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The transition from the 18th to the 19th century saw significant contributions to the advancement of weather and climate sciences. Proposed interpretations of nature showed the influence of the philosophical ideas of the time. Authors such as Kant, Laplace, and Humboldt developed their theories on nature, which evolved the concepts of environmentalism of the time. In this context, Goethe published different writings on the importance of nature and its constituent elements, including the atmosphere, which merited the writing of a treatise on meteorology with novel ideas on atmospheric dynamics. With an exquisite education, Goethe developed his work in a cultural and scientific context -Weimar-propitious to promoting the arts and sciences. He participated in the activities of the Jena Circle and played an active role in the political life of the time. Goethe's contributions to the theory of nature and the understanding of atmospheric issues established a necessary intellectual link between Kantian idealism and the scientific empiricism practiced by Humboldt in the first decades of the 19th century. This work analyses the cultural and social context in which Goethe's ideas on nature developed and, in particular, on atmospheric aspects whose study and interpretation marked the life of the German polymath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written until this day about the sentence Wo Es war, soll Ich werden, which concludes the XXXIst lecture of the "New introductory lectures on sychoanalysis" devoted to the "Dissection of the psychical personality". For almost a hundred years, layer upon layer of translation and interpretation have accumulated to obscure the meaning of this suggestive aphorism. My aim here will be to go back to the Freudian original - a move that although inspired by Jacques Lacan's approach in the 1950s does not take up his interpretative line. Rather, acting in the manner of a restorer carefully cleaning a painting so as to bring out the original colors and background, I will endeavor to remove one by one the accumulated layers of interpretation that have come to obscure the meaning of the Freudian formula. By shedding light on the formula's ambiguities as well as its intertextual echoes (Goethe, Romain Rolland and Ferenczi), I intend to breathe new life into it and demonstrate the depth of meaning attached to it, thus reviving its significance and resonance. Indeed, insofar as the very meaning of psychoanalysis is at stake, these interpretive debates are of concern not only to the Freudian exegete, but to all analysts in their relationship to psychoanalysis and to interpretation and theory. I will argue that the equivocation of Freud-Mephistopheles's formula, which I will refer to as a "Faustian Cogito" or "Faustian Witz", is an invitation to devote ourselves to the never-ending task of reinventing psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With attention to theories of affect morality and narrative empathy this article investigates author and reader identification in eighteenth-century literary emulations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Considering Émile Durkheim's sociological theory of suicide insufficient for classifying literary suicides of the eighteenth century I propose a definition of moralistic suicide in which individualistic protagonists choose death as a means of preserving virtue. I argue that moralistic suicides appeal to readers by providing an imaginary model for emulation. By witnessing a moral death through literature readers may inhabit exhibited righteousness and engage with characters in a form of fictive pouting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents translations from the journal "Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum." The articles translated include "Preliminary Tasks of Comparative Literature, Part III: Decaglotism," "Laws of Comparative Literary Research" and "Goethe's World Literature: Nine Theses on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Goethe's Death."

