Asko Nivala: The Romantic Idea of the Golden Age in Friedrich Schlegel’s Philosophy of History. Routledge, New York 2017, PREVIEW / ORDER.

The nineteenth-century Romantic understanding of history is often confused with the longing for the past Golden Age. In this book, the Romantic idea of Golden Age is seen from a new angle by discussing it in the context of Friedrich Schlegel’s works. Interestingly, Schlegel argued that the concept of a past Golden Age in the beginning of history was itself a product of antiquity, imagined without any historical ground. The Golden Age was not bygone for Schlegel, but to be produced in the future. His utopian vision of the Kingdom of God was related to the millenarian expectations of perpetual peace aroused by the revolutionary wars. Schlegel understood current era through the kairos concept, which emphasized the present possibilities for public agency. Thus history could not be reduced to any kind of pre-established pattern of redemption, for the future was determined only by the opportunities manifested in the present time.

Reviews

• Thomas L. Cooksey, Goethe Yearbook 2019:

“Encyclopedic in its coverage, and thorough in its conversance with the secondary literature, Asko Nivala’s The Romantic Idea of the Golden Age in Friedrich Schlegel’s Philosophy of History is both informative and stimulating. He offers a nuanced, but clear reading of Schlegel’s conception of history and the Golden Age that both challenges conventional interpretations and opens new directions.”

• Elisa Ronzheimer, Athenäum: Jahrbuch der Friedrich Schlegel-Gesellschaft 2017:

“Asko Nivalas Arbeit ist von Bedeutung für die Friedrich-Schlegel-Forschung aufgrund ihrer neuen Einsichten in ein zentrales Konzept seiner Geschichtsphilosophie. Sie überzeugt durch ihren Mut zur Komplexität. Zugleich liegt ein Verdienst der Dissertation darin, der englischsprachigen Forschung eine Einführung in Schlegels Denken zu bieten. Das leistet die Arbeit durch den Ausweis von Anknüpfungspunkten an aktuelle theoretische Diskurse (›posthumanism‹, ›ecocriticism‹, ›primitivism‹) auf der einen Seite und auf der anderen durch ein hohes Reflexionsniveau hinsichtlich der Übersetzung zentraler Termini Schlegels ins Englische.”