Friedrich Schlegel and Incomprehensibility as Irony in Under the Wheel by Herman Hesse

Abstract

The test has two fundamental objectives. The first consists of offering fundamental considerations on the conception of irony developed by Friedrich Schlegel, discussing what he understands as Friedrich Schlegel's “romantic irony.” We will start from their own conceptual developments, in particular, about “incomprehensibility”, understanding it as the human impossibility of knowing everything of modern thinkers. To do this, the necessary bridges are established to understand the interpretation that the philosopher makes of “Socratic irony”, taking distance from it and making known the approaches and positive aspects of his proposal, which we can consider an ethical and critical praxis. constructive, on the one hand; and, an invitation to think with intellectual humility, in the face of the overwhelming and insatiable goals of enlightened and modern thought, on the other hand. The second objective of this work is to exemplify, trace and present the basic concepts and considerations related to Schlegel's romantic irony in Herman Hesse's Under the Wheel (1906), giving an account of the usefulness that irony can offer, as he conceives it. Schlegel, to a philosophy for life through analysis that is established as an example with Hesse's story.