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 xiii
... movements towards an answer . Movement is all . This movement begins with the restlessness of life and the instability of meaning . It begins and ends with a refusal and a negation : with Werther's suicide and the end of a meaningless ...
... movements towards an answer . Movement is all . This movement begins with the restlessness of life and the instability of meaning . It begins and ends with a refusal and a negation : with Werther's suicide and the end of a meaningless ...
Page 16
... movement of Goethe , Herder , and Hamann . The consequence of this movement was not just to form an attitude that was opposed to the Enlightenment's views of science , of historical development , and to the relation of essence to ...
... movement of Goethe , Herder , and Hamann . The consequence of this movement was not just to form an attitude that was opposed to the Enlightenment's views of science , of historical development , and to the relation of essence to ...
Page 191
... movement is not just a return to the origin of physical nature ; rather , as is appropriate to the origin of a symbolic universe , it is a backward movement to the source of phenomenal reality . In the opening scene of Part 2 , in the ...
... movement is not just a return to the origin of physical nature ; rather , as is appropriate to the origin of a symbolic universe , it is a backward movement to the source of phenomenal reality . In the opening scene of Part 2 , in the ...
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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