Philosophical and Aesthetic Premises of German and Georgian Romanticism (Comparative Study)

Abstract

The author of the article analyzes the social-political and philosophical-aesthetic premises of German and Georgian Romanticism and suggests that general Romantic characteristics are universal across all Romanticisms. However, beyond these
common traits, this movement also has its national and individual variations and distinctive features. The author argues that both general/universal and national characteristics can be identified in German as well as Georgian Romanticism. If the results of the French Revolution became the social-political basis for German Romanticism, the loss of state sovereignty and national identity provided such a basis for Georgian Romanticism. These different premises lead to a similar attitude towards reality in both cases: non-conformism and the desire to escape from reality into the imaginary world. This reflects a deep discrepancy between the desirable and the real.
The specificity of socio-political life in Germany leads to the accumulation of national energy in the field of theory. The primacy of “aesthetic dictatorship” determines the theoretical nature of German Romanticism (Jena circle). Georgian Romanticism is less likely to concentrate on the theoretical issues of Romantic aesthetics. The philosophical outlook of German Romanticists is based on the idealistic philosophical systems of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling. Hence, the main aesthetic categories of Jena Romanticism: ‘I’ in the center of the universe, transcendence, infinity, imagination, fantasy, intuition, “inner world”, ‘longing’ (Sehnsucht), “Weltgefühl”, etc. The ideological foundations of Georgian Romanticism were formed by the Georgian philosopher Solomon Dodashvili in his “Logics” (1827), whose major source was German classical philosophy. In Solomon Dodashvili’s theory, German philosophers are arranged in the same sequence as in German Romanticism (primarily Jena circle): Kant, Fichte, Schelling. Dodashvili’s philosophical model of the universe had a significant impact on Baratashvili’s aesthetic views as well as the overall aesthetic vision of Georgian Romanticism. This influence gives rise to such aesthetic categories of Georgian Romanticism as the opposition between real/earthly and unreal/unearthly/heavenly worlds, “transcendental construction”, inward-turned gaze, aspiration to spiritual harmony and the ideal, aesthetic perception of the opposition “finite-infinite”, ‘I’ in the center of the universe and its estrangement from reality, mystic contemplation, and so on. Despite the overall similarity of general features, German and Georgian Romantic literatures have their own specific national characteristics conditioned by national identity, history, religious doctrines, and tradition.