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. |
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Page 108
... comprehend the world rationally . Accompanying this rational drive , Goethe sees and values the irrational and ... comprehended under any idea , still less under one word . " In attempting to give it a definition he calls this strange ...
... comprehend the world rationally . Accompanying this rational drive , Goethe sees and values the irrational and ... comprehended under any idea , still less under one word . " In attempting to give it a definition he calls this strange ...
Page 245
... comprehension of forces operating behind appearances but the various attempts made in the past to comprehend the fullness of appearances and give them meaning . The neo - Platonic symbolism of Faust is not just the continuity of ...
... comprehension of forces operating behind appearances but the various attempts made in the past to comprehend the fullness of appearances and give them meaning . The neo - Platonic symbolism of Faust is not just the continuity of ...
Page 252
... comprehend his historically given world . While it restricted the type of activities he could pursue , the ... comprehension of the symbolic meaning of one's own activities provided the knowledge of one's relation to others and of the ...
... comprehend his historically given world . While it restricted the type of activities he could pursue , the ... comprehension of the symbolic meaning of one's own activities provided the knowledge of one's relation to others and of the ...
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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