This essay centralizes and explores Ernst Cassirer's concept of style. Although it does not emerge as much as the concept of form or symbol in Cassirer's corpus, style plays a major—if intrinsic—role throughout the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. I shall examine how Cassirer's conception of style is derived from Goethe's theory of art and why it is fundamental to Cassirer's theory of knowledge. Style is considered the defining feature of the cultural sciences, as well as the sign of the anthropological character of the natural sciences, and, more generally, as the creative principle underlying all objectivity. I argue that it is therefore justified to read style as the fundamental yet variable expression of our symbolic relation to reality. Indeed, style refers neither to an abstract principle nor to a predetermined truth: it is a formative force actualizing itself in the incessant diversification of its forms. In so doing, Cassirer's underexamined concept of style proves highly relevant in our times of epistemic and cultural pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a group of Georgian needlework pictures based on late eighteenth‐century cabinet prints of literary works. Focusing on how these needlework productions were realized, including which decisions regarding the colour of silk thread and chromatic patterns, as well as visual revision, were made by the female silkworker, the article seeks to introduce these pictures as meaningful remediations of printed visual literary culture. The silkworks will be shown to advance interpretations of and to provide framing for six literary characters and the ways in which their stories were iconically rendered by the silkworkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The musical era of Romanticism leaped forward from the individuality of Beethoven and developed composers that were unafraid of expressing their passions through their music. The leading figures of Romanticism, like Schubert and Liszt, no longer saw themselves as servants of their audiences but instead made it their goal to show what they loved in their music. Even despite the stark individualism that was prevalent in this era, there was a shared passion many composers had that was able to unify them, a love for poetry. By studying emotive vocal genres like the German Lied as well as the influences of poetic literature on purely instrumental works, poetry is revealed to be a common trait in the Romantic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The twentieth century is witness to a revival of interest in the bildungsroman as writers, especially from postcolonies in the Global South, turn to it to reflect on concerns of history, culture, and social life in a postcolonial setting. Scholars, however, disagree regarding the nature of these reworkings. Some see them as a continuation of the original European models established by Goethe, Dickens, and other European writers. Others find such associations Eurocentric and call for more local standards of evaluation. This article examines this debate by looking closely at a version of the postcolonial bildungsroman proposed by the Kannada writer U. R. Ananthamurthy in his 1965 novel Samskara. The novel follows an orthodox Brahmin priest from Karnataka who, disillusioned by the corruption and moral decay in his community, embarks on a pilgrimage to rediscover his identity in the rapidly modernizing world of twentieth‐century India. Ananthamurthy's bildungsroman, while retaining some structural similarities, departs from European models in fundamental ways. The motif of the hero's journey, for instance, is flipped. The novel tracks the hero's growing discontentment with his community leading to a sense of communal alienation, thus inverting the European journey‐trajectory that typically follows the hero's movement toward social integration. It also deviates from the generic Western rags‐to‐riches storyline that complements that hero's road to social integration. Instead, it adopts the narrative structure of the Niti‐shastra, a set of precolonial Hindu texts that teach about the wise conduct of life. Such readings not only facilitate fresh ways of understanding the relationship between the Western and the postcolonial models, but they also allow new insights into understanding how South Asian authors utilize the bildungsroman to rediscover precolonial and classical works through modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goethe's first drama written in the wake of the French Revolution, Der Groß-Cophta, has garnered little favor from audiences and scholars since its first publication. This essay argues that Goethe's comedy inverts fundamental dramaturgical conventions of tragedy, revealing a social and political world in collapse. It shows that patterns of literary figuration first articulated in Der Groß-Cophta extend across several of Goethe's literary engagements with revolutionary tumult. Confidence men and narratives of lost innocence emerge as crucial elements in Goethe's diagnosis of the disintegration of ethical life responsible for the demise of the ancien régime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a reading of Goethe's exemplary Novella, the essay seeks to show that Juliane Vogel's study of dramatic entrances can be made fruitful for the analysis of narrative Darstellung. In this late work, Goethe creatively