Uncivil Unions: The Metaphysics of Marriage in German Idealism and Romanticism by Adrian Daub (review)

Adrian Daub's Uncivil Unions: The Metaphysics of Marriage in German Idealism and Romanticism (2012), which is based on the author's dissertation, is an ambitious and extensive intellectual history of marriage, focusing on emergence of the ideal of a love marriage, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The author argues that marriage, as conceived by German Idealist and Romantic philosophers and poets, is "metaphysical" insofar as it is modeled on the period's concept of self-consciousness. In this view, marriage is as autonomous as the self-consciousness of the man and the woman it binds together: a freely chosen union of love that is "uncivil" due to its independence from the sanctions of church, state, and society.

Daub not only presents a history but also a philosophical and political critique of Idealist and Romantic ideas of marriage, by emphasizing what he views as their internal threat. Over time, an autonomous love marriage threatens to turn into an "ossified third term"—a rigid institution—or produce an "uncanny third thing"—a dependent child (Uncivil Unions 35, 69, 176). The Idealists and Romantics sought to escape this threat, Daub argues, by conceiving of marriage as the realization of a preexisting, metaphysical unity. However, stumbling over the physical nature of human existence, they ultimately failed and soon abandoned their ideals.

Despite the apparent failure of the Idealist and Romantic metaphysics of marriage, Daub maintains that they had a strong impact on society and even "set the stage for many of the dominant political fantasies of the nineteenth century and come to account for much of what fascinates and terrifies in that century's intellectual history" (34). The author sees the continuing influence of Idealist and Romantic ideas especially in current debates about marriage equality. Understanding marriage as an autonomous bond of love can have a liberating effect, enabling us to respect all committed partnerships, whether officially sanctioned or not (304). On the other hand, utopian ideals of marriage may present an obstacle to further social emancipation of queer couples, by neglecting their desire or need for a "third term"—for legal recognition and financial security or the right to jointly adopt children (307).

Daub explores the ambiguous Idealist and Romantic notions of marriage through detailed analyses of an impressive range of mostly philosophical and literary texts, framed by a discussion of these notions' precursors in the eighteenth and successors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a motivation for his study, the author cites a lack of research on Idealist theories of marriage and the misinterpretation of Romantic love as an apolitical and merely psychological utopia (9). While Daub has, indeed, undertaken the first comprehensive study on Idealist and Romantic notions of marriage and their philosophical underpinnings, he does not provide sufficient evidence for his assessment of the current state of research. Some relevant recent scholarship on Fichte's philosophy of marriage (e.g., Heinz/Binkelmann, 2000; Recker, 2000; Duncker, 2003) and on the political dimension of Romantic concepts of love and sexuality (e.g., Matala de Mazza, 1999) are not mentioned or not discussed. To regard Ricarda Huch's (1864-1947) works as "symptomatic" for the flawed reception of Romanticism (Uncivil Unions 9-10) seems to disregard her historical and intellectual context and the considerable transformations that literary scholarship has undergone since her time.

Yet, Daub's overall argument and wide-ranging interpretations are generally convincing. It seems true, perhaps even all-too obvious, that Idealism and Romanticism conceived of marriage as a utopian autonomous bond of love that was threatened by the daily grind and inconvenient offspring. Nevertheless, this interpretation does not do full justice to at least the projects of Romanticism, insofar as those consisted, in my view, precisely in overcoming the gulf between metaphysics and physical reality through poetry and aesthetics.

The problem starts with Daub's presentation of Fichte's philosophy and concept of...