Modernization, Romanticism and Literary Market: The Mixed Origins of Flexible Spirituality and Modern Literary Sphere

Abstract

Are the flexibility and commodification of the spiritual characteristic aspects of contemporary culture? Focusing on the cases of Germany, England and France, this article analyzes how literary Romanticism in its roots is entangled with flexible spirituality. Both Romanticism and flexible spirituality are as well intertwined with the formation of the modern literary field. The sustained economic and demographic growth in Europe since the s. XV, as well as the literacy promoted by Protestantism, build a modern public reader, which is related —during the s. XVIII— to the revolution and diversification of reading. The growth of the number of readers promotes the diffusion of incipient modern trends (science, Enlightenment, press). Partially opposing these trends and extending the diversification of print, the Romantic trend emerges. Its authors make spirituality more flexible beyond the religious conventions of the time. In doing so, they contribute to the formation of the literary field by the following processes (1) characterizing disenchantment and other forms of modern malaise; (2) multiplying the imaginary-transcendent language; (3) providing metaphysical connotations to artistic genius; (4) promoting the autonomy and expressive freedom of art. The evidence indicates so far that the market was a basic historical condition for flexible spirituality. The article suggests that this flexibility is shown as an adaptation of spirituality to the empirical circumstances of modernity, which entails new needs for meaning and a greater capacity to diverge from traditional religious accounts.