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Informationen zum Autor Seán M. Williams is a lecturer in German and European cultural history in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sheffield, UK, following an appointment as Vice-Chancellor's Fellow. He was previously lecturer ("wissenschaftlicher Assistent") in German and comparative literature at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has publishedon German literature and philosophy around 1800, in comparative contexts. Klappentext Weaving in authors from Antiquity to Agamben, Williams shows how European - and, above all, German - Romanticism was a watershed in the history of the preface. The playful, paradoxical strategies that Romantic writers invented are later played out in continental philosophy, and in post-Structuralist literature. Zusammenfassung Weaving in authors from Antiquity to Agamben, Williams shows how European - and, above all, German - Romanticism was a watershed in the history of the preface. The playful, paradoxical strategies that Romantic writers invented are later played out in continental philosophy, and in post-Structuralist literature. Inhaltsverzeichnis Abbreviations ... v A Note on Translations ... vi Introduction: What Prefaces Are Not: Pedantic Notes ... 1 Historical Context and Precedent Paratextual Theory and Textual Autonomy Rhetorical Caesura: Comprehending Romanticism Writing to Write 1 Goethe: A Playful and Resistive Set of Preface Strategies ... 66 Zero Prefaces Ambiguous Prefaces Poetic Prefaces Embedded Prefaces Belated Prefaces A Hypertrophic Preface 2 Jean Paul: Autoprefacing ... 144 Baroque Beginnings: The Preface as Brow, Morsel, and Porch Reviewers and Readers Writers and Preface-Writers Prefatory Procrastination and Textual Foreplay The Logic of Length; Or, Digressive Fragmentation Countering Captatio Benevolentiae ? Beyond Eloquence Conclusion: Preface to Prefatorial Philosophy (and Theory) 3 Hegel: Prefatorial Polemic Becomes Philosophy ... 237 Starting with Sterne? Literature and Philosophy around 1800 Descriptive Induction versus Performative Prefacing A New Style of Preface Sublation of Conventional Prefatory Content A Superior Preface Philosophical and Rhetorical Preface Paradigms Post-Structuralist Postscript Conclusion... 311 Acknowledgements ... 328 Bibliography ... 330 Index ... 371 About the Author ... 372...
