From romanticism to critical theory : the philosophy of German literary theory / Andrew Bowie

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-341) and index

-- Introduction: renewing the theoretical canon -- 1. Philosophical origins: Kant, Jacobi, and the crisis of reason -- 2. Shifting the ground: 'where philosophy ceases literature must begin' -- 3. The philosophy of critique and the critique of philosophy: Romantic literary theory -- 4. Interpretative reasons -- 5. The ethics of interpretation: Schleiermacher -- 6. Being true: Dilthey, Husserl and Heidegger (1) -- 7. The truth of art: Heidegger (2) -- 8. Understanding Walter Benjamin -- 9. The culture of truth: Adorno

Literary theory is now perceived by many people as being in crisis, because some of its dominant theoretical assumptions are proving hard to sustain. From Romanticism to Critical Theory offers a new view of literary theory, seeing it not as a product of the French 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

From Romanticism to Critical Theory argues that key problems in contemporary literary theory are inseparable from the main questions of modern philosophy after Kant. In addition to offering detailed accounts, based on many untranslated texts, of major positions in German literary theory since the Romantics, this controversial new approach to literary theory makes fascinating and important links between hermeneutics, analytical philosophy and literary theory, and will be a vital point of reference for future work in these areas