To put it lightly, I am certain this book provided less than elevated guidance for the youth it so captivated.Įngrossed only in himself, Goethe’s self-caricature, Werner, wallows through this story in abject misery. On Septemat 8:46 am | Log in to Reply stu Posted in Germany, Goethe, Romanticism, weekly readings | Tagged Germany, Goethe, Romanticism, weekly readings | 44 Comments 44 Responses What about him, and what about the way the work is written, defined the age? So as you read, think about why the figure of Werther inspired such admiration–or, if not admiration, certainly strong feelings. The image of Werther as a twin or brother who has died or been killed and returns to haunt him recurs in a poem entitled “To Werther,” written when Goethe was near the end of his life. “Even if Werther had been my brother and I had killed him,/It could not be worse than this: being vengefully pursued by his sad ghost.” In the fourth of his Roman Elegies, written in 1788–1789, in a suppressed draft, Goethe gives thanks that he has escaped from the endless interrogation-Was there really such a person as Werther? Was it all true? Where did Lotte live? “How often I have cursed those stupid pages/That exposed my youthful suffering to the masses,” he writes. Even late in life, Goethe was haunted by the man he created, which after all bore a great resemblance to himself: In fact, the work influenced even its writer, who was long haunted by the public’s obsession with his story, and the way people made assumptions concerning its characters’ origins in real life. The book influenced a generation of European youths, many of whom even wore yellow coats in imitation. We will be reading one of those greatest works: The Sorrow of Young Werther. ‘My purpose in making this wonderful journey,’ he wrote, ‘is not to delude myself but to discover myself in the objects I see.’ Invigorated by fresh surroundings, he emerged from his Italian adventure with a renewed self-confidence and recharged imagination that enabled him to write the greatest works of his career. Goethe’s aim was far more than to run away into anonymity or visit famous sites. He sketched ancient monuments in Rome, observed local customs in Verona, collected rock samples in Sicily and forged friendships amongst his bohemian fellow travellers. It was the beginning of a trip that lasted almost two years, and which not only rejuvenated his spirit but gave him a new direction in life. A few days after his birthday, without telling anybody of his plans, he jumped on a mail coach at three in the morning, with no servant and only two small bags, and fled south to Italy under an assumed name. And he was suffering from unrequited love for a married woman seven years his senior. He was bored with his job, having spent a decade as a top civil servant in the court of the Duke of Weimar. He had achieved fame as a novelist and dramatist in his early twenties, but now his literary work was floundering and almost everything he started he failed to finish. Goethe had just celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday and was facing a mid-life crisis. It began in the type of stormy emotional content we have come to associate with him, as an essay by Roman Krznaric describes: But Goethe’s own journey was not necessarily as luxurious and relaxing as those who followed him. Thanks partially to Goethe’s journey, such a trip became a necessary part of any cultured European’s upbringing during the period we study. Goethe summed up his own encounter with Italian culture in a work he called The Italian Journey, a writing of such influence that 200 years later it still drives tourism to Italy. You’ll see Italian images over and over in 19th century art. Ask yourself: is it a typical German landscape? Hardly… it is Italian, an important country for cultural figures throughout the period we study. Look at him here reclining in a background typical to paintings of the time. His writings are often credited with forming the modern German language itself, and yet his themes as a writer often dealt with very personal subjects - above all, emotion. He was so important to the cultural imagination of modern Germans that even today he is a household name. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a poet, playwright, author, teacher, philosopher, and many other things besides. That’s the German government’s most high-profile, worldwide institution of culture and language, offering an array of classes, performances, film screenings, and other cultural events (some of which will be worth attending this semester! Stay tuned.) So, if the Germans saw fit to name such a place after this man, he must be a pretty big deal, right? Right! If you’ve had time to tour the neighborhood of SCS headquarters, you might have noticed the Goethe Institut just two blocks away.
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