Reassessments: “My Heart Laid Bare”: A Deep Rereading of Daniel Hoffman’s <i>Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe</i>

Romantyzm — kino — Janion. Omówienie książki Krzysztofa Kopczyńskiego „Paradygmat polskiego romantyzmu w uniwersum filmowym”

The aim of the review article is to discuss Krzysztof Kopczyński’s book The Polish Romantic Paradigm in the Universe of Film. It is the first monograph in film studies grounded in the methodological and interpretative findings of Maria Janion and her interpretation of the paradigm of Polish Romanticism. Kopczyński analyzes Polish cinema through exactly that lens. Part I of the book is an extensive presentation of theoretical and methodological tools related to romantic philosophy and the romantic paradigm used by the scholar, and provides an overview of the state of research. Part II focuses on the relationship between cinema and Romanticism. It also includes a presentation of the state of research in this area, the position of film in Janion’s research and a discussion of Marcin Maron’s monographs Romanticism and Cinema. Part III contains the analysis of works of film whichdeal with the issue of suicide. Kopczyński looks at them through the conceptual triad of melancholy, tragedy and romantic irony.

Transpozicija biblijske legende u delu Žertva Avramova Vikentija Rakića

The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the dramatic elements in the religious epic Žertva Avramova (Abraham's Sacrifice) by Vikentije Rakić. By interpreting the thematic-motif preoccupations of Rakić's religious epics-the cult of family and sentimental friendship-we conclude that Žrtva Avramova, which in literary studies has different genre designations, contains dramatic elements reflected in the ambivalence when conceptualizing fictional characters who, as much as they are embedded in the family microcosm, are also devoted to Divine providence. Mother Sarah, whose role in the biblical template is non-existent in relation to the religious epic, is portrayed alongside her son Isaac, the representative of an activist concern for his own existence. In the end, we have Father Abraham who experiences a strong internal conflict, the origin of dramatic literature. Dramatic elements, therefore, can be seen in the family theme from which the dramatic situation arises, shaping the characters, and less so in the formal features-such as the sporadic didaskalia found in Žertva Avramova (Abraham's Sacrifice) and the structure of the work itself. The latter can be divided into dramatic phases: prologue, plot, culmination, peripetia, and dramatic outcome. The paper will specifically explore the relationship between the Old Testament model, inheriting the cosmic vertical God-Man dynamic, and the religious epic introducing the horizontal human plane-Man-Man. According to initial premises, this relationship implies the presence of (pre)romantic irony or romantic irony at its inception, which, within the studied epic, reflects an ambivalent attitude towards the biblical moral-didactic teaching.

"Гофмановский комплекс" в рассказе Э. По "Без дыхания"

In the article, based on the theory of intertextuality (Roland Barth, Julia Kristeva), the question of the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on the formation of the satirical style of Edgar Allan Poe in the cycle of stories Grotesques and Arabesques (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1839)). The author argues that Hoffmann’s recognizable plots (“The Sandman”, “Princess Brambilla”, “Elixirs of Satan”, etc.), which were popular during this period in Europe, as well as the relevance of the problems of his works and the original style, could become a source of not only satire (the story “Loss of Breath” is written as a parody of works from Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, where Hoffmann was also published during this period), but also samples for the early works of Poe. The hypothesis of the article is the statement about the possibility of applying in American literature, on the example of Poe’s story “Loss of Breath”, the previously developed methodology of “Hoffmann’s complex” (characterized by the integrity of the reproduced content, the unity of issues, images and stylistic techniques), which allows highlighting the traditions of the German romantic in Poe’s works, where they are not obvious. The features of Hoffmann’s poetics are considered in Poe’s “Loss of Breath” (1832) in the form of “Hoffmann’s complex”, which includes the following components. Firstly, it is the transformation of the romantic plot (Hoffmann’s “Adventure on New Year’s Eve”), which Poe reinterprets ironically, depriving it of an infernal context. He rethinks the idea of a two-world and mixes the real-life and theatrical narrative planes by combining the puppet element with the human one, by characters’ behaving theatrically, by acting out the roles that are imposed by society (a corpse, a criminal), by replacing household details with theatrical attributes (a false jaw, two buslles, a false eye). Secondly, it is the actualization of the problem of mechanization of life and man, which is realized in the opposition of the living – the inanimate (“The Sandman”, “Princess Brambilla’) and is aimed at criticizing society, which devalues a person and turns him into a “living” corpse, a doll. In contrast, objects come to life, and abstract concepts (breath) become materialized. Another manifestation of the problem of mechanization of life and man is the comparison of a man with an animal, and an animal with a man. Thirdly, it is the use of stylistic techniques characteristic of Hoffmann (“The Golden Pot”, “Little Zaches Called Cinnabar”, “Princess Brambilla”, etc.): hyperbole, self-explanatory names, romantic irony and grotesque, which are characterized by a sharp change of the serious and the frivolous, a combination of the objective and the subjective, a continuous parody, as well as the use of alogism – reasoning that violates the laws of logic, when something terrible (execution, autopsy of the body) is described as funny, etc.

