Heidegger and the Romantics

While there are many books on the romantics, and many books on Heidegger, there has been no book exploring the connection between the two. Pol Vandeveldes new study forges this important link. Vandevelde begins by analyzing two models that have addressed the interaction between literature and philosophy: early German romanticism (especially Schlegel and Novalis), and Heideggers work with poetry in the 1930s. Both models offer an alternative to the paradigm of mimesis, as exemplified by Aristotles and Platos discussion of poetry, and both German romanticism and Heidegger owe a deep debt to Plato. The study goes on to defend the view that Heidegger was influenced by romanticism. The authors project is thus both historical, showing the specificity of the romantic and Heideggerean works, and systematic, defending aspects of their alternative mode of thinking while also pointing to their weaknesses.