Solitude in Stefan George: poetry and philosophy

Abstract

This paper aims at contributing to the contemporary debate on the relationship between poetry and philosophy by recovering - under a historical perspective - some elements of aesthetic reflection on Stefan George’s poetry. In the controversial "Stefan George and his Circle" hermeticism and aestheticism are present, as well as the renewal of the lyric verse through the revaluation and the poet's craft. In defense of pure poetry, George's lucid diction tensions the boundaries of the lyric beyond the romantic subjectivity toward word objectivity. In the early twentieth century, philosophers such as Simmel and Lukacs examine whether George’s lyricism was modern or classic; whether it is an expeimental production deriving from a non-subject. Philosophers such as Simmel and Lukacs examine in the early twentieth century George's lyricism was modern or classic: an experimental production from a non-subject imagery to argument and common uses of language, or whether there was a metaphysical relapse, the new "reintegration of the idea" in poetry.