دوره ادبيات روشنگري در آلمان

German Literature in the Age of Enlightenment

In the Eighteenth Century, German literature grew and developed in the light of Enlightenment thought and flowered in a beautiful and didactic manner. From the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, Gottsched was under the influence of Liebniz and Wolffʹs rationalistic thought. Following these two philosophers, Gottsched considered literary activityʹs sole purpose to help the growth of human reason in the direction of morality. Gottschedʹs disciples accorded feeling and imagination a place next to reason and so the literature of the Age of Enlightenment entered a new stage. Men of letters who believed in Pietism started to purify their souls in order to be more moral and attain happiness. Writers who created works of sentiment believed finesse and elegance of feeling and affection to be necessary for moral happiness. Lessing, who was both a writer and a philosopher, put literature to the service of spreading religious tolerance and social criticism. Some of the men of letters of the Enlightenment started to write fables because they found this genre an appropriate manner to educate man and also a tool for social criticism. In conclusion we must mention that manʹs moral and social education was the common purpose of all the men of letters of the Enlightenment.