La politique de Novalis

The Politics of Novalis. As early as 1798 F. Schlegel, in a famous passage, described the French Revolution as one of the three most important movements of his time. In spite of this warning, the standard interpretation by critics has long been to consider early German Romanticism as reactionary and anti-Enlightenment. Novalis, its most brilliant representative, became the symbol of counter-revolutionary thought. This article, based on recent studies by German critics, tries to re-establish the truth. Novalis had nothing to do with pietist circles hostile to the Revolution ; his thought combines that of Lessing, Schlegel, Kant and Fichte, to produce an original synthesis.Michaud Stéphane. La politique de Novalis. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°6, 1974. Lumières et Révolution. pp. 225-234