According to Goethe, “irony” is “ein gewagtes Wort” (“a risky word”, Die Farbenlehre, [Theory of Colors], Preface 1808), especially combined with the vague designation “romantic”. Although romantische Ironie (romantic irony) is considered a key concept of romantic literature and gained wide currency among critics and philosophers of the last two centuries, surprisingly the term itself does not occur in the publications of the German romantics – only in Friedrich Schlegel’s private notes (Literary Notebooks, ed. Hans Eichner, 1957). It was Hermann Hettner who disseminated “romantic irony” as a theoretical term (Die romantische Schule, 1850). Before the Age of Romanticism (see German Romanticism), “irony” was well established both as a maieutic term referring to “Socratic irony” as intellectual midwifery, and as a rhetorical figure of classical provenance disguising one’s true meaning (e.g. Marcus Antonius in Shakespeare’s...
1610 words
Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Romantic Irony". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=576, accessed 09 June 2026.]
