Spatiotemporal Consciousness in English and German Romanticism (European University Studies : Series 8, Comparative Literature, Vol 25)

This carefully documented rereading of Romantic poetry proves the subjective awareness of time and space to be a pervasive concern common to both English and German Romanticism. The works of four representative poets show that the Romantic goal is a metaphysical synthesis of temporal reality with eternal idealty and the acquisition of an inner sense of unity of self in time and space. Both are found to be made possible by the spatiotemporal functions of subjective consciousness and perceptions, such as memory and presentiment, dreams, visionary moments, the interfusion of mind and nature, and the poetic imagination. The book concludes with a summary definition of the Romantic concepts of time and space.