Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia , livre ebook

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2012

Écrit par
Novalis ,
traduit par David W. Wood

Publié par
State University of New York Press

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322

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

01 février 2012

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791480700

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

3 Mo

Novalis is best known in history as the poet of early German Romanticism. However, this translation of Das Allgemeine Brouillon, or "Universal Notebook," finally introduces him to the English-speaking world as an extraordinarily gifted philosopher in his own right and shatters the myth of him as a mere daydreaming and irrational poet. Composed of more than 1,100 notebook entries, this is easily Novalis's largest theoretical work and certainly one of the most remarkable and audacious undertakings of the "Golden Age" of German philosophy. In it, Novalis reflects on numerous aspects of human culture, including philosophy, poetry, the natural sciences, the fine arts, mathematics, mineralogy, history, and religion, and brings them all together into what he calls a "Romantic Encyclopaedia" or "Scientific Bible."

Novalis's Romantic Encyclopaedia fully embodies the author's own personal brand of philosophy, "Magical Idealism." With meditations on mankind and nature, the possible future development of our faculties of reason, imagination, and the senses, and the unification of the different sciences, these notes contain a veritable treasure trove of richly poetic and philosophic thoughts.
Acknowledments

Introduction

Text by Novalis: Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia

Appendix: Extracts from the Freiberg Natural Scientific Studies (1798/99)

Notes to Introduction

Notes to Text by Novalis

Notes to Appendix

Select Bibliography

Index

Voir

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

01 février 2012

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791480700

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

3 Mo

Novalis Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia Das Allgemeine Brouillon

Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by David W. Wood

Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia

SUNY series, Intersections:

Philosophy and Critical Theory

Rodolphe Gasché, editor

Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia

Das Allgemeine Brouillon

Novalis

Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by David W. Wood

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production by Judith Block Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Novalis, 1772–1801. [Allgemeine Brouillon. English] Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia : Das Allgemeine Brouillon / Novalis ; translated, edited, and with an introduction by David W. Wood. p. cm. — (SUNY series, intersections: philosophy and critical theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. Translation of: Das Allgemeine Brouillon : Materialien zur Enzyklopäedistik 1798/99. ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6973-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Knowledge, Theory of— Early works to 1800. 2. Science—Early works to 1800. 3. Romanticism—Germany. I. Wood, David W., 1968– II. Title. III. Series: Intersections (Albany, N.Y.)

BD153.N68 033'.1—dc22

2007

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2006014434

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contents 

Text by Novalis: Notes for aRomantic Encyclopaedia

Appendix: Extracts from theFreiberg Natural Scientific Studies (1798/99)

Notes to Introduction

Notes to Text by Novalis

Notes to Appendix

Select Bibliography

Index

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Acknowledgments 

Like the original manuscript of Novalis’sEncyclopaedia, which for many years traveled the world in the hands of private collectors (and was therefore “lost to scholarship”), this translation has likewise gone on its own scattered wanderings in the last seven years. From the sun-scorched Australian outback to the small German university town of Erlangen, from the vibrant metropolis of modern Dublin to the eternal cultural capital that is Paris, both this English text and I have consequently benefited from the kindness of countless people. I would especially like to thank the following friends and colleagues for their unstinting support and assistance. Their numerous scholarly suggestions and penetrating comments have infinitely improved my translation: Emeritus Professor Gerhard Schulz (University of Melbourne), who greatly encouraged me from the very beginning of the enterprise and painstak-ingly read through the entire translation and introduction. Professor Dennis Mahoney (University of Vermont), Professor Karl Ameriks (University of Notre Dame), Professor John Neubauer (University of Amsterdam), Dr. Brian O’Connor (University College Dublin), Dr. Olivier Schefer (University of Paris), Dr. Celeste Lovette (University of Savannah), and Niall Keane (University of Leuven), all generously read portions of the transla-tion and introduction. Hans-Joachim Morcinietz and the Morcinietz family, for their genuine warmth and hospitality during my stays in Oberwiederstedt, Germany. Dr. Gabriele Rommel and family, and all the staff at the Novalis Museum and Research Centre at the Schloss Oberwiederstedt, for their wonderful friend-liness and helpfulness concerning all things Novalis. Professor Dr. Renate Moering and Hans Grüters of the Freie Deutsche Hochstift in Frankfurt, for kindly granting me access to the original handwritten Brouillonmanuscript.

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Acknowledgments

I am also extremely grateful to my family in Australia, for their faith and support. And to my ever-precious friend Laure, for her constant inspiration. Finally, this translation owes very much to the late Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Mähl, theBrouillonscholar par excellence, for his unparalleled insights, reine Menschlichkeit, and stimulus to complete the work.

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Note on Text and Editorial Symbols

Entries enclosed by angular brackets were those crossed out by Novalis in his later revision. Lacunae in text or editorial additions. The ubiquitous use of dashes instead of commas or paren-theses is a particular feature of Novalis’s notebook style.

It must be borne in mind that the present text is an unfinished notebook and was not intended for publication in its present form. Consequently, there still re-main certain obscure or illegible passages and unknown references. Difficulties of this nature are indicated in the detailed endnotes. The numbering of the en-tries stems from the German editors. Novalis himself did not number the en-tries: to signal the transition to another entry he simply used a longer horizontal dash or stroke in the center of the page. Square brackets are used around entry numbers when this transition is unclear.

Introduction 

David W. Wood

The Unknown Novalis

Friedrich von Hardenberg, or Novalis as he later chose to call himself in print, still remains a rather obscure figure in the English-speaking world. If known at all, it is mostly as the German Romantic poet of the blue flower, whose fiancée, Sophie, died young—and like Petrarch for Laura and Dante for Beatrice before 1 him, penned sublime lyrical words to immortalize his beloved. Or perhaps one has read a philosophical fragment or two. Indeed, from Edgar Allan Poe to Karl Popper, John Stuart Mill to Martin Heidegger, it is still the height of philosoph-2 ical fashion to adorn one’s book with a Novalis fragment as a motto. But who exactly was this enigmatic young philosopher-poet? Born May 2, 1772, in Oberwiederstedt, Germany, toward the twilight of the Enlightenment, his schooling coincided with the tumultuous Storm and Stress period of German literature. Here he steeped himself in the works of Friedrich von Schiller, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and finally forged his intellectual maturity in the furnace of the Kantian or Critical philosophy. Above all, Novalis belonged to that extraordinarily tal-ented younger generation of writers and thinkers who have become known in history as the “Romantic Circle.” This enormously influential group also in-cluded the brothers August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel, Dorothea Veit, Ludwig Tieck, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Caroline Schlegel, and the young Friedrich von Schelling. Gathered at the end of the eighteenth century, their in-novative literary talents generated an avalanche of essays, fragments, dialogues, speeches, and notebooks, whose revolutionary shock waves still continue to reverberate today throughout the literary, cultural, and artistic worlds.

Voir