Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2007. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Diss.--Universität Osnabrück, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 347-357. Index.

Diss. : Philosophie : Bochum : 1982. - Bibliogr. p. 177-185. Index. -

Romantic symbolism is a poorly understood concept. It was first formulated by the Romantics in a variety of contexts. Goethe develops his theory of the symbol most notably in his scientific works. Schelling's approach to the Romantic symbol is firmly rooted in his philosophical writings. Coleridge articulates a Romantic notion of symbolism across his extensive literary criticism. The foundational influence of these related theories of Romantic symbolism can be seen in the artistic, literary, and scientific productions of Romantic minded individuals all over Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. However, the nature and scope of the Romantic symbol as originally formulated by Goethe, Schelling, and others has been obfuscated in unfortunate ways by the contemporary theoretical assumptions and narrow interpretations of recent academic scholarship. This thesis restores the original connotation of the Romantic symbol by identifying the common way in which it is misconstrued: the ontic fallacy.

S’appuyant sur les théories esthétiques des frères Schlegel, de Novalis et de Schelling, ce travail s’attache à analyser les discours esthétiques et scientifiques dans Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion d’E.T.A. Hoffmann et à étudier dans quelle mesure et jusqu’à quel point l’écrivain se réapproprie les réflexions de ces premiers romantiques et s’en distancie. Confronté au philistinisme, aux malveillances d’autrui et à ses démons intérieurs, l’artiste sérapiontique poursuit un idéal tant social que psychique. Rêveurs, fous, enfants ou encore sous influence magnétique, les personnages hoffmanniens sont tous en quête de reconnaissance et d’identité. Polyformes, polymorphes et hétérogènes, centrés sur l’interaction artistique, le travail de création et la réception, Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion créent une sorte d’« œuvre d’art totale » avant la lettre où se mêlent aussi bien les sciences que les arts. / Using the aesthetic theories of the Schlegel brothers, Novalis and Schelling, this thesis examines aesthetic and scientific discourse as it appears in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Serapion Brethren and considers to what extent Hoffmann appropriates early Romantic thought or distances himself from it. Faced with the philistinism and maliciousness of others and with his own interior demons, the Serapiontic artist pursues both a social and psychic ideal. Dreamers, madmen, children or those who are under the influence of magnetidm, Hoffmann’s characters are all seeking recognition and an identity. Polymorphous and heterogeneous, centered on artistic interaction and on the work of creation and reception, The Serapion Brethren is a type of ‘total work of art’ before its time in which the sciences and the arts come together.

S'appuyant sur les théories esthétiques des frères Schlegel, de Novalis et de Schelling, ce travail s'attache à analyser les discours esthétiques et scientifiques dans Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion d'E.T.A. Hoffmann et à étudier dans quelle mesure et jusqu'à quel point l'écrivain se réapproprie les réflexions de ces premiers romantiques et s'en distancie. Confronté au philistinisme, aux malveillances d'autrui et à ses démons intérieurs, l'artiste sérapiontique poursuit un idéal tant social que psychique. Rêveurs, fous, enfants ou encore sous influence magnétique, les personnages hoffmanniens sont tous en quête de reconnaissance et d'identité. Polyformes, polymorphes et hétérogènes, centrés sur l'interaction artistique, le travail de création et la réception, Les Frères de Saint-Sérapion créent une sorte d'" œuvre d'art totale " avant la lettre où se mêlent aussi bien les sciences que les arts.

This study examines the rise, development, and crisis of theological encyclopaedia in nineteenth-century Germany. As introductory textbooks for theological study in the university, works of theological encyclopaedia addressed the pressing questions facing theology as a ‘science’ (Wissenschaft), a rigorous, critical discipline deserving of a seat in the modern university. The project of theological encyclopaedia, I argue, functioned as the place where theological reflection and the requirements of the institutional setting in which that reflection occurred—here the German university—converged. I explore its roots as a pioneering idealist model for organizing knowledge in the German university system in the late eighteenth century. I focus especially on Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), the father of modern Protestantism and principal intellectual architect of the University of Berlin (1810). Schleiermacher’s programme transformed the scholarly theological enterprise into one defined in terms of science. That transformation laid the groundwork for the later historicization of theology, which I investigate in the two predominant ‘schools’ of German university theology in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Hegelian ‘speculative’ school and ‘mediating theology’ (Vermittlungstheologie). Among the latter, I emphasize the remarkable international influence of the Swiss-German Karl Hagenbach (1801–74), whose theological encyclopaedia was among the most widely read theological books in German-speaking Europe from the 1830s through World War I. Finally, I analyze the project’s downfall in the context of Wilhelmine Germany and the Weimar Republic, beset by radical disciplinary specialization, a crisis of historicism, and the attacks of dialectical theology. Throughout, I contend that theological encyclopaedia represented the institutionalization of the idea of theology as science, which furnishes an explanatory grid for understanding the relationship between theology and the university. The project resulted in a powerful synthesis that fundamentally shaped the reigning theological paradigms in nineteenth-century Germany and beyond.