Magnificent Rebels The First Romantics and the Invention of Self
Magnificent Rebels The First Romantics and the Invention of Self
B Y A N D R E A W U L F
review by Carol Harbers
Magnificent Rebels triggered a lively discussion at our October book meeting , graciously hosted by Carol Strametz in her wonderful home . The author , Andrea Wulf , captures a moment in history when a group of young and exceptional “ thinkers ” gathered in the small university town of Jena , Germany , at the end of the eighteenth century . These young rebels initiated the artistic and intellectual movement coined Romanticism , ushering in a whole new way of looking at the world , at humanity , at science and philosophy — basically at everything .
The book centers around the personal lives and philosophies of these young writers , translators , philosophers , and poets . Stimulated by concepts evoked by the French Revolution , developed by Immanuel Kant and his student Johann Fichte , but also provoked by the en vogue scientific and sterile dissection of nature , the young rebels expand their ideas to overfilled lecture rooms and publish magazines with collected essays , poems , classical translations , and “ fragments ” that expound their philosophical doctrines and ideas — philosophies that are constantly evolving through intellectual discourse , playful observations ( in nature and art museums ), and life experiences . The Romantic movement is not about love and romance but rather about emphasizing individual experience and emotion , glorifying the past , and viewing nature as a whole or even as being one with “ Ich / self .”
Why Jena ? At the time , the University of Jena enjoyed a special freedom as a result of its location in the Duchy Saxe-Weimar governed by the free-thinking Duke Carl August , for whom the important writer and naturalist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe served as privy counselor . The latter ’ s influence on this young group of rebels , termed the Jena Set in the book , is eye-opening . Not only for his critical role in procuring positions at the university for many but also for the hours he spent discussing ideas with the young group . Author Wulf also highlights the lessdirect but nonetheless profound influence of Goethe ’ s good friend and playwright Friedrich Schiller , as his ideas of celebrating the imagination and elevating art as the “ force unifying reason and feeling ” were important in attracting the young philosophers and writers to Jena .
The book is written as a novel , making it a very entertaining and easy-to-read book , yet it is based on a copious number of references and notes . It interweaves complex theoretical
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