Noble Savages and English Gardeners: Kulturkritik from Rousseau to Goethe

The noble savage and the English gardener are oxymoronic articulations of a reconciliation of nature and culture that the eighteenth century celebrates and questions as a remedy for modern self-alienation. They are also anthropological and horticultural manifestations of the paradox of Kulturkritik. More than just a critique of culture, Kulturkritik is a mode of experimental thinking that, self-critically, acts out antithetical scenarios for the sake of finding ways to heal from culture through culture. To explore the aesthetically pleasing but illusionary panacea, this essay draws on Rousseau’s Discourses and Julie, Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, and Goethe’s Elective Affinities and Faust.