DescriptionThe dissertation argues that the early works of Novalis together represent a philosophical critique of Romantic reflexivity as a concept of artistic autonomy.Chapter One addresses Novalis's “Bemerkungen zu Fichte,” demonstrating that the Jena Romantic concept of artistic autonomy operates at the most elementary level of Novalis's aesthetic program, namely, the linguistic sign. In nuce, Novalis's semiotics represent an ongoing process of self-regeneration in visual form; stated otherwise, the sign engenders itself as a literary creation of its own imaginative powers of language. Chapter Two considers “Die Lehrlinge zu Saïs” to be a literary narrative about the “language of nature.” Interpreting the text in the context of Novalis's semiotic discourse on the laws of language and scientific discourse on the laws of nature, the poetic autonomy of the sign comes to represent a microcosm of the poetic autonomy of nature herself. For Novalis, the “nature” of language and the “language” of nature convey one and the same intuition.Chapter Three understands “Monolog” to be the culmination of Novalis's philosophy of language as that of a living, animating force in the universe that maintains and regulates the manifold unity of our mundane reality.