Dissertation committee:
Μ. Μιχάλσκι, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γερμανικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Β. Μπέννινγκ, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γερμανικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Γ. Ξηροπαϊδης, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Θεωρίας και Ιστορίας της Τέχνης, Α.Σ.Κ.Τ.
Αικ. Μητραλέξη, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Γερμανικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Π. Πετροπούλου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Γερμανικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Γ. Φαράκλας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Ιστορίας, Πάντειο Παν/μιο
Γ. Κουζέλης, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Ε.Κ.Π.Α
Summary:
The core object of the thesis is the result of a systematic analysis of Schiller’s texts focused on the subject of Sublime. These essays were written after the interruption of his literary production in 1790. The thesis starts off with a brief analysis of the Sublime according to Kant, based on the chapter “Analytic of the Sublime” in Critique of the power of Judgement, which also underpins Schiller’s attempt at developing his own theory. In Schiller’s Of the cause of the pleasure we derive from tragic objects, On the tragic art, Of the Sublime, On the pathetic and On the Sublime one observes the development of an aesthetic theory of drama, at the epicentre of which lies the aesthetic category of the Sublime. Of critical importance for the analysis of Schiller’s aforementioned work has been the ascertainment of a fundamental transformation of the Sublime in On the Sublime, where it is transmutated into a “reflective Sublime”. This transformation has not been thoroughly examined in relevant literature and comprises the basis of the argumentation of the thesis. In Of the cause of the pleasure we derive from tragic objects, On the tragic art, Of the Sublime and On the pathetic, Schiller analyses what is known as “heroic Sublime”. With this term, Schiller describes a tragic Sublime, where, through a functional process of depiction, the objective is to merge the sensuous with the supersensuous. At the same time, the German poet vigorously and passionately defends the autonomy of aesthetic experience.
On the other hand, in On the Sublime one can detect a change in direction, concerning the totality of Schiller’s aims, and the negativism of the experience of the Sublime takes on a totally differentiated dimension: here negativism stems not out of the depicted suffering of the tragic figure, whose heroic actions and life stance aim at referring to the notions of moral reason (as in the heroic Sublime), but is instead derived from the finality of an abdication from the possibility of a conciliation between sensuous and supersensuous through art. This new type of negativism is directly associated with the deterioration of Schiller’s health. It is applied by him as a kind of abdication in four levels: 1. At the level of order and purposiveness of nature. 2. At the level of the implementation of ethics in the real world. 3. At the level of history; it would seem that there is no auspicious ending. 4. At the level of the ambiguity concerning the freedom of human beings as regards to their destiny. However, this abdication does not entail or suggest a passive stance towards life and art. On the contrary, Schiller introduces the term of independence, expressed in all of the above. From a certain perspective, chaos in nature and in history is the embodiment of freedom, which in turn, and only by being “chaotic”, constitutes the new object of tragic art; which is to say not as the heroic Sublime. The objective of tragic art is not to depict the supersensuous, but to prompt the viewer into a reflection regarding the notion of independence. It is about an inoculation of the general audience implemented through dramatic art, as Schiller characteristically mentions.
The transformation of the Sublime observed in On the Sublime, in view of the rather obvious similarities to the analysis of Kant in Critique of the power of Judgement, gave rise to a possible interrelation between the transformed reflective Sublime of later Schiller and the principle of reflection in the third Critique of Kant; the principle of the purposiveness of nature. The findings of the thesis lead to the conclusion that Kant’s relegation the Sublime, regarding the objectives of the third Critique (according to which the Sublime can only constitute a “mere appendix” to the analysis of the purposiveness of nature) is not without flaws. Especially interesting was the examination of Kant’s philosophy on history as regards to the Sublime in The Contest of Faculties, which was occasioned by the fact that Schiller explicitly refers to the Sublime of history in On the Sublime. It would seem here as well that Sublime plays an important role in the Kantian philosophy that Kant had not recognised in his Critique of the power of Judgement.
As the five essays, and especially On the Sublime refer directly to tragic art, the thesis lastly analyses a drama of later Schiller, The Bride of Messina, examined from the aspect of the reflective Sublime.
Keywords:
Sublime, Schiller, Kant, Das Ehabene, Schiller, Kant, Kritik der Urteilskraft, das Reflexionserhabene, Braut von Messina
