Empfindsamkeit

The discussion on the emergence of Empfindsamkeit has tended largely to ignore the lyric poetry of the period, although it may be said to be the first genre to take up and reflect this particular materialization of the Enlightenment. It displays close connections to the religious avant-garde of the period, with Pietist poetry being the first category to manifest tendencies that can genuinely be termed empfindsam. The most prominent poets of this bent are theologians with strong leanings towards Neologism, a religious persuasion reconciling within itself both Pietism and Rationalism and as such legitimately identifiable as the theology of Empfindsamkeit. This volume is the first study to point up these connections. In so doing it sheds new light on the religious roots of Empfindsamkeit and opens up an entirely new perspective on its poetry.