Novalis: Philosophical Writings [Paperback]

Novalis (Author), Margaret Mahony Stoljar (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0791432726 | ISBN-13: 978-0791432723 | Publication Date: January 31, 1997

Novalis: Philosophical Writings is the first extensive scholarly translation in English from the philosophical work of the late eighteenth-century German Romantic writer Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg). His original and innovative thought explores many questions that are current today, such as truth and objectivity, reason and the imagination, language and mind, and revolution and the state. The translation includes two collections of fragments published by Novalis in 1798, Miscellaneous Observations and Faith and Love, and the controversial essay Christendom or Europe. In addition there are substantial selections from his unpublished notebooks, including Logological Fragments, the General Draft for an encyclopedia, the Monologue on language, and the essay on Goethe as scientist. "A reliable, faithful, and readable English translation of Novalis's influential philosophical and aesthetic writings has been a conspicuous desideratum in Anglo-Saxon scholarship on German Romanticism. Stoljar's book fills this gap in every respect and is, therefore, most welcome and timely. The translation is impeccable and reflects the often highly complex original texts most felicitously. Stoljar's introduction is a model of sound and up-to-date critical scholarship: it provides circumspect exposure to Novalis as an independent and imaginative thinker, situates and characterizes the individual texts in the overall context of Novalis's conceptual universe, and abounds in clearly formulated interpretive insights. "In Stoljar's lucid translation, Novalis's writings come across as fascinating and seminal as they are in the German original; the collection is a veritable eye-opener for anyone concerned with the wide-ranging impact of the best of German Romantic thought on subsequent developments in European literature, philosophy, history, science, psychology, music, the visual arts, etc., in other words, across the entire cultural landsca

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Margaret Mahony Stoljar is Reader in German at the Australian National University. She is the author of Athenaeum. A Critical Commentary; Poetry and Song in Late Eighteenth Century Germany. A Study in the Musical Sturm und Drang; and translator of Under the Night's Edge. A Selection of Poetry and Prose by Johannes Bobrowski

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (January 31, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791432726
• ISBN-13: 978-0791432723
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Collection, May 7, 2010

By 

Mr. Steiner (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Novalis: Philosophical Writings (Paperback)

This brief compendium of Novalis' corpus serves to demonstrate the complexity and depth of though of this early German Romanticist. Known primarily for his poetry, Novalis' philosophy has been overshadowed by the giants of the Romantic period for too long. This little volume gives us a window into the range of topics Novalis was really dealing with, including language, science, politics, and of course poetry. Novalis was the great unifier of our systems, and this small but significant collection will allow us to see him in his creative genius.

11 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not another Nagasaki, November 5, 2003

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Novalis: Philosophical Writings (Paperback)

Early in the Introduction, Margaret Mahony Stoljar proclaims, "In his original, unprejudiced, and undogmatic questioning of any issue that interests him, Novalis displays to a remarkable degree the kind of innovative thought that will characterize the Romantic movement throughout Europe. Being a practicing scientist and creative writer as well as possessing a comprehensive approach to theoretical inquiry that in his time was what was meant by `philosophical,' Novalis engages with a wider spectrum of questions than do most of his contemporaries. But it is his readiness to subject any philosophical concept to radical interrogation that marks his published and unpublished work as of enduring interest. For contemporary readers accustomed to the critique of the categories of reason that has followed in the wake of Nietzsche, Novalis's writings can seem uncannily pertinent. They address issues that in recent years have continued to expand the parameter of our thinking on truth and objectivity, language and mind, symbol and representation, reason and the imagination. In form and style too, Novalis's manuscripts demonstrate the associative fluidity of thought characteristic of Nietzsche." (pp. 1-2). There are no entires in the index for Nietzsche and Derrida. In this translation, Novalis sees philosophy as a progression from passive thinking to magical idealism, at least in number 33 of the Teplitz Fragments:

"An empiricist is: one whose way of thinking is an effect of the external world and of fate--the passive thinker--to whom his philosophy is given. Voltaire is a pure empiricist and so are several French philosophers--Ligne tends imperceptibly to the transcendent empiricists. These make the transition to the dogmatists. From there the way leads to the enthusiasts--or the transcendent dogmatists--then to Kant--then to Fichte--and finally to magical idealism." (p. 107).

There is not much of a story in what happened to Novalis because he died young, in March 1801, while Kant (1724-1804) was still alive. By the time Novalis published POLLEN in the winter of 1797-1798, Kant had accepted a ban on publicly speaking or writing about religion, but he was about to declare that he did not consider the ban binding after the death of King Frederick William II in 1797. Novalis's first fiancee, Sophie, died in March 1797 at the age of fifteen. "King Frederick William III and Queen Luise of Prussia ascended the throne at the end of 1797." (p. 16). Papers were eager to publish anything that would make this look like a great event, and soon thereafter "Novalis had already achieved a degree of notoriety as a political thinker with his second published collection of fragments, FAITH AND LOVE OR THE KING AND QUEEN, which appeared in July 1798 in the Berlin journal `Yearbooks of the Prussian Monarchy.'" (p. 16).

Frankly, the attitude I find most clearly in FAITH AND LOVE OR THE KING AND QUEEN reminds me of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), who had a doctrine of correspondences that arose from a spirit similar to a selection on the first page of this work by Novalis:

"4. One finds what one loves everywhere, and sees similarities everywhere. The greater the love the more extensive and manifold is this similar world. My beloved is the abbreviation of the universe, the universe is the extension of my beloved. To the lover of learning, all its branches offer garlands and remembrances for his beloved." (p. 85).

Finding ourselves in a modern world, in which shock and awe have become the standard tactic for dealing with anyone who has claimed kingly powers for too long, and a people who have always been promised perfect innocence are often driven to wipe the slate clean after observing the monster which has been created since the preceding last act, thinking about royal situations, we are apt to remember the incineration of Nagasaki, near the end of World War Two, as a gift to the emperor of Japan, which would allow him to openly advocate unconditional surrender without any loss of face, because atomic bombs represented a power superior to anything that a mere royal highness might possess. Most readers might leave such thoughts unthunk, but this book is a blend of political thinking with poetic power that stumbles mainly because it can no longer be our book. Death is in the index, and mentioned early in this book's first selections, MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS:

"11. Death is a victory over the self--which, like all self-conquest, brings about a new, easier existence." (p. 24).

This might not be true for people who try to talk about it.