About the Mechanistic-Scientist Origins of the First Theory of Poetry in the History of Romanian Literature: The Influence of Schopenhauer and Herbart on Titu Maiorescu.

Abstract

In the present essay, I investigate the influence exerted by the German philosophers Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) on the first theory of poetry in the history of Romanian literature. It was launched by the literary critic Titu Maiorescu (1840-1917). In a study titled Romanian Poetry. A Criticai Inquiry (1867), which is among the first Romanian works of literary criticism and the first one dedicated to poetry, Maiorescu introduces concepts and theories formulated by Herbart and Schopenhauer. He combines these theories in a particular way, with the intention of producing a theory of poetry that is as solid as possible. An important contribution made by Maiorescu to the theorization of poetry is the attempt to fortify or complete Schopenhauer’s theory about the lyrical genre - an eminently idealistic one - with resources provided by the “realist” Herbart - one of the first thinkers who aimed at providing psychology with a scientific foundation. Herbart introduces, for example, concepts from the physics of that period (Newtonian mechanics, electricity, etc.) and from mathematics in order to define or quantify psychological experiences, which he seeks to describe as measurable entities, governed by laws just like other phenomena of the physical world. Thus, inspired by Schopenhauer to determine the “object” of poetry - namely “feeling” -, Maiorescu defines “feeling” in terms of Herbartian psychology: as an experience located in the “consciousness,” resulting from a "struggle” of “representations,” and which possesses an “intensity” that is superior to other experiences. Thus, the first theory on poetry in the history of Romanian criticism, one indebted to idealism and romantic poetics, also draws inspiration from Science.