Profile deutscher Kulturepochen: Aufklärung

In the series 'Profiles of German Cultural Epochs', 'Enlightenment' occupies a prominent place, as it marks the beginning of modernity as a pan-European movement: The 'Enlightenment' can be seen in the gradual replacement of the feudal system with a bourgeois society, in the gradual and momentous separation of philosophy and theology, in a new way of thinking about history, nature and humanity fuelled by empiricism, and finally in the creation of a literature that was to become the basis for the modern age.The result was the creation of a literature that broke away from the traditional model poetics and provided the media in which the process of coming of age reached first a large number of educated people and then the general public: a different drama, narrative-instructive prose, fables and a new lyrical art of expression. The volume begins with an introduction to the period and then presents the most important areas individually, tracing basic currents and emphasising the special features of the individual arts in terms of time and subject matter: in music, literature and the arts, in historical thinking, theology and philosophy. In the second part, the Enlightenment itself has its say: 39 representative excerpts from important and momentous texts speak for the epoch, supported by introductions that place these texts in their historical and biographical context and briefly comment on their content. The volume concludes with an index, bibliography and a chronological table.