Illusion and the Drama: Critical Theory of the Enlightenment and Romantic Era

Burwick examines the debate over illusion from Johnson to Coleridge in England, Diderot to Stendhal in France, and Lessing to A. W. Schlegel in Germany.

Although few critics still define illusion in contrast to reality, the essential distinction is between illusion as perceived reality and as hallucination or delusion. The concept of illusion as debated in contemporary critical theory has been shaped by developments that took place during the transition from Enlightenment to Romantic thought...