This contribution counts as a preliminary to a careful rereading ofThomas Carlyle's ethical and political engagement of literary discourse.Starting from Paul de Man's critique of aesthetic ideology, an alternativeconstellation of Carlyle's texts will be argued, taking the dynamicpresence of the aesthetic ideology as primary criterion. Carlyle's Heroesis then read as a rhetorical recuperation from an incisively critical momentin his performative aesthetic critique of Sartor Resartus, which inits turn is prepared by the philosophical investigation into the categoryof the aesthetic in the early essay "The State of German Literature". Inthe latter, it is primarily Carlyle' s failure to posit Kant' s Critical Philosophyas the ultimate legitimisation of his transcendental aestheticsand his eventually aporetic critique of the mystical act of reading whichestablish the complex rhetorical condition of his writing as dynamicallydealing with aesthetic ideology. Finally, some suggestions will be madeconcerning the relevance of Carlyle's writing for literary theory and hisposition within the Victorian tradition.
