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 165
... divine or disappear into the absolute . Faust regains his youthful form ; he returns to his form of earthly existence which most closely approximates the realization of his individuality . The confrontation with the divine afirms him in ...
... divine or disappear into the absolute . Faust regains his youthful form ; he returns to his form of earthly existence which most closely approximates the realization of his individuality . The confrontation with the divine afirms him in ...
Page 180
... divine creation . The devil's entrance upon this heavenly scene emphasizes the temporal limits of creation . While all earthly entities are limited , only man is aware of them . Mephistopheles , however , gives little weight to " the ...
... divine creation . The devil's entrance upon this heavenly scene emphasizes the temporal limits of creation . While all earthly entities are limited , only man is aware of them . Mephistopheles , however , gives little weight to " the ...
Page 230
... divine . God's time therefore opens up the possibility of expansion , of working through the devil's creation towards the meaningful whole of Being . Between these two sides of time , temporality is experienced as a " peculiar pulse of ...
... divine . God's time therefore opens up the possibility of expansion , of working through the devil's creation towards the meaningful whole of Being . Between these two sides of time , temporality is experienced as a " peculiar pulse of ...
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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