appropriates the premodern tradition of the aventure or âventiure and redeploys it as a representation strategy. The Novella relates events in which elemental forces appear before the eyes of the characters. These forces are represented as advancing toward their spectators; charged with energy, they seem to be emerging from a background and approaching them. The essay analyzes the representational strategies and linguistic devices through which Goethe shapes these narrative scenes of advancing. Among them, the present participle plays a salient role. It is a means of grammatically forming energetic states and can be understood as a grammatical figuration of Goethe's concept of form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Icon loaded or just a game? In contrast to the countless symbolic and allegorical interpretations with which Goethe's Märchen has been showered for two centuries, a sober shape analysis is the starting point here. The focus is on the entertaining function of the story; seen in this way, this story, which is programmatically titled as a fairy tale, primarily represents a deliberately colourful, enjoyable and enigmatically designed game of the imagination full of wonder and transformations. In addition, Goethe's view of contemporary fairy tale fashion has clearly ironic (distancing) accents, which of course in their subtlety can only be understood by an educated audience. Furthermore, this article tries to soften the strict distinction between "poetry of the uneducated and educated", which Jacob Grimm postulated in 1808 as "eternally founded"; it would like to level this genre-theoretical gap, that has since then divided the fairy tales (with what were then new terms) into "Volksmärchen" (folk fairy tales) and "Kunstmärchen" (art fairy tales), to a certain extent after more than 200 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Eduard Huber's translation of Faust I (1838), the first complete translation into Russian, in the context of Goethe's translation theory (Notes to West-Eastern Divan, 1819) and Berman's The Experience of the Foreign (1984). Goethe's insights shed light on Huber's text, and Huber's translation, in turn, elucidates specific pitfalls that Goethe's theory of epochs did not anticipate: the impact of censorship, the influence of the translator's melancholic persona, the urge to fit into the Russian Romantic tradition, and limitations of the Russian metrical system. These four factors align with Berman's "systems of deformation" which result from the "cultural resistance" to any translation. My article, structured around these deformations, demonstrates in detail how the receiving culture resists translation in the case of Huber's Faust. The original is altered in the spheres of religion, politics, and sexuality; Huber gives Faust and secondary characters his own lyric voice, introduces Romantic motifs, and adjusts some German meters. Overall, Huber's translation does not fit neatly into any of Goethe's "translation epochs." It is "parodistic," yet in the metrical sphere it sometimes moves towards what Goethe called the "highest" translation epoch. Huber's translation not only enriches Goethe's theory but also, while telling the story of Faust, implicitly tells Huber's own story, as well as the story of Russia's literary development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

J.W. von Goethe was a renowned German writer and naturalist whose scientific work was inseparable from his artistic activities. While his scientific contributions were initially overlooked, they have since been recognized and valued. Goethe's ideas on natural science had a significant influence on Moscow University and Russian intellectual society during his lifetime. In Germany, his scientific work was reevaluated in the mid-19th century. Goethe's observations and experiments were precise and can be confirmed, even if his interpretations may not align with scientific truth. His philosophical and religious views greatly influenced his work as a naturalist and artist. Goethe made significant contributions to descriptive natural science, particularly in the fields of mineralogy, osteology, and botany. His work focused on precise observation and the establishment of empirical facts. Goethe's scientific work laid the foundation for future developments in various scientific fields. Despite disagreements with the scientific community, Goethe's ideas remain relevant in the 20th century, particularly in the study of internal processes in morphological phenomena. His emphasis on the unity and wholeness of nature aligns with modern scientific understanding. Researchers today find value in Goethe's unique perspectives and insights into natural phenomena. [Extracted from the article]

The article examines the process that led to the erection in 1871 of the monument to Friedrich Schiller in the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. In the twelve years that passed between the conception of the monument and the unveiling, the project was dogged by disputes about its legitimacy and the form it should take. The undercurrent of these disputes was political, reflecting tensions between liberal and conservative opinion in the period. After tracing the history of the project, the article concludes with broader reflections on the place of public monuments in the commemorative culture of our own time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbandes is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbandes is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbandes is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this essay, Goethe's early historical plays, Götz von Berlichingen, published in 1773, and Egmont, published only in 1787, are compared. So far, scholarly work has not recognized enough of the differences between both works. Goethe's intellectual development from the young Storm and Stress writer of Götz to the publication of Egmont fourteen years later has not been considered sufficiently. Goethe's development is clearly reflected in his protagonists' deeds and intentions. Goethe's Götz fights predominantly for his own rights and his family. Egmont aims higher; he is more concerned with the welfare state of society and reflects on political issues Götz is unable to consider. Moreover, Goethe takes, in both cases, poetic license to create a different picture of his protagonists' failures than historical sources provide. This finally leads to the introduction of the term preclassic to differentiate between Götz and Egmont. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes the thesis that the literary critical project launched by Walter Benjamin in his early work (from 1914 to 1922) opens an important and complex line of inquiry into the novel that has not been sufficiently appreciated—either in the reception of his work or with regard to the study of the novel more generally. Benjamin's early criticism does not contain a fully developed and comprehensive theory of the novel like the one offered by Georg Lukács during these same years. But Benjamin's approach to the novel in his early work, and in particular in the essay "Goethe's Elective Affinities," completed in 1922, marks a departure from an interpretation of the genre as a modern form of epic of which Lukács's theory is the most developed example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary we present an analogy between Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's classic poem, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and institutional learning analytics. In doing so, we hope to provoke institutions with a simple heuristic when considering their learning analytics initiatives. They might ask themselves, "Are we behaving like the sorcerer's apprentice?" This would be characterized by initiatives lacking faculty involvement, and we argue that when initiatives fit this pattern, they also lack consideration of their potential hazards, and are likely to fail. We join others in advocating for institutions to, instead, create ecosystems that enable faculty leadership in institutional learning analytics efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay will analyse how Goethe's " Weltliteratur " is interpreted and re-invented in China in the twenty-first century mainly by reviewing selective essays published in the Chinese journal Comparative Literature in China. The analysis reveals how Chinese scholars strive to engage actively in the international discussions of the concept and to chart a map of world literature by offering Chinese perspectives. One such attempt is to trace a parallel development line of similar ideas in Chinese literary history whereas another is to emphasize the position of Chinese literature in the picture of world literature, especially by incorporating overseas Chinese literature into comparative literary studies with the intention to enlarge the scope of reference of Chineseness. These attempts reflect the growing confidence of Chinese scholars to secure our position in the global development of world literature and world literature studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though Tolkien valued verbal and literary art more highly than visual aesthetics, his conscious allusions to visual theories proposed by Goethe and Romanticists such as Coleridge and Blake indicate the value he perceived in visual art to create art that facilitated individual transformation. In 'Leaf by Niggle' Tolkien's Romanticism resists the atomistic values that preceded the Romantics and that he recognized in his own day. Coleridge's Romanticism of privileging both the individual and the general derived from a devotion to the contemplation of nature, which resonated with Tolkien. Like Blake, Tolkien averred the virtue of attention to minute particulars as well as the unity of the whole, which appears in the assemblage of Niggle's Tree. Transcendence begins by apprehending a greater unity encompassing individuality, which translates into a necessary self-effacement in favor of a naturalistic interconnectedness. This self-effacement extends to include aesthetic considerations as well selfish desires and thus enables the transcendence of others by encountering the visual sublime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that Goethe's philosophy of nature can be presented in a vertical order of stages. By reading his natural philosophy as a system of hypostases, Goethe's accentuation of a divine ground can be taken seriously. Related to the Neoplatonic hypostasis models, for Goethe the living organisms rest on a divine and metaphysical entity. It is a guiding argument of this article that the enigmatic and inexhaustible 'Bildungstrieb' (nisus formativus) of all-nature expresses itself in the respective primordial phenomena (Urphänomene). For this purpose, the 'Bildungstrieb' uses the two authoritative laws of polarity (Polarität) and increase (Steigerung). These laws form the second level of the graduaded order. The sphere of the diverse Urphänomene can thus be marked as the third level. They are themselves dependent on the Bildungstrieb and the principles of increase and polarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter F.Schmid's sequel to Goethe's Faust imagines Faust's 'inner world' and his aspiration to become a psychotherapist of the whole of humankind who saves the world from evil. It is argued that Schmid's Faust is a literary text that provides a sidelong glance at psychotherapy since it offers a vision of reality that is primarily a dynamic, dialogical and intersubjective process, which leads to shifts in shared meanings. First, I discuss the nature of Faust's transformation in both Goethe's and Schmid's versions of Faust. Second, I refer to Schmid's characterization of Faust's 'inner world' and the challenges he faces in becoming a psychotherapist. Third, I discuss the dialectics of mutual tension, in particular, of affinity and alienation, in the relationship between Faust and Mephistopheles, the devil. Fourth, I compare Goethe's and Schmid's concepts of evil and the extent to which they reflect an inherent aspect of the human condition. Finally, I discuss their understanding of the spiritual dimension of Faust's transformation in which he attempts to transcend his limitations as a human being and engage relationally in a process of becoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While popularly known for his works of literature and poetry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe viewed his lesser-known scientific pieces as his most enduring achievement. I will argue that Goethe's unique scientific methodology is informed by a metaphysical commitment to a form of Platonism and that Goethe provides an intriguing alternative paradigm that unifies science, philosophy, theology, and ethics. I begin by demonstrating how Goethe's concept of the Urphänomen offers a Platonic conception of natural beings. I then briefly outline how this alternative scientific approach ultimately derives from his Platonic commitments. Next, I demonstrate the ethical and spiritual implications of Goethean science, establishing that Goethe's approach bridges the divide between our scientific endeavors and spiritual formation. There is, then, a continued relevance for Goethe in conversations regarding ecological ethics and our perception of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on Rosa von Praunheim's interview with German author Robert Tobin for von Praunheim's film "Männerfreundschaften," inspired by "Warm Brothers: Queer Theory and the Age of Goethe," about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's travels to Italy. Topics include the consistency of Tobin in his scholarship to link aesthetics and LGBTQ+ history and his participation in educational and local communities.

Fears around the consequences of reading went hand in hand with the development of the novel in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and these concerns crystallized around the reception of Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774). An examination of prescriptive approaches to reading and an analysis of how moral fears around aesthetic attachment were transferred from theatrical experience to reading prepare the ground for looking at fictional accounts of reading practices in Wertheriaden — the innumerable texts that reused characters and topoi from Goethe's novel. Where Leopold Alois Hoffmann's play Das Wertherfieber (1785) offers a broad condemnation of the fashion for Werther, Ernst August Anton von Göchhausen's identically titled satirical novel, Das Werther-Fieber (1776) ostensibly condemns the moral arguments for suicide in Werther, but its comic portrayal of a variety of social reading practices points to a more nuanced phenomenology of reading — and how reading cannot be contained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre appeared in 1795–96, two decades after the publication of Bertuch's translation of Cervantes' Don Quijote and three years before Tieck's seminal translation of the same. Both novels famously feature errant protagonists with complex lives and problematic love interests. This comparative paper offers a detailed exploration of the potential links. The initial focus is contextual, with a discussion of Goethe's reception of Cervantes's work and the critical responses of Goetheforschung to this meeting of great minds. The paper then explores parallels between the texts, building on the work of Barry Ife on Quijote in relation to the use of voice (especially song) and dissembling (ventriloquy) in the Lehrjahre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goethe deals with the subject of genesis in a wide variety of contexts: geological, biological, mythological, aesthetic. He is convinced that the observation of developmental processes is particularly insightful. The present essay describes Goethe's interdisciplinary ideas of genesis and discusses the relationship between nature and culture in Goethe's thinking. The focus is on philological observations on the genesis of the 'Klassische Walpurgisnacht', which is characterized by Goethe's engagement with the scientific debates of