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Heinrich von Kleist is renowned as an author who posed a radical challenge to the orthodoxies of his age. Today, his works are frequently seen to relentlessly deconstruct the paradigms of Idealism and to reflect a Romantic, even postmodern, perspective on the ambiguities of the world. Such a view fails, however, to do full justice to the more complex manner in which Kleist articulates the tensions between the securities of Enlightenment thought and the anxieties of the revolutionary age. Steven Howe offers a new angle on Kleist's dialogue with the Enlightenment by reconsidering his investment in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Where previous critics have trivialized this as intense but fleeting and born of personal identification, Howe here establishes Rousseau's importance as a lasting source of inspiration for the violent constellations of Kleist's fiction. Taking account of both Rousseau's critique of modernity and his later propositions for working toward the Enlightenment promise of emancipation, the book locates a mode of discourse which, placed in the historical context of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, sheds new light on the political and ethical issues at play in Kleist's work. Steven Howe is Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. He is co-editor, with Ricarda Schmidt and Seán Allan, of 'Heinrich von Kleist: Konstruktive und Destruktive Funktionen von Gewalt' (forthcoming, 2012).

830 "18" VON KLEIST, HEINRICH --- 830 "18" VON KLEIST, HEINRICH Duitse literatuur--19e eeuw. Periode 1800-1899--VON KLEIST, HEINRICH --- Duitse literatuur--19e eeuw. Periode 1800-1899--VON KLEIST, HEINRICH --- von Kleist, Heinrich --- Rousseau, Jean Jacques --- Rouseau, Jan Jakub, --- Russo, Zhan Zhak, --- Rousseau, John James, --- Rūssū, Jān Jāk, --- Lu-so, --- Ru-xô, Giăng-Giá̆c, --- Rousseau, Jean Jaques, --- Rousseau, Jean Jeacques, --- Rousseau, J. J. --- Rusō, Jan Jakku, --- Rousseau, Gian Giacomo, --- Ruso, Z'an Z'aḳ, --- Rūcō, --- Citoyen de Genève, --- Citizen of Geneva, --- Roussō, --- Rousseau, --- Rūssō, --- Rousseau, Johann Jacob, --- Руссо, Жан-Жак, --- רוסא, זשאן־זשאק --- רוסא, י׳ן י׳ק, --- רוסו, זאאן זאאק, --- רוסו, ז׳אן־ז׳אק, --- روسو، چان چاك --- روسو، ژان ژاك --- 卢梭, --- Rousseau, Juan Jacobo, --- Rousseau, G. G. --- Ruso, Jan Jak, --- Rūsaw, Zhān Zhāk, --- Rūsū, Zhān Zhāk, --- Kleist, Heinrich von, --- Kleĭst, Genrikh, --- Kleist, Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von, --- Kleist, H. V. --- Ḳlaisṭ, Hainrikh fun, --- קלייסט, היינריך --- קלייסט, היינריך פון, --- קלייסט, הינריך פון, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques --- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, --- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary. --- Enlightenment thought. --- French Revolution. --- German literature. --- Heinrich von Kleist. --- Identity. --- Jean-Jacques Rousseau. --- Napoleonic Wars. --- Nation. --- Violence. --- ethical discourse. --- modernist literature. --- political and ethical issues. --- political discourse. --- radical challenge. --- revolutionary age.