Fragment as a Cultural Philosophical Genre of Jena Romanticism

This work investigates the new form of writing—the fragmentary project—that Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis developed in response to Kant’s and Fichte’s systematic philosophy. We argue that, first of all, the fragments are not anti-systematic. In contrast, the fragments of romantics constitute a new type of system, which is an anti-systematic system. This complex and self-contradictory model of the organisation of fragments is transferred to the structure of the romantic picture of the world, the romantic way of thinking. The fragmentary project was one of the most ambitious and bold attempt to find a way to think outside the rhetorical system, to challenge and destroy it, and also to create a new way of philosophizing. The study is aimed at a comprehensive analysis of the fragmented genre. The goal of our work is to explore the fragment phenomenon in a cultural-philosophical approach and show the role of the fragment theory in the  Jena Romanticism and its connection with the romantic picture of the world. To this aim, the study will address the following research questions: 1. What version of the "I" did romantics claim in fact? Torn or solid, but in a state of constant integration and disintegration? Is it possible to imagine the fragments in the form of an unsystematic system? How did the fragmentary project influence the role of art in the project of romanticism?