Since the late 18th century, thoughts on arts, crafts und sciences are inevitably thoughts on dilettantism as well. In literature this phenomenon is illustrated and reflected by certain techniques, which embody historically varying concepts of dilettantism. As an element of rethinking enlightenment and classicism, dilettantism in art is linked to autodidacticism in education. Within the context of colonialism and primitivism, dilettantism was recuperated as it was performed in the guise of circus arts and artistry. In postmodernism, dilettantism can be found either in obsolete ways of dealing with media or is used in technologies of the self.