From Romantic Subjectivity to Post-Romantic Cultural Identities and Linguistic Adaptation

Abstract

Contemporary language rights advocacy seeking linguistic cultural recognition follows Romantic ideas against Enlightenment universalism. Advocates’ scepticism towards modernity and yearning for an unpolluted natural life are quintessentially Romantic themes. Nevertheless, language advocacy approaches differ from earlier Romantic thinking in key respects. This chapter compares Romantic linguistic philosophy with later linguistic anthropological understandings, which influence today’s advocacy. Both Romantic national building and Romantic revolt exude a strong sense of subjectivity. If Romantic writing elevates the nation, it also fiercely asserts the individual, whether the individual genius against the mediocrity of conventional society, or the individual soul, particularly the artistic soul, against mass industrial society. Romanticism expresses ‘a belief in human potential taken beyond ordinary limits’ (Wordsworth and Wordsworth, 2003, p. xxiii). Conversely, contemporary language advocacy is sceptical towards human subjectivity and linguistic creativity.