Spirituality and German Romanticism: the influence of Jakob Böhme on Novalis and Caspar David Friedrich

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dc.contributor.authorBusch, Mikhail
dc.contributor.supervisorPnevmonidou, Elena
dc.date.accessioned2020-05-22T02:40:05Z
dc.date.copyright2020en_US
dc.date.issued2020-05-21
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Germanic and Slavic Studies
dc.degree.departmentSchool of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis Master’s thesis shall attempt to reconcile the notion of the spiritual with that of the aesthetic by focusing on the influence of 16th century German mystic Jakob Böhme, with the 19th century cultural movement of German Romanticism. Böhme’s mysticism outlined a spiritual paradigm that fused alchemy with Christianity wherein the properties of nature are inherently led by a spiritual desire towards unity with God. It is through the process of spiritual desire that unity unveils itself. Consequently, Böhme’s mysticism influenced later generations of spiritual thought, including German Romanticism. Within Romanticism, Friedrich von Hardenberg, know by his pen name Novalis, developed a philosophy and aesthetic theory that expanded away from the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment. This new philosophy focused on the subjective experience and how revelation of the self was to be experienced through creative introspection, as a consequence of encountering and interacting with the other. Novalis‘ philosophy incorpterated religious motifs and spirituality to assert that it was through creative striving that spiritual revelation was to be achieved from within oneself. Caspar David Friedrich was a Romantic landscape painter whose work focused on the notion of humanity in the face of nature. Friedrich often painted landscapes as an allegory for Christian values and religious inquiry that becomes an existential introspection through nature. Through comparative analysis I shall demonstrate how the ideas and works of Novalis and Caspar David Friedrich correlate with the spiritual mysticism of Böhme that represent the greater discourse that is spirituality itself.en_US
dc.description.embargo2021-04-24
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/11763
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectGerman Romanticismen_US
dc.subjectChristanityen_US
dc.subjectChristian Arten_US
dc.subjectArt Historyen_US
dc.subjectMysticismen_US
dc.subjectMetaphysicsen_US
dc.subjectAlchemyen_US
dc.subjectPhilosophyen_US
dc.subjectSpiritualityen_US
dc.subjectJakob Böhmeen_US
dc.subjectNovalisen_US
dc.subjectCaspar David Friedrichen_US
dc.titleSpirituality and German Romanticism: the influence of Jakob Böhme on Novalis and Caspar David Friedrichen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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