Description:
<jats:p>The article offers a rereading of Sibylla Schwarz’s prose eclogue, <jats:italic>Faunus</jats:italic>. By describing the circumstances and the development of a young love in detail, Schwarz directs the reader’s attention to the fact, that Christian moral and ethical standards are external, and, therefore, are to be rejected. Instead, she places the ‘anthropological’ dimension in the foreground, the interest in human beings and their emotional motivations. Affective control and adaptation to conventions are less important. In that regard, this short text can be seen as an integral part of a prehistory of ‘literary anthropology,’ which ultimately evolved only in the course of the 18th century, although, as will be shown, its precursors can already be found in the 17th century.</jats:p>