From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

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Abstract

This chapter explores the genealogy of the phrase ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous’, tracing the saying from Romantic period attributions to Thomas Paine and Napoleon back to seventeenth-century debates about the sublime as a literary style. Ridiculousness haunts sublimity from Longinus’s discussions of the comic in his treatise to Kant’s consideration of humour as an affect uncannily akin to the sublime. Returning to Romantic period theorizations of the ridiculous, the chapter considers Jean Paul Richter’s aesthetics and his influence on S. T. Coleridge’s thinking about humour as providing alternative perspectives on key Romantic concepts including our relationship to nature, society, and childhood.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Cambridge Companion to the Romantic Sublime
EditorsCian Duffy
PublisherCambridge University Press
Chapter15
ISBN (Electronic)9781009026963
Publication statusPublished - 6 Jul 2023

Keywords

  • ridiculous
  • affect
  • comedy
  • humour
  • laughter
  • sublime
  • Romanticism

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