the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the appearance of Goethe's reworked version of the novel in 1787, the Werther that made all the running in the anglophone world, until well into the nineteenth century, was a relay translation from the French, based on the Weygand second edition of 1775. In this paper I discuss some of the issues I have encountered in attempting to translate into English Werther in its first and most influential incarnation. These include what has been called the 'instability of originals' and its implications for translators, and also how the anglophone translator should approach the novel's extensive adaptation from James Macpherson's intrinsically unstable Ossian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the significance of J. G. Herder's analogical thinking in the history of comparative practices. It shows how Herder's comparative method, of positing one phenomenon as another in its own singular and inimitable manner, emerges from his concept of God and nature as informed by Baruch Spinoza, as well as his study of scientific and cultural phenomena, including the active mechanisms of poesis as sensory perception. While Herder's concept of comparison and his analogical practices influenced prominent thinkers contemporary to him such as J.W. Goethe, the specificity of his comparative method has been overlooked by scholars past and present, such as Michel Foucault, as Herder's approach resists assimilation in histories of comparativism centered on nineteenth-century projects of comparison. Yet his outlook on the tension between difference and identity offers fresh insight into relations between distinct cultures and entities without effacing their particularity or placing them in static hierarchies. Herder's comparative method provides new perspectives on contemporary debates on the benefits of and dangers of historical analogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbandes is the property of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Wilhelm's reflections in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1794/95) significantly influenced the history of Hamlet criticism. The belief that Goethe used his protagonist to present his own analyses was both reflected in and reinforced by partial English translations of the German novel that appeared in British periodicals and anthologies throughout the long nineteenth century. Due to their usefulness for critical discussions, and for British publishers targeting new audiences, Wilhelm's disquisitions were repeatedly extracted, adapted and remediated by translators and editors who exploited Goethe's shifting reputation in nineteenth-century Britain. At their hands, pieces of fictional dialogue were reconfigured into autonomous pieces of critical commentary that served specific agendas in the target culture. Building on recent work on remediation, this article analyses both how parts of the novel underwent changes on the textual, paratextual, material and contextual levels, and why translations made them cross the fluid boundary between fiction and literary criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 18th century, an organismic perspective has been contrasted with a mechanistic perspective. In the former, the whole dominates the parts, while in the latter, the parts dominate the whole. An organismic perspective further sees wholes as self-directed processes of progressive formation (Bildung) rather than as static configurations or forms (Gestalten). In sum, the organismic perspective focuses on living, developing, and interconnected wholes, in contrast to mechanical causality. This article explores the roots of the organismic perspective in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's scientific work (esp., his morphology), follows its influence through the 19th century, and highlights intersections within 20th-century psychology, particularly Heinz Werner's organismic–developmental theory. Some key commonalities are a focus on the primacy of the whole, processes over products, the genetic method, (dis)continuities and transitions in development, the primordial unity of the senses, and the making of developmental comparisons. The organismic approach can be used today to revitalize our understanding of the dynamic constitution of culture and mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay underscores the importance of seeking refuge in literary aesthetics by arguing that Goethe's concept of world literature was formulated in compensation for the shock of military defeat, political collapse, and foreign occupation. The refugee became a figure of identification in Goethe's writing in the 1790s and his Orientalist Nachdichtungen. The Goethean mode of reading distant literatures entails identifying with other writers who are often already marginalized within their own cultures. This manner of engaging with non-European texts refuses to establish a pantheon of great works precisely because it relies on a writerly interest in rediscovering one's own identity by reading foreign literature from a position of insecurity and weakness. The goal of reading is always the reconstruction of the self through a strange text. With its eagerness to establish a monumental cultural figure, the nineteenth and early twentieth-century canon marginalized precisely those unGerman texts in which Goethe most effectively dismantled his own authorial status. Only with the demise of colonial empires and the defeat of Nazi Germany did a more modest, anti-hegemonic mode of reading remerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "What comes to mind - about Sigmund Freud: The Soul in Goethe's Poetry" by Wilhelm Solms deals with the portrayal of the soul in Goethe's works. It is shown that the soul can cause both joy and suffering, as depicted in Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther". The soul also plays an important role in other works such as "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" and "Egmont". The article emphasizes that Goethe believed in the existence of the soul and that it brings joy to both the protagonists and the readers in his works. [Extracted from the article]

