Transcendental homelessness (german: transzendentale Obdachlosigkeit) is a

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

term coined by

George Lukács George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

in his 1914–15 essay ''Theory of the Novel''. Lukács quotes

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...

at the top of the essay, "Philosophy is really homesickness—the desire to be everywhere at home." The essay unfolds closely related to this notion of Novalis—that modern philosophy "mourns the absence of a pre-subjective, pre-reflexive anchoring of reason" and is searching to be grounded but cannot achieve this aim due to philosophy's modern discursive nature. In ''Theory of the Novel'', with regards to literature, Lukács suggests that the era of Homeric epics, was characterized by a "closed totality" where the pre-reflexive hero is connected to a cosmic destiny (a home of the soul) so that loneliness is transformed into a solid position in the universe. In the modern novel, however, the subject is without ties to the eternal and thus loneliness is more pronounced—the loneliness of a soul that cannot find a cosmic (transcendental) home. He labeled modern

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s, especially

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

's ''

Wilhelm Meister ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' ( ger, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre) is the second novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1795–96. Plot The eponymous hero undergoes a journey of self-realization. The story centers upon Wilhelm' ...

'',

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

and Dostoevsky, as the artistic expression of the metaphysical conditions of this epoch.

References

{{reflist Literary theory György Lukács