Politisch-soziale Ordnungsvorstellungen in der Deutschen Klassik

One of the clichés of literary studies is that ‘Deutsche Klassik’ (German classicism) was a construct and a phe-nomenon of interpretation. However, it also had ideological foundations and political overtones, which accom-panied the entirely normative idea of ‘classicism’. Towards the end of the 19th century above all, the German form of classicism was contrasted with the traditional French form in stylistic, cultural and political respects. In a similar manner to romanticism, classicism was portrayed as a typically German phenomenon, which estab-lished the 19th century as the ‘German century’, an ideological trap from which classicism was never really able to free itself.
This volume conducts a critical analysis on two levels. On the one hand, it examines how the so-called ‘classi-cists’ portrayed themselves as ostensibly politically abstinent and, on the other, it addresses the historical and political interpretation of classicism as a counter-revolutionary ‘German movement’.

With contributions by
Klaus Dicke, Norbert Eke, Markus Hien, Federica La Manna, Stefan Matuschek, Walter Pauly, Klaus Ries, Maurin Schunke, Alice Stašková and Ludwig Stockinger.