The article deals with the awarding of the Goethe Prize to Sigmund Freud in 1930. The decision was controversial, but supported by some individuals such as Alfred Döblin, Alfons Paquet, and Ludwig Landmann. In his acceptance speech, Freud emphasized the connection between Goethe's poetry, his actions, and psychoanalysis. The article also mentions other psychoanalytic studies on Goethe, such as those by Kurt Eissler and Theodor Reik. It examines the relationship between Goethe and a woman named Lili, as well as the connection between Goethe's fairy tales and his personal biography. The fairy tale serves as a coping strategy for the painful break with Lili and contains Masonic symbolism. [Extracted from the article]

What is the importance of the children Mignon and Felix, in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels , for the themes of sexuality and pedagogy in What Maisie Knew ? Grounded in suggestive correspondences between geographically distant, but conceptually allied narratives, James's novel appears to invert the moral compass of Goethe's bildungsroman to craft Maisie's misguidedness and perhaps that of her narrator. While distancing Maisie from the preconceptions of the narrator, I credit, as a foreshadowing of What Maisie Knew , James's allusion—in his personal review of the Meister narratives—to "pernicious conclusions." Features of both Mignon and Felix, as transposed by James, resurface in Maisie, while Wilhelm morphs into a predatory Sir Claude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the right to look as an outstanding perspective in General Education Science. It emphasizes that the right to look in education is supported by critical reflections on education and the methods that lead to conclusions about it. The text analyzes the scene of the "Eiertanz" (egg dance) in Goethe's work "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" and highlights the importance of the gaze and the right to look in this scene. It argues that visuality functions as a hegemonic medium and the right to look is often restricted. The story of Mignon and Meret in the novels "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" and "The Green Henry" shows how education can be shaped in different ways. [Extracted from the article]

The academic discussion of charisma takes two major voices as the point of departure: Max Weber and St. Paul. In both areas, sociology and religion, charisma is seen as a quality of persons. My argument is that entire cultures can be suffused by this force, and that social life, education, and modes of expression can be bearers and transmitters of charismatic force. I approach the argument conceptually, drawing on a remarkable passage in Goethe's autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit. What Goethe calls "the demonic" is charisma conceived as a force that can penetrate, unpredictably, either natural phenomena or persons. To these I add institution, cultures, and structures of government. The charisma of larger structures, like personal charisma, has a life-cycle, charisma in its cultural structuring being as unstable as in its personal embodiment. The idea opens cultural transformations to analysis. Clifford Geertz has provided a model. The sea-changes that transformed western European culture from the twelfth to the thirteenth century show us the end of a life-cycle of charismatic culture, and the transition to intellectual or textual culture. Charisma moved out of the realm of the lived and expressed social forms and into art and artifice, rationalizing philosophy, theology, liturgy and other forms of Christian discourse (sermons). Three voices from the later thirteenth century observe this development closely—the loss of charisma as a political–social–cultural force—and lament the loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Georgian writing starts much earlier than when Goethe introduced the term "Weltliteratur." It starts from the era of Christianity from the 4th century. Due to the fast spread of Christianity in the Early Medieval period, Georgia was already included in the European net of Christian writing. All branches of Christian spiritual literature were presented. Georgian culture and literature naturally were developing in the frame of the Western European tradition. The period of the 11th-12th centuries was a Golden Era for Georgia, and the heyday of fame for Georgian culture and literature as well. Precisely during this period, "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" was created by Shota Rustaveli. Apart from its aesthetic, philosophical, and worldview depth, it is