Includes bibliographical references and index.

Has Romanticism been superseded by realism, modernism, and postmodernism, all of which are often taken to acknowledge reality more fully than Romanticism? What is it that Romantic thinkers and writers do? Why does what they do matter? Is Romanticism a think of the past?" "These challenging essays defend Romanticism against its critics. They argue that Romantic thought, interpreted as the ongoing pursuit of freedom in concrete contexts, crossed by frustration and marked by desire, remains a central and exemplary form of both artistic work and philosophical understanding. Marshaling a wide range of texts from literature, philosophy, and criticism, Richard Eldridge traces the central themes and stylistic features of Romantic thinking in the work of Kant, Holderlin, Wordsworth, Hardy, Wittgenstein, Cavell, and Updike. Through his analysis he shows that Romanticism is neither emptily literary and escapist nor dogmatically optimistic and sentimental." "This philosophical defense of the ideals and practice of Romanticism will appeal particularly to all professionals and students in philosophy, literature, and aesthetics who are interested in expressivist thinking about value and freedom, as it is developed in both literary and philosophical texts.