Proceeding from an examination of basic tenets in systems theory, the author sets out to review received assumptions about the history of idyllic literature in the 18th century. Consideration of the social theories underlying the idyll as a literary genre casts a different light on the source material from Geßner to Goethe, revealing that in Enlightenment poetics the idyll was accorded the status of a temporary enclave of contemplative and harmonious sociability without querying the binding nature of the overall framework of society.