a first text in Georgian literature as well as in European literature which reflects the clashing of two huge universes in Georgian culture--the West and the East. The Western principles are revealed in the Christian worldview of the text, in the way of thinking of the author and in its genre; however, the 12th century is already a period of strengthening of the influence of Eastern culture and literature in the European part of the Caucasus, and Rustaveli regards with obvious favor the Oriental poetic motifs. Unfortunately, at this stage of European literary history, Georgian literature was separated from the Western European literary process due to tragic political events. As for literature, it was a period of almost three centuries of silence. After the fall of Constantinople, Georgian literature had to move closer to the Eastern area as an historically offered alternative. From the 17th century, the process of the returning of Georgian political and cultural life back within the European frame had been started. Genuine Georgian writers were able to tie Georgian literature to the cultural models of European Classicism and the Enlightenment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theme of translation, pseudo-translation, and multilingualism in Goethe's Lehrjahre and Novelle. Both texts stage processes of (failing) translation in order to reflect on issues of linguistic identity and linguistic homogeneity. Overall, Goethe's latent inclusion of different languages in these texts demonstrates his deep engagement with language diversity, as he resisted the monolingualizing tendencies of his time. The paper argues that the two novels underscore the tension between embracing linguistic otherness and conforming to monolingual norms in German classicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1798, Friedrich Schlegel published a review of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship , extolling Johann Wolfgang Goethe's book as a masterpiece. At the same time, he commenced work on Lucinde , which caused a moral scandal and was criticized widely. Here, I retrace several threads of Schlegel's novel that testify to the fact that his assessment of Goethe's work may not have been so unequivocally favorable as it might seem at first sight. When looking at Wilhelm Meister through Lucinde 's eyes, we can see that Schlegel challenges the Goethean philosophy of man, and his novel remains the only consistent record of this criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Job and Evil" by Elisabeth Birnbaum deals with the theme of evil in the book of Job. The Satan is not seen as a devilish power or personification of evil, but rather as a kind of prosecutor who wants to bring the truth to light. The book tells of a dialogue between God and Satan, in which the question arises whether the well-being of the pious Job is truly a result of his fear of God. Satan questions the selflessness of Job's piety and love for God, but he is not authorized to take action against humans. It is God himself who deprives Job of all his possessions. In the second scene in heaven, God's appreciation for Job is confirmed, while Satan continues to doubt. He suspects that Job's loyalty to God is a strategic precaution and continues to doubt the selflessness of Job's fear of God. God allows Satan once again to rob Job of his health and personal integrity. Thus, the responsibility for Job's suffering lies with God. In the digression, Satan in Goethe's Faust is compared to the Satan in the book of Job. In Goethe's work, the aim is to shower Faust with pleasures to prove the futility of fearing God, while in the book of Job, the aim is to let Job suffer to prove the selflessness of his fear of God. The text deals with the portrayal of the crocodile and the hippopotamus in the book of Job. It is emphasized that these animals do not know fear, but can instill fear in humans. The rhetorical questions in God's speech illustrate that neither the crocodile nor the hippopotamus can be conquered by humans. In Egyptian mythology, these animals are equated with evil, while in the book of Job, it is emphasized that they are part of God's creation. It is also pointed out that God himself stands before these animals and that humans cannot oppose them. The speech about the hippopotamus and crocodile serves to change Job's perspective and enable him to gain new insight. It is emphasized that evil exists in the world independently of human guilt, but is controlled by God. Evil is not seen as an anti-divine hostile entity, but as part of God's creation that is tamed by him. [Extracted from the article]

In exploring the relationship between the artist and ethics this extended paper compares the role of the two protagonists, Lotte and Goethe, in Mann's novel, with particular reference to the concepts of 'Wiederholung' and recreation. The statement 'Aber aus Küssen werden keine Kinder' serves as a leitmotiv, treating Lotte's 'Menschlichkeit' with specific reference to her 'Weiblichkeit' in comparison to Goethe's artistic 'Lebenserneuerung aus dem Geist'. Mann's work on this novel will be discussed within the framework of German fascism, experienced mainly during his exile in America. A shorter form of this paper was given at the annual conference of the Association of German Studies in Nottingham (5th to 7th September 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]