Literary Conclusions: The Poetics of Ending in the Eighteenth Century

Speaker(s): Oliver Simons (Columbia University)

This talk explores concepts and theories of conclusions in the second half of the eighteenth century. Juxtaposing treatises on inferential reasoning and theories of life with literary text from the same period, it shows how intimately new genre conventions from around 1800 are related to their epistemological contexts. Taking the example of three iconic figures from the period, it discusses how Lessing’s literary endings are closely tied to theories of logical reasoning, how Goethe depicts conclusions that are thwarted by a vital “force,” whereas Kleist uses literary genres themselves as forms of concluding. His literary conclusions are the beginning of a uniquely modern understanding of textual endings.
 
Oliver Simons is professor of Germanic Languages at Columbia University. His current research interests include the “end” around 1800, literary theories, and literature and economics. His publications include Raumgeschichten: Topographien der Moderne in Philosophie, Wissenschaft und Literatur, Literaturtheorien zur Einführung, edited volumes on Franz Kafka, Ingeborg Bachmann, and The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt.