According to Goethe, “irony” is “ein gewagtes Wort” (“a risky word”,
Die Farbenlehre, [
Theory of Colors], Preface 1808), especially combined with the vague designation “romantic”. Although
romantische Ironie(romantic irony) is considered a key concept of romantic literature and gained wide currency among critics and philosophers of the last two centuries, surprisingly the term itself does not occur in the publications of the German romantics – only in Friedrich Schlegel’s private notes (
Literary Notebooks, ed. Hans Eichner, 1957). It was Hermann Hettner who disseminated “romantic irony” as a theoretical term (
Die romantische Schule, 1850). Before the Age of Romanticism (see German Romanticism), “irony” was well established both as a maieutic term referring to…
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Romantic Irony". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=576, accessed 23 November 2024.]