Post-structuralism

The article draws a conceptual distinction the (French) structuralism of the 50’s–60’s and the post-structuralism of the 70’s, which are discussed as overlapping in their intellectual paths; their mutual dynamics is defined as a reaction of the intelligence to the pressure of depersonalized unified schemes within the logic of structuralism against free improvisation and loose interpretation instead of total explanations in the post-structuralism interpretation. The article establishes a conceptual identity of the paradoxical nature between post-structuralism (and deconstructionism, which is homogeneous and identical thereto in a number of aspects), on the one hand, and constructionism with its specific process of language dismantling – social/ideological languages, social group dialects, on the other hand, which naturally leads the authors to the analysis of the paradoxicality principles, defined by post-structuralism (five principles of paradoxicality of Gilles Deleuze – paradox of regress, paradox of sterile reiteration, paradox of neutrality, paradox of absurd, paradox of Levi-Strauss); poststructuralists’ paralogisms are examined through paradoxical denotation; the late Roland Barthes’ phenomenon of paradoxicality, becoming a plot-forming principle of narration, is analyzed. Poststructuralism is conceptualized in the article as the first decisive step of post-modernism; the affinity of post-structuralist and postmodernist commitment to parody, game and irony is stated; the theory of language games in post-modern interpretation is explored; one of those games – a game of carnival – is explored within the diachronic retrospective; the affinity of parody and carnival tradition of post-structuralism and post-modernism to the romantic irony of the XIXth century and its inconsistency with the popular culture of laugh is established. The genesis of poststructuralism and post-modernism is connected with the ideological restart of the Western society before the “very end” of the Resistance ideas and the disappointment of the left European intellectuals in the “great legends” and illusions of Marxism. The blurred concepts of relativism are connected with the mutual disproportion of different layers of historical experience.

Granice ironii – granice iluzji. O ontologii postaci w „Eugeniuszu Onieginie” Aleksandra Puszkina i Piotra Czajkowskiego

The article presents the characteristics of the romantic irony employed in Alexander Pushkin’s digressive poem Eugene Onegin and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s opera titled alike. The analysis of selected fragments of the libretto which were based on the verses constituting the digressive (rather than storytelling) layer of Pushkin’s work allow one to conclude that the operatic version of Onegin expresses exactly the same kind of romantic irony which was used by the romantic poet. The authors of the libretto achieved something typical of Pushkin’s irony – a flow of the border between illusion and disillusion and an effortless crossing of the dialectic borders of time and space. They did so by multiplying and splitting into layers the “I” of the main character which functions both in the dramatic plane and beyond it, taking over the functions which in Pushkin’s text were performed by the narrator.

Irony and Sarcasm

Irony and Sarcasm

Imagery, Irony, and Transcendence in Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's The Queen's Tiara

Imagery, Irony, and Transcendence in Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's <i>The Queen's Tiara</i>

THE CONTEXTS OF KYIV ROMANTICISM: ‘UKRAINIAN GERMAN’ MYKOLA HULAK

The paper highlights the personal profile of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood member M. Hulak. The main focus is on studying his contribution to the development of Ukrainian romanticism. The tools of the theory of literary life allowed finding the optimal theoretical approach for systematization and comprehension of the available research materials. The biographical and cultural-aesthetic context plays an important role, emphasizing a number of essential aspects of the activity undertaken by the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. The research material also includes facts concerning education, social skills, and life principles that M. Hulak acquired in his university days. In the work, the study of Hulak’s education and national-cultural identity agrees with the understanding of his romantic interests, in particular his special interest in folk customary law and the peculiarities of the national character.&#x0D; The paper aims to determine the main circle of Hulak’s Kyiv acquaintances, characterizes his important organizational, educational, and scholarly initiatives, clarifies the psychological motives of these actions. As far as it is possible, based on some facts and indirect evidence, the literary intentions of M. Hulak, not fully realized due to the arrests of the members of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood in 1847, have been analyzed. The cultural ideas adopted during his studies at the university, combined with romantic self-awareness, significantly determined the features of aesthetically marked behavior. The manifestations of romantic irony and grotesque were the key features of M. Hulak’s personal positioning in his communication with the investigators.