Critical Fragments by Friedrich Schlegel

Schlegel is the leading German Romantic theorist. He was the editor of the periodical Anthenaeum (1798-1800). They published a variety of thoughts literary, morals philosophical, political and other critical fragments. In Schlegel's critical essays, we find a sense of Romantic ideas. These ideas are the initial expression of Romanticism.

In the essay, Schlegel gives attention to wit and irony on poetry. Wit, he says is identifiable with genius, and it is an inventive power. Irony has a dialectical relationship with wit. Irony opposes wit. Irony can be characterized as both a divine breath and a transcendental buffoonery rising above its own art, virtue and genius.

Here he says that there is the lack of irony in Greek art. Wit is dominant there, which is derived from absolute social feeling and fragmentary genius. Schlegel counts the role of imagination in writing poetry because writing poetry does not mean imitating the nature. Imagination if combined with imitation, the poet creates good art.

There is therefore the paramount role of subject (mind). The idea is that if you are writing a poem, about Luxemburg by merely copying whatever is there, you do not produce a good poem. You need to combine imagination with imitation. This is the romantic idea of poetry.

Wit is a logical sociability. Not the art and works of art make someone artist but the feeling, inspiration and impulse make him/ her artist. So, every honest writer writes for nobody. The role of poet is not to educate and delight readers. This role can be given to the critic only. Our confined spirit finds an outlet which we call wit.

Romantic poetry is progressive and universal. Irony is the interplay of two conflicting thoughts. There is always an unbridgeable gap between art and raw beauty.

Raw beauty needs imaginative treatment to be the art. So, beauty is a psychological phenomenon. He quotes Voltaire's dictum that “all genres are good except one that is boring". He also talks of harmony, which is the Universality (i.e. the successive satiation of all forms and substances: a romantic idea again.