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This eagerly awaited study brings to completion Louis Dupré's planned trilogy on European culture during the modern epoch. Demonstrating remarkable erudition and sweeping breadth, The Quest of the Absolute analyzes Romanticism as a unique cultural phenomenon and a spiritual revolution. Dupré philosophically reflects on its attempts to recapture the past and transform the present in a movement that is partly a return to premodern culture and partly a violent protest against it.
Following an introduction on the historical origins of the Romantic Movement, Dupré examines the principal Romantic poets of England (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats), Germany (Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Hölderlin), and France (Lamartine, de Vigny, Hugo), all of whom, from different perspectives, pursued an absolute ideal. In the chapters of the second part, he concentrates on the critical principles of Romantic aesthetics, the Romantic image of the person as reflected in the novel, and Romantic ethical and political theories. In the chapters of the third, more speculative, part, he investigates the comprehensive syntheses of romantic thought in history, philosophy, and theology.
The Quest of the Absolute is an important work both as the culmination of Dupré's ongoing project and as a classic in its own right. The book will meet the expectations of the specialist as well as appeal to more general readers with philosophical, cultural, and religious interests.
“Dupré’s sympathetic sketches of figures and themes reflect a deep knowledge of classical and early modern literature and a practitioner’s grasp of Christian theology. . . . Dupré knows the game well, and his analyses of many of his subjects give a subtle advantage to explanations that keep something like monotheistic longings consciously of unconsciously in play within their reflections.” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Louis Dupré is T. Lawrason Riggs Professor Emeritus in the Philosophy of Religion at Yale University. He has published numerous books and articles, including Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture (University of Notre Dame Press, 2008).
Preface
1. What Was and What Is Romanticism?
Part 1. Typology of Romantic Literature
2. English Romantic Poetry
3. German Romantic Poetry
4. French Romantic Poetry
Part 2. Systematic Discussion of Romantic Aesthetics, Psychology, and Ethics
5. The Beautiful and the Sublime
6. The Romantic Image of the Person as Reflected in the Novel
7. Romantic Ethics
8. Political Theories after the French Revolution
Part 3. Syntheses of Romantic Thought
9. The Romantic Idea of History
10. Philosophical Foundations of Romantic Thought
11. A New Religion?
Conclusion
Notes
Index