Shame as an ethical dilemma: Ricarda Huch between social pressure, artistic freedom, and political conscience
Gabriela Jelitto-Piechulik
jelitto-piechulik@uni.opole.pla:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:19:"Uniwersytet Opolski";} (Poland)
Abstract
This article explores the concept of shame in relation to selected aspects of Ricarda Huch’s life and work. The first part of the text, drawing on the early period of the author's literary production and engaging with the theoretical frameworks of Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud, introduces the notion of social shame as a precondition for the pursuit of individual and artistic freedom. The second part of the article, informed by selected reflections of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, examines shame in a socio-political context, particularly through Huch’s observations on German history between 1933 and 1945. The article concludes that the multidimensional character of the concept of "shame" in in Huch’s writings and intellectual legacy arises from her sensitivity to a specific synthesis of two spheres: the subjectively individual and the politico-socio-historical. Within this synthesis, moral categories play a pivotal role.
Keywords:
Ricarda Huch, Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Romanticism, new beginning after 1945References
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Authors
Gabriela Jelitto-Piechulikjelitto-piechulik@uni.opole.pl
a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:19:"Uniwersytet Opolski";} Poland
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