"A classical work doesn't ever have to be understood entirely. But those who are educated and who are still educating themselves must desire to learn more and more from it"
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Schlegel is giving “understanding” a demotion and making desire the real credential. A classic, in his telling, isn’t a puzzle to be solved once and shelved; it’s a renewable resource that keeps defeating your certainty. The sly move is that he grants permission to not get it all - then immediately makes that partial grasp a moral test. If you’re educated, and still educating yourself, you must want the work to keep opening. The classic becomes less a monument than a treadmill.
That’s a very early Romantic kind of provocation. Schlegel came up in a moment when “classical” meant not just old and prestigious but culturally authoritative - a canon used to sort people, to confer legitimacy. He doesn’t reject that authority; he rewires it. Instead of classics as fixed exemplars of taste (the Enlightenment’s preferred posture), he frames them as inexhaustible texts that demand ongoing formation of the reader. The subtext is both democratic and disciplining: anyone can meet a classic where they are, but only the serious will keep returning, rereading, and revising themselves.
There’s also a jab at the complacent expert. If a work can be “understood entirely,” it starts to look less like art and more like a manual. Schlegel defends opacity as a feature, not a flaw - the kind of depth that justifies a tradition of interpretation without pretending that tradition will ever reach finality. The intent isn’t to mystify for mystification’s sake; it’s to protect literature’s power to outlast the reader’s ego.
That’s a very early Romantic kind of provocation. Schlegel came up in a moment when “classical” meant not just old and prestigious but culturally authoritative - a canon used to sort people, to confer legitimacy. He doesn’t reject that authority; he rewires it. Instead of classics as fixed exemplars of taste (the Enlightenment’s preferred posture), he frames them as inexhaustible texts that demand ongoing formation of the reader. The subtext is both democratic and disciplining: anyone can meet a classic where they are, but only the serious will keep returning, rereading, and revising themselves.
There’s also a jab at the complacent expert. If a work can be “understood entirely,” it starts to look less like art and more like a manual. Schlegel defends opacity as a feature, not a flaw - the kind of depth that justifies a tradition of interpretation without pretending that tradition will ever reach finality. The intent isn’t to mystify for mystification’s sake; it’s to protect literature’s power to outlast the reader’s ego.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
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