From Romanticism to Critical Theory - The Philosophy of German Literary Theory (Hardcover)

Literary theory is now perceived by many as being in crisis because many of its dominant theoretical assumptions proving hard to sustain. This volume offers a view of literary theory, seeing it not as a product of the Franch assimilation of Saussurian linguistics and Russian Formalism into what we term "deconstruction", but rather as an essential part of modern philosophy which begins with the German Romantic reactions to Kant, the effects of which can be traced through to Heidegger, Benjamin and Adorno. Andrew Bowie argues that, contrary to many current assumptions, the central question in contemporary literary theory is really the question of truth. He begins by showing how Kant's and F.H Jacobi's reflection on grounding truth in modern philosophy form the background to the exploration of the relationship between literature and philosophy in early German Romanticism.