Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

Sartor Resartus

• philosophical work in the guise of fiction (similar to Kierkegaard's Either/Or, or Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra
• Carlyle was a student of German philosophy, particularly of Kant, and an early English advocate of Goethe
• title means "the tailor reclothed"
• concerns relationship of outward appearances and inward essences
• relates Carlyle's spiritual growth
• supposed to be commentary on the thought and early life of a gErman philosopher Diogenes Teufelsdrockh (translates as "god-born devil-shit"), who is author of a book called "Clothes: Their Origin and Influence"
• "Philosophy of Clothes" holds that meaning is to be derived from phenomena, continually shifting over history, as cultures reconstruct themselves in changing fashions, power-structures and faith-systems
• Names to associate:
• Professor Teufelsdrockh
• Weissnichtwo (professor's hometown)
• Everlasting Yea
• Everlasting No
• Wanderer (refers to Teufelsdrockh)
• Blumine
• Dumbdrudge
• Hofrath Heuschrecke
• "For not this man and that man, but all men make up mankind, and their united tasks the task of mankind."