Walter Pater’s Essay ‘Diaphaneitè’ as a Bridge between Romanticism and Modernism

Abstract

Compares passages in Pater’s essay with ones from the works of Novalis to illustrate their similarity in thought regarding the concept of the diaphanous character. Claims Pater’s transformation of this Romantic idea reveals that he stands at the threshold to modernism: On the one hand he keeps up the Romantic and Idealist assumptions of the subject’s ability to form itself and to maintain its wholeness; on the other hand he echoes a modernist position in declaring this to be possible only through the indefiniteness of the subject.