Nicholas A. Germana's Books

The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

By: Nicholas A. Germana

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The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

By: Nicholas A. Germana

A history of Kantian and post-Kantian thought and of a foundational stage of German orientalism. German orientalism has been understood, variously, as a form of latent colonialism, as a quest for academic hegemony in Europe, and as an effort to diagnose and treat the ills of modern Western culture. Nicholas Germana identifiesa different impetus for orientalism in German thought, seeing it as an effort to come to grips with the Other within German society at the turn of the nineteenth century and within the dynamics of subjectivity itself. Drawing largely on work by feminist scholars, the book uncovers an anxiety at the core of Kantian and post-Kantian thought, thus shedding light on its derogation (or elevation) of Oriental cultures. Kant's philosophy of freedom is a construction of modern, Western masculinity. Reason, which alone can make freedom possible, subverts and orders chaotic nature and protects the rational subject from the enervating influences of the senses and the imagination. The feminized, sexually charged Orient is a threat to the historical achievement of Western male rationality. Germana's book emphasizes aesthetics in the German orientalist discourse, a subject that has received little attention todate. In this tradition of German thought, aesthetics became a form of spiritual anthropology, ordering and classifying societies, races, and genders in terms of their ability to master the senses and the imagination, forces thatundermine rational autonomy, the very source of human (i.e., masculine) dignity. Nicholas A. Germana is Professor of History at Keene State College, New Hampshire.

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279

Publisher

Boydell & Brewer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1640140026

ISBN 13

9781640140028

The Orient of Europe

The Mythical Image of India and Competing Images of German National Identity

By: Nicholas Germana

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The Orient of Europe

The Mythical Image of India and Competing Images of German National Identity

By: Nicholas Germana

August Wilhelm Schlegel proclaimed that “[i]f the regeneration of the human species started in the East, Germany must be considered the Orient of Europe.” How can this remarkable identification of Germany with the subjugated oriental ‘other’ be explained? In The Orient of Europe, Nicholas A. Germana explores how German thinkers, especially those associated with the Early Romantic movement, set India up as an “ideal mirror,” in which they could perceive the image of the Germany they longed for – a nation whose greatness lay not in political and military power, but in the realm of culture and the spirit. Such an image was especially important during the years of French occupation and the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon. The ‘mythical image’ of India, however, underwent profound changes in the decades after 1815. The end of the Wars of Liberation and the onset of the Restoration era, led to the decline of the romantic image of India. As statist visions of German unity rose in prominence, especially in Prussia, this image of the connection between Germany and ancient India took on a new complexion. Politically volatile romantic “Indomania” gave way to a new, more acceptable, ideology – the ideology of Wissenschaft. In this book, which engages with the most recent scholarship in the rapidly emerging field of German Orientalism, Germana challenges traditional Saidian Orientalist readings of German intellectual engagement with Indian thought and literature. German romantic and humanist fascination with India, he argues, is best understood within the context of debates about the nature of ‘Germany’ and ‘Germanness’ in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, rather than in connection with nascent German “colonial fantasies.”

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275

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Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1443812080

ISBN 13

9781443812085

The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

By: Nicholas A. Germana

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The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

By: Nicholas A. Germana

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

279

Publisher

Boydell & Brewer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1640140026

ISBN 13

9781640140028

Book's by Nicholas A. Germana

The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

The Orient of Europe

The Orient of Europe

The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

The Anxiety of Autonomy and the Aesthetics of German Orientalism

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