Johann Gottfried Herder: Selected Early Works, 1764-1767

Johann Gottfried Herder

1992 | 364 pgs
6 x 9

Literature
Paperback: $29.95 SH
ISBN-10: 0-271-02323-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-271-02323-6

Johann Gottfried Herder was one of the central figures in eighteenth-century European intellectual history. As a philosopher and historian, a literary critic and theoretician, a poet, translator, and educator, he was one of the last great universalists and one of the pioneers of the Sturm und Drang movement as well as the mentor of the young Goethe in Strassburg. His literary fame rests on his early publications, which until now have only been available in German. Included in this volume are: On Diligence in the Study of Several Learned Languages; Fragments of a Treatise on the Ode 'Do We Still Have the Public and Fatherland of Yore?'; On the Transformation of Taste; Essay on a History of Lyrical Poetry; and On Recent German Literature.

Although Herder addresses in these texts the state of German literature during the Enlightenment, he goes far beyond mere literary criticism by basing his ideas on anthropological considerations within the boundaries of an established national identity. The editors have chosen texts that anticipate most of Herder's ideas on aesthetics and philosophy of the later years.

Ernest A. Menze is Professor of History and Dean of the School of Arts and Science at lona College. Karl Menges is Professor of German Languages and Literature at the University of California, Davis. Michael Palma is Professor of English at lona College.