The mystique of the self in German preromanticism

Abstract

The paper surveys the extent of the connection between German idealism and Preromanticism on the one hand, and Medieval mysticism on the other.  For the Romantic model of identity and subjectivity in Novalis and Schlegel, Fichte’s idealist position remains a starting point, as changes of terminology and approach have changed the way the Self was articulated very considerably.

This shift in meaning is the beginning of Romanticism, but despite its significance, the change has its precursors. The desire towards the absolute, the shifting value of religious experience, positing identity without objectification are all positions that can already be found in Medieval thinkers like Eckhardt and Böhme. In some cases, one can even locate a direct connection. The paper focuses on how the connection between Medieval philosophers’ paradox ideas on non-being and emptiness relate to theories of the self in preromantic authors.