The theory of the total work of art as a formal category in early German Romanticism

Abstract

We try to demonstrate how early German Romanticism develops an embryonic theory of the total work of art as a formal category, namely, as the intention to create one single work where a synthesis of all the arts is produced. The latter would be the culmination of a way towards artistic totality that begins with the belief in the unity of the arts, goes through the fusion of genres within each art form, continues with the desire to merge thearts and ends with the will to join all of them together in one single work.