Description
Book SynopsisFriedrich Schiller, the dramatist and poet, greatly influenced the development of aesthetics through his essays. He sums up the eighteenth century while anticipating modern ideas; his notions of the naive and the sentimental, of art as play, and of beauty as semblance, have had a lasting impact on aesthetic speculation. Dr Sharpe's book is the first study devoted to tracing the attempts of successive generations of philosophers and literary critics to expound the works and deal with the problems they present. Surveying Anglo-American as well as German-language criticism, she illuminates the impact of critical and political change on their evaluation.
Trade ReviewThis is a prolegomenon to any future study of the aesthetic writings and an important book for anyone interested in the history of aesthetics. It will take its place alongside the volumes edited by Norbert Oellers as an important contribution to the reception of Schiller's writings. * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES *
[An] indispensable tool for future scholars of Schiller's aesthetic essays.' SOUTH ATLANTIC REVIEW 'The value of the book is not only that it reconstructs a section of the histone but even more that, by illuminating them from so many different angles, it contributes considerably to our understanding of the essays themselves. * YEAR'S WORK IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES *
