The Aesthetics of Fear in German RomanticismEnlightenment both the phenomenon specific to the eighteenth century and the continuing trend in Western thought is an attempt to dispel ignorance, achieve mastery of a potentially hostile environment, and contain fear of the unknown by promoting science and rationality. Enlightenment is often accompanied and challenged by countercultures such as German Romanticism, which explored the nature of fear and deployed it as a corrective to the excesses of