The title ?Varieties of Self-Invention denotes a project to reconstruct Romanticism as a philosophical epoch. That is why Fichte and Schelling have been brought into a new configuration with F. Schlegel and interpreted as philosophical protagonists of Romantic literature. Here the focus is on their many varieties of Romantic self-invention, which are related to the great human themes such as ?freedom, ?love God, ?death and ?devil . In addition, in exemplary studies the book emphasizes the central concept of infinite irony and the typical rhetorical artistic character of Romantic philosophy."

Rhetoric as a persuasive technique, school subject and social practice has determined our literary and social linguistic life since the 5th century BC. Its history is the history of the production of speech under changing social conditions. Rhetoric has managed to re-establish itself as an academic subject at German universities since the 1960s, and today, in our advanced media society, it plays an outstanding role in advertising, sales and the social technology of management. - The Rhetoric Yearbook summarises rhetoric research in Germany and presents new publications in an extended review section. A current bibliography provides information on all German-language publications related to rhetoric.Contributions are published in English, French and German.