The enlightened romantic : Kantian philosophy and Coleridge's ideological revolution in religious musings and France : an ode

Mahdi Esmaeili Abhari; Ghiasuddin Alizadeh

doi:10.5817/BSE2024-2-7

The enlightened romantic : Kantian philosophy and Coleridge's ideological revolution in religious musings and France : an ode

Vol.50,No.2(2024)

Mahdi Esmaeili Abhari Ghiasuddin Alizadeh

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2024-2-7

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.82131

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Abstract

Scholarly research on Coleridge's ideological shift provides the academia with an explanation which seems to be a justification or rather an oversimplification of the issue. Nevertheless, this study argues that Coleridge's disillusionment was not just due to the Revolution's shortcomings, but rather was a result of an ideological growth. The paper first marks the deficiencies of the unsatisfactory view in the widely accepted interpretation of his ideological shift. Then, considering the poet's beliefs on social change, his visit to Germany, and interaction with Kantian Enlightenment, the paper depicts his alignment with Kant's ideas. Accordingly, the paper steps on an untrodden path, employing insights from Slavoj Žižek and Lacanian Psychoanalysis, to suggest that his adoption of conservatism, due to his acceptance of Kant's ideological, conservative attitude towards the realization of the Enlightenment, was motivated by a need for stability and a concrete link to the Symbolic Order qua the society, which contradicts conventional accounts of his ideological development.

Keywords:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge; ideology; Kant; the Enlightenment; Symbolic Order; romanticism; the French Revolution; romantic ideology

Pages:
153–167

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