“Unser Denken ist schlechterdings nur eine Galvanisation ...”
Om mødet mellem naturvidenskab, digtningsteori og musikæstetik hos Novalis
Abstract
‘Unser Denken ist schlechterdings nur eine Galvanisation ...’
On the encounter between natural science, literary theory and music aesthetics in Novalis
The article investigates the interaction of the discourses of modern natural science and aesthetics as it can be traced in the writings of the German romanticist Novalis. The impacts of this interaction have been too little acknowledged by a historiography of music aesthetics wishing to see the emergence of a text-oriented concept of the musical artwork in German romanticism. Novalis’ conceptions of the structural qualities of literary and musical artworks are deeply influenced by models of thought borrowed from late eighteenth-century physics and chemistry and by concrete, sensual experience with scientific experiments.
