PHILISTINE IN GERMAN LITERATURE: GOETHE AND THE ROMANTICS

In: Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta: naučnyj žurnal = Moscow State University bulletin. Serija 9, Filologija, Heft 1, S. 142-149

Abstract

The article traces the function of the word philistine in German literature — from Sturm und Drang to Romanticism. Its etymological premises, two
biblical variants are touched upon, its statement in secular literature is fixed. The
initial use of the word philistine — in the socio-philosophical works — and accompanying, and sometimes preceding it, the corresponding artistic design of the
concept is noted. Th e author considers the emergence of the antithesis 'philistine —
genius' in the aesthetics of Sturm und Drang and the change of Goethe's Sturmer
ideas about philistine to the period of late Romanticism — an unambiguously
negative accentuation of the word. Th e use of the word philistine at two stages of
Romanticism is analyzed as an indicator of reaction to the innovations of the French
Revolution of 1789. Th e meaning of the word among the Jena Romantics is revealed:
the definition of a nature devoid of a romantic worldview — and its subsequent reinterpretation in the propaganda lexicon of the Heidelbergers as a statement of the
German 'elect', which develops into anti-Semitism. Th e actualization and politicization of the concept of philistine in the course of the social movement in Germany
on the eve and aft er the revolution of 1848 is noted.