Through Schlegel’s interpretation and description about romanticism, I was able to contemplate on
the features and roles of romantic literatures. Schlegel uses the term ‘self-portrait’, or ‘mirror’ in
order to describe how literature at that time worked as a reflector of the writer or portrayer. I believe
that this expression depicts romanticism very well, as romanticism was something about individual
feelings, expressions, and intentions. Compared to classicism which usually portrayed the general,
ubiquitous expressions which could be empathized by the mass public, romanticism wasn’t tied to
format but rather contained contents that could be interpreted in diverse ways depending on the
appreciator. As Schlegel states that ‘the romantic form of poetry is always in the process of becoming
and can never be completed’ (excerpt from Athenaeum Fragments), this may have meant that
romantic literature does not have a definite interpretation which would terminate the appreciation
of the work. I believe that this viewpoint is also revealed through one of Schlegel’s fragments, ‘A
classical text must never be entirely comprehensible’.
One interesting aspect of romanticism was that it shares a common ground with the Enlightenment
in the sense that they both focused on the principle of autonomy and self-referentiality. (What is
Romanticism, p.16) However, just like there is a difference of the Romantics’ understandings
represented by Hardenberg and Schlegel, and Kant, romanticism and the Enlightenment had
distinctions and relevance at the same time. I was able to infer that romanticism stressed the
importance of individuality but it was a form of something idealistic, compared to the Enlightenment
which focusing on being rational.
While I was reading through ‘Critical Fragments’ of Friedrich Schlegel, it was impressive how he
compared poetry to a republican speech. I was able to draw some interpretations of this phrase,
and one intention I thought was that poetry could be used as a medium that allows the poet to
express his feelings and opinions that are hard to convey through general speech. Taking into
account that poems not only deliver emotions but occasionally accuse the society or people of that
period, it sure has ‘the right to vote’.