2 - Romantic literature and politics

Summary

La description animée des chefs-d'œuvre donne bien plus d'intérêt à la critique que les idées générales qui planent sur tous les sujets sans en caractériser aucun.

(III 328/4)

L'on pourrait parvenir à adapter au goût français, peutêtre le plus pur de tous, des beautés originales qui donneraient à la littérature du dix-neuvième siècle un caractère qui lui serait propre.

Delphine, p.85.

LITERATURE

An old axiom states that there is no such thing as proof in literary criticism. In the past two centuries, monographs have called Staël both too faithful and too unfaithful to her German subjects, in literature, politics, and philosophy – her alleged sources are plentiful, but we jump from fact to hypothesis in the gap between her naming a source and her echoing someone else. Several reviews go so far as to split her text, remarkably, into ‘true’ and ‘false’ Staël. ‘Staël maintained her independence,’ writes Walzel, ‘when judging writers and literature. In almost all questions of culture, science, religion, and fine art, she crossed over into the Romantic camp. When she presents viewpoints different from the Romantics, these are in general earlier achievements, the fruits of her relation with Villers.’ Monchoux finds traces in her third and fourth Parties of the ‘mysticisme bizarre de Mme de Krüdener […] Mais le spiritualisme qui inspire l'ensemble de l'ouvrage est plein de santé et de bon sens. Il semble prudent, non seulement de distinguer ces deux attitudes, mais même de n'admettre entre elles aucune parenté.’