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 15
... living present and pointed not to the progressive education of the human race but the fullness of being in mankind's early history . Goethe was also critical of all existing forms of social life and all types of political institutions ...
... living present and pointed not to the progressive education of the human race but the fullness of being in mankind's early history . Goethe was also critical of all existing forms of social life and all types of political institutions ...
Page 97
... living form " to the young Goethe . This understanding of inner formative principles is essential to his comprehension of internal perspective and organic wholeness . Once we become aware of such complex unity , he writes " we see all ...
... living form " to the young Goethe . This understanding of inner formative principles is essential to his comprehension of internal perspective and organic wholeness . Once we become aware of such complex unity , he writes " we see all ...
Page 199
... living form . She can now manifest herself no longer as a mere phantom , as in act one , but as an actual existent . Unlike Faust , who moves from transience to eternity , Helena descends from timelessness to temporality . Beauty ...
... living form . She can now manifest herself no longer as a mere phantom , as in act one , but as an actual existent . Unlike Faust , who moves from transience to eternity , Helena descends from timelessness to temporality . Beauty ...
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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