「ギリシア文学の研究について」における「イロニーの欠如」

―最初期Fr・シュレーゲルの芸術の歴史哲学―

抄録

In this paper, I try to clarify the basic structure of the philosophy of art history in Friedrich Schlegel's On the Study of Greek Poetry (1795, in the following abbreviated to Studium-Aufsatz). To begin with, I consider the seventh Lyceums-Fragment (1797), in which Schlegel himself criticizes the Studium-Aufsatz and says, the worst part of it seems to me to be the complete absence of indispensable irony. To be sure, there is neither mention of irony, nor ironical style in the Studium-Aufsatz, but the concept of the infinite perfectibility of art in it should be regarded as an anticipation of the concept of irony, which is described in the 42nd LyceumsFragment as the mood, which surveys everything and rises infinitely above everything limited. This concept of infinite perfectibility means that if the heritage of Greek literature will be transformed into scientific knowledge, i. e., aesthetic theory and the history of literature, modern literature can progress beyond the fruit of the ancients with the aid of these sciences. However, this concept lacks consistency in the Studium-Aufsatz, because in that essay two contradictory arguments co-exist: the one maintains that modern literature can surpass Greek literature, striving constantly for the never reachable absolute maximum of art, and the other contends that the relative maximum, which was attained by the ancients, be the highest beauty which can never be reproduced by the moderns. Such co-existence of contradictory arguments has brought about complication and confusion in the philosophy of art history described in the Studium-Aufsatz. At stake is the definition of the new epoch of art after an aesthetic revolution, and more concretely, the evaluation of Goethe. I conclude that Schlegel criticized the irresolution of the Studium-Aufsatz between the relative and absolute praise of Greek poetry as the absence of irony.