La Rheinromantik, Hegel e il giovane Marx

Karl Marx’s letter to his father from November 1837 documents the first relevant turning point in his life and thought. Here he announces the end of his youthful literary and aesthetic ambitions and his embracing of Hegel’s philosophy by using – with a dialectic twist – a language packed with quotations from and references to the romantic poetry he loved. In this letter Marx openly adopts a feature typical of Heinrich Heine’s style, notably in his Buch der Lieder, especially by defining Hegel’s philosophy as groteske Felsenmelodie. Through a thorough analysis of this expression, my contribution will show how Marx acquires a clearer understanding of romantic epigonism which he had already become familiar with through Heine’s poetry, and as a consequence shifts the focus of his intellectual activity towards new models and outlooks, from literature to philosophy.