Dilettantism and its Values
From Weimar Classicism to the fin de siècle

Richard Hibbitt

Cover of Dilettantism and its Values

Studies In Comparative Literature 9

Legenda

24 May 2006  •  208pp

ISBN: 978-1-904350-55-2 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-351196-31-4 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ModernFrenchGermanFictionPhilosophy

The concept of dilettantism has not always been associated with amateurism or superficiality. It played a significant role in French and German critical writing from the late eighteenth century until the fin de siècle, embracing notions such as apprenticeship, fruitful error, parody, aestheticism and scepticism. Attempts to define dilettantism in a binary relationship with art have often been defeated by a fundamental ambivalence towards its values. The major texts on the subject are Goethe and Schiller's unfinished 'dilettantism project' (1799) and Paul Bourget's essay on Ernest Renan (1882), although the term was also used by writers including Wieland, Baudelaire, Laforgue, Nietzsche, Hofmannsthal and Thomas Mann. In this wide-ranging study Richard Hibbitt provides the first book-length comparative analysis of the concept of dilettantism, tracing its chronological development and proposing a synthesis of its diverse aspects and values.

Richard Hibbitt is Lecturer in Modern French Literature at the University of York.

Reviews:

  • ‘This study explores, with great erudition, the hitherto unknown faces of the dilettante, revealing an intriguing complexity. Hibbitt succeeds in showing how this "empty figure" can, thanks to his openness, mirror the concerns of different times and cultures.’ — Forum for Modern Language Studies 224)

Bibliography entry:

Hibbitt, Richard, Dilettantism and its Values: From Weimar Classicism to the fin de siècle, Studies In Comparative Literature, 9 (Legenda, 2006)

First footnote reference: 35 Richard Hibbitt, Dilettantism and its Values: From Weimar Classicism to the fin de siècle, Studies In Comparative Literature, 9 (Legenda, 2006), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Hibbitt, p. 47.

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Bibliography entry:

Hibbitt, Richard. 2006. Dilettantism and its Values: From Weimar Classicism to the fin de siècle, Studies In Comparative Literature, 9 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Hibbitt 2006: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Hibbitt 2006: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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