Abstract

Info

Title:: The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns in German andFrench Literatures: From the Perspective ofModernization of Time Concept

Keywords:: modernization of time concept; linear concept of time; circular view of time; German literature and French literature; quarrel between the ancients and the moderns

Abstract:: The quarrel of the ancients and the moderns in German and French literatures shows a concern over the concept of time in the transformation period of modernization. Due to various differences in history, traditions, economy, culture and geography, most French intellectuals believed in the linear concept of time and adopted a corresponding optimistic progressive theory of history, while their German counterparts, with reservations about such understanding of time and history, preferred a cultural concept of time, a mixture of the linear concept of time and a circular view of time. During the period of Enlightenment, such “looking back” cultural consciousness prevailed in Germany, accounting for their unique understanding of time concept, and the choice of a path of cultural modernization rather than social modernization in the transformation period.