Abstract
In his Hamlet or Hecuba, Carl Schmitt continues his long-standing interest in the problem of the Romantics. According to Schmitt, the intrusion of time and reality into the dramatic stage is the source of the Hamlet myth, which challenges the ideas of the artwork as an organism and artistic sovereignty established since Romanticism, and aims to oppose the aesthetic politics of the Romantics. His critique of William Shakespeare implies the intrinsic connections between modern political representatives and literary representation. But in the post-romantic context, it is difficult for universal ideas to attain a public image, and even the public to which Schmitt appeals has become a differentiated multitude. Schmitt's critique of the Romantics is less a solution to the modern political crisis than a symptom of the crisis into which modern aesthetic politics has fallen.
Keywords
organism, sovereignty, Carl Schmitt, the Romantics, aesthetic politics
First Page
54
Last Page
66
Recommended Citation
Su, Yan. 2025. "Organism and Sovereignty: The Problem of Romanticism in Carl Schmitt's Literary Criticism." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 45, (3): pp.54-66. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol45/iss3/6
