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“O you little lovable best friend”: Writing Friendship in the Age of Enlightenment

Heinrich, Tobias (2020) “O you little lovable best friend”: Writing Friendship in the Age of Enlightenment. De musica disserenda, 16 (1). pp. 121-137. E-ISSN 2536-2615. (doi:10.3986/dmd16.1.06) (KAR id:81170)

Abstract

This article examines the various discursive strands converging within the cult of friendship in mid-eighteenth-century German culture. Following Christian Fürchtegott Gellert’s “Vier und zwanzigste Moralische Vorlesung” (Twenty-fourth Moral Lecture), it explores a programme of virtue that no longer follows religious values, but is informed by the enlightened paradigm of reason, and the redeeming of this idea within the framework of interpersonal relationships. The second half of the article investigates the relationship between friendship and the epistolary correspondence culture in the eighteenth century, illuminating the practices and artefacts of friendship communication.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.3986/dmd16.1.06
Uncontrolled keywords: friendship, letters, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D203 Modern History, 1453-
D History General and Old World > DD Germany
P Language and Literature > PD Germanic philology and languages
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Tobias Heinrich
Date Deposited: 11 May 2020 13:01 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 15:17 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/81170 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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