European literature: German debates at the turn of the 19th century

Abstract

The author analyses the debates on the concept of “European/world literature” which took place in the 18th and early 19th century in German intellectual and literary circles. He attempts to demonstrate that the idea of European literature is relatively young. Historical debates give the author an opportunity to propose a way of writing the history of German literature beyond the limiting framework of national philology. On the basis of the historical debates discussed in the article, the author proposes to move beyond the limiting 19th-century concept of (German) national philology towards “a history of literary consciousness.”