THE ALCHEMY OF ROMANTICISM IN SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT
THE ALCHEMY OF ROMANTICISM IN SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT

Summary/Abstract: The present paper suggests a new understanding of the romantic phenomenon as a type of alchemy and as a spiritual process. I undertake to discuss essential aspects related to an alchemical understanding of artistic labour, esp. in Blake’s and Novalis’s poetics, but also in that of other romantics, and to demonstrate that the two phenomena have strong affinities. One conclusion is that romanticism is different from alchemy proper only by the fact that romanticism never entirely reaches the final alchemical phase (rubedo), but it always approximates it to increasing degrees: the romantic heroes tend towards ever greater unifications: between men and women, between man and nature/cosmos, between cosmic man and God.

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