Novalis

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani calls Novalis "the most romantic of the German romantics" and a figure of early Romanticism. He often returns to the Hymns to the Night, which he presents as the emblematic work of this movement: in it, night stands against the Enlightenment. Novalis turns away from knowledge toward sleep, wine, opium, eros and the Virgin, paths of escape that Baudelaire would take up1. For him, this night is not nothingness but a screen on which the images of dreams appear2. In Pollen, he notes the writing in fragments and quotes aphorisms: "water is a wet flame", "speaking for speaking's sake", and the philosophical act as "self-murder", which he considers close to Hegel3. His view is also critical. He points to the praise of "sublime hypochondria", which scorns political reality4, and sees in Christendom or Europe the sign of a political regression. He calls Novalis a reactionary, not a Nazi5, and warns against the glorification of darkness. Finally, he sets the formula "poetry is the absolute real" against Hegel's refusal6.

1. 1Dominique Pagani - Qui se cache sous les surfaces ? Esthétique et politique20 May 2022 · 35:17
2. 2Schumann2 May 2019 · 34:01
3. 3Schumann2 May 2019 · 34:51
4. 4Hommage à Domenico Losurdo2 Jul 2018 · 1:25:09
5. 5Dominique Pagani - Hölderlin, poésie et politique19 Mar 2022 · 8:46
6. 6#9 TABLEAUX D'UNE EXPOSITION : L'art, vu d'ici ou d'en face?10 Feb 2022 · 1:04:25

Summary produced automatically from 42 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.