Romanticism's Longue Durée: 1968 and the Projects of Theory. Issue 3 (3rd April 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tihanov, Galin
• Is Part Of: Interventions. Volume 23:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 463
• Page End: 480
• Publication Date: 2021-04-03
• Subjects: Hermeneutics -- literary theory -- May '68 -- Romanticism -- structuralism; Postcolonialism -- Periodicals; 325.3
• DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2020.1762699
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-801X

Abstract

Abstract : The immediate purpose of this essay is to offer a brief reflection on 1968 as a nodal point in the appropriations and deployments of Romanticism, not least as a diagnostic tool. The essay substantiates the case for the continuous afterlife of Romanticism in the various guises of post-romanticism, a process which de-emphasizes the notion of period or indeed event, and constructs instead a complex discursive formation that renegotiates past intellectual agendas and resources by framing them within a discursive longue durée. The essay concentrates on the German scene of theory and the student protests during the second half of the 1960s. It traces the mediated links between them and demonstrates how this intellectual and political constellation is traversed – repurposed and refashioned – by Romantic discursive energies that are mobilized in order to make sense of, and respond to, the new developments. The groundwork and the hypotheses advanced in this essay require a careful differentiation between two understandings (and projects) of "theory." The impact of May '68 on these two different theory projects is discussed in the conclusion.