"Dedicated to the friends of truth".
Essayism as a Method of Thinking from the Early Enlightenment to German Idealism
"Dedicated to the friends of truth". |
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Erfahrung und Vernunft entdecken:
Daß große Ding’ in Kleinen stecken.
(B.H. Brockes, 1740)
Die Versuche
Dich zu greifen ziehen sie aus mit Netzen und Stangen,
Aber mit leisem Tritt schreitest du mitten hindurch.
(Goethe u. Schiller, 1799)
Love of truth (alethophilia) has an important influence on the development of German essayism throughout the 18th and early 19th Century. According to contemporary reflections on the genre, essayism of that period can be described as a form of theoretic prose literature which aims at giving a true portrait of its subject. Originality of thought and clarity of expression are its stylistic ideal.
This project examines essayism as a mode of representing and teaching methods of thinking. I therefore investigate the genre in its historical (i. e. philosophical, aesthetic, sociocultural) context from the Early Enlightenment to German Idealism. The authors’ understanding of truth and their intent to represent and teach the corresponding methods of thinking as well different conceptions of readers determine the structure of essayistic texts.
I intend to write a literary history of essayism between the 1720s and the 1830s based upon case studies. My purpose is to give an impression of the variety of essayistic production (including less-known texts as a supplement to the well-researched "great names" of German essayism) and to show that the debate on a binding ideal of prose becomes more and more controversial around 1800 ("elegant rational prose" vs. "poetic prose") until essayism loses what was once the basis for its important role in public debates in the 18th Century: its "Popularität".