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Angela Carter's reception of German Romantic philosophy is one important aspect of her commitment to deconstructing and revising Western literary tradition. In The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972), Carter suggests that the Romantic ideals of harmony and transcendence limit personal freedom, and that the Romantic imagination is not as liberating as its champions claim. This is illustrated through the protagonist Desiderio, whose fragmented sense of self arises from his liminal position as a mixed-race inhabitant of a postcolonial nation. His yearning for a clear identity is characteristic of the Romantic desire for a lost harmony, but Carter criticizes this European philosophy for its potential to mythologize a dangerous form of self-sacrifice. The postcolonial context of the novel illustrates the very real dangers that arise when any particular ideology gains the upper hand, and the Romantic desire to unite the world is warped into a vision of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]