Images of Identity: Goethe and the Problem of Self-conception in the Nineteenth CenturyThe word «Bildung» - variously defined as «education» or «self-formation» - came into popular usage in western Europe through the terminological revolution of the late eighteenth century. No single individual was more influential in giving his own definition to this key word than was Goethe. Through an analysis of Goethe's use of the term in the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Goethe's autobiography, Dichtung und Wahrheit, and the much neglected text Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, Sax shows how «Bildung» was more than a process of self-formation, for it included an understanding of the relation of the individual to society, to history, and through the interpretation of symbols, to a transcendent level of meaning as well. It is Sax's purpose to place Goethe's notion of «Bildung» within the context of the history of Western self-conceptions since the Renaissance. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 82
Page 71
... comes neither through experience nor through theory alone . Rather he discovers that Bildung is a mixture of theory and practice , of seeing and doing , by which an individual comes to recognize that he and his world are only ...
... comes neither through experience nor through theory alone . Rather he discovers that Bildung is a mixture of theory and practice , of seeing and doing , by which an individual comes to recognize that he and his world are only ...
Page 99
... comes to see a formative principle . Capturing the " inner form " of his identity , through a disinterested perception , the youth is able to see a structure of his individuality which persisted through all external and internal change ...
... comes to see a formative principle . Capturing the " inner form " of his identity , through a disinterested perception , the youth is able to see a structure of his individuality which persisted through all external and internal change ...
Page 201
... comes to recognize herself symbolically as a being who exists as a person here and now and as a poetic myth . " Selbst jetzo , welche denn ich sei , ich weiss es nicht ( 1.8875 ) " ( Why , even now I know not which of these I am ) , she ...
... comes to recognize herself symbolically as a being who exists as a person here and now and as a poetic myth . " Selbst jetzo , welche denn ich sei , ich weiss es nicht ( 1.8875 ) " ( Why , even now I know not which of these I am ) , she ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acceptance achieved action active Anschauung appearances autobiography beautiful Beautiful Soul become Bildung complete comprehend condition consciousness creation creative cultural Dasein definition Dichtung und Wahrheit divine drama dream earthly Emil Staiger enjoyment Enlightenment eternal existence experience fate Faust feelings finite finitude fulfillment Gestalt Goethe's grasping Gretchen harmony Helena Herder Hersilia historical human ideal identity individual infinite inner form interpretation language learned Lehrjahre limitations Makarie man's meaning meaningful Mephistopheles Montan movement myth Natalie nature novel object organ overcome Paralipomenon particular perceive perception personality Pietist Plutus poet poetic poetry problems reality realize realm recognizes reconcile reflection relation renunciation revealed scene self-formation sense social society Sorge soul specific spiritual Staiger striving structure Sturm und Drang symbolic viewing talents temporal theme totality tradition Trunz truth ultimate understanding unity various Verlag vision wager Wanderjahre Werther whole Wilhelm Meisters Wilhelm von Humboldt young Goethe Zürich