LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 23:10 October 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

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Herder and Shakespeare: Negotiating with Nationalism

Dr. S. Sridevi

Abstract

This paper aims at studying how Shakespeare impacted on Herder, and how Herder uses Shakespeare’s works as an illustration to form his opinions on nationalism. Shakespeare reflected the ideology, geo-politics of his age. His plays show the rise of the individual showing the signs of the rise of nationalism and the independent ideology of political freedom. Herder views them as a break from Greek drama having its regional features. Shakespeare becomes a symbol of Herder’s nationalism and cultural diversity. The romanticism of Herder provided elements for the building of the idea of nation in Germany, and Shakespeare’s plays helped him to arrive at a focused understanding of the changing processes and trends of European political history.

Keywords: Johann Gottfried von Herder, Shakespeare, nationalism.

Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) wrote his essay "Shakespeare" in 1773 followed by Samuel Johnson’s (1709 – 1784) “Preface to Shakespeare” in 1765. The period signifies the historical rise of distinct nations, ethnicity, language and cultural heritage as important features of the process of being more civilised. Johnson recognised the creative and original contributions of Shakespeare; Herder interpreted Shakespearean writing as an expression of English nationalism and establishment of England’s individualism as different from Greece.

Herder gave a “romantic accent” to the idea of nation and valued the “popular spirit" as “national spirit.” He was “the first European who, remaining a cosmopolitan, in the Enlightenment sense, interpreted Europe as a symphony of several different voices, of the national voices, knowing how to distinguish them and characterize them” and was one of those voices who “demanded the development of a democratic Germany.” Along with this trend “the great romantic poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) and the group called “leftist Hegelians,” of which both Marx (1818-1883) and Engels (1820-1895) participated, were emblematic of that trend.” These thinkers and idealogues, esp. The “romanticism of Herder” and the “idealism of Fichte” supported and “provided elements for the building of the idea of nation in Germany” (Paula).

Hegel’s philosophy turns out to be largely a sort of elaborate systematic development of Herder’s ideas (especially concerning language, the mind, history, and God); so too does Schleiermacher’s (concerning language, interpretation, translation, the mind, art, and God); Nietzsche is deeply influenced by Herder as well (concerning language, the mind, history, and values); so too is Dilthey (especially concerning history); even John Stuart Mill has important debts to Herder (in political philosophy); and beyond philosophy, Goethe was transformed from being merely a clever but rather conventional poet into the great artist he eventually became largely through the early impact on him of Herder’s ideas. (Forster)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. S. Sridevi
Professor of English and Principal
Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth College for Women
Chennai 600011, Tamil Nadu, India
sridevisaral@gmail.com
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