Idealism without Absolutes

Tilottama Rajan is Canada Research Chair in English and Theory at the University of Western Ontario. She has published several books, including the coedited volume (with David L. Clark), Intersections: Nineteenth-Century Philosophy and Contemporary Theory, published by SUNY Press. Arkady Plotnitsky is Professor of English, a University Faculty Scholar, and Director of the Theory and Cultural Studies Program at Purdue University. He has published several books, including, most recently, The Knowable and the Unknowable: Modern Science, Nonclassical Thought and the "Two Cultures."

• Acknowledgments IntroductionTilottama Rajan Romanticism and the Invention of LiteratureJan Plug Allegories of Symbol: On Hegel's AestheticsAndrzej Warminski Toward a Cultural Idealism: Negativity and Freedom in Hegel and Kant Tilottama Rajan Mediality in Hegel: From Work to Text in the Phenomenology of SpiritJochen Schulte-Sasse Beyond Beginnings: Schlegel and Romantic HistoriographyGary Handwerk Curvatures: Hegel and the BaroqueArkady Plotnitsky Three Ends of the Absolute: Schelling, Holderlin, and NovalisDavid Farrell Krell Schopenhauer's Telling Body of PhilosophyJoel Faflak Sacrificial and Erotic Materialism in Kierkegaard and AdornoJohn Smyth Absolute Failures: Hegel's Bildung and the "Earliest System-Program of German Idealism"Rebecca Gagan Futures of Spirit: Hegel, Nietzsche, and BeyondRichard Beardsworth Conclusion: Without AbsolutesArkady Plotnitsky Contributors Index

"…this volume does a good job in making the case for rethinking idealism and offers several very compelling and provocative readings … this is an extremely valuable volume of essays. Rather than offering an overall thesis of 'Idealism without Absolutes,' it offers specific readings of individual texts or clusters of texts meant to incite conversation and provoke thought." — H-Net Reviews (H-German)"…it is the de-absolutizing of Hegel … that remains the core of this volume and its chief merit … There is no essay without something worthwhile for any reader compelled by the subject." — University of Toronto Quarterly"In providing a first push in the direction of rethinking idealism, as emancipated from the traditional story of absolute positing and absolute understanding, the authors succeed in opening up new avenues for further thought and writing." — H-Net Review"This book is a timely revisiting of German Romantic Idealism that energetically explores the implications of the twin propositions of an Idealism without absolutes and a materiality without matter." — Orrin N. C. Wang, author of Fantastic Modernity: Dialectical Readings in Romanticism and Theory"This book revitalizes Idealism as a viable mode of literary theory, which enriches our developing understanding of Romantic culture. In this sense, the book rejuvenates the field of Romanticism as the paradigm maker for literary analysis." — Denise Gigante, Stanford University