Major
Works of Goethe
(1749-1832).
German Studies 357
Wed 2:30-4:30
Poet, statesman, artist, scientist, rebel, conservative, mythmaker and
iconoclast, Goethe stands at the center of Germany's belated
Renaissance. Taking his early cues from Homer, Shakespeare and
the Bible, he created cultural icons at once modern and steeped in
tradition. We will examine works from all phases of the man's
incredibly productive life against the background of political turmoil
in Europe and the Americas. We will use the visual arts, music
and theater as additional tools of interpretation.
1 Hymnen und Lieder
2 Lieder und Balladen
3 The best seller.
Werther (I) Image.
4 Werther (II) Mirror image.
5 Faust
(I) The
scholar
6 Faust
(II) The lover
7 Faust
(III) The fugitive. Gretchen in
der Hoelle.
8 Faust
(IV) The
colonizer
9 Faust
(V) Dies irae/Day of Grace
10 Pure Politics
Egmont
11 A Family Affair
Iphigenie auf
Tauris
12 What's the point of a poet?
Torquato Tasso
13 Human chemistry
Die Wahlverwandtschaften
14 Und es war alles alles gut
Novelle
Reserve List.
I have put all 14 volumes of the incomparable Hamburger Ausgabe (ed.
Erich Trunz) on 2-day reserve in the Uris Library Reading Room.
Although not the latest edition it is the best comprehensive
Studienausgabe available. Please use it regularly. Notes, commentary
and bibliography incorporate the relevant critical material up to the
time of publication (1958-60).
The most comprehensive edition, the monumental Weimarer Ausgabe, is
available on CD-ROM in the Electronic Text Center in Olin Library. For
additional holdings check: Cornell Holdings .
The library has now added a networked version of this extensive
database. You may want to take a look from your own computer. It
can be found at http://etext.library.cornell.edu/goethe/. It is also on
the Library Gateway. Search with "Goethe."
Volumes 18, 19, and 20 of the German Library contain the works we are
treating in English translation. They are on the reserve shelf. Feel
free to use them as a study aid. But please remember, you are
responsible for the German text and you must quote from it even in your
English papers.
Nicholas Boyle, Goethe: The Poet and the Age.
Stuart Atkins, Essays on Goethe. Ed. Jane K. Brown and Thomas P. Saine.
Ronald Gray, Goethe: A Critical Introduction.
Richard Friedenthal, Goethe: His Life and Times.
Liselotte Dieckmann, Goethe's Faust: A Critical Reading.
Eudo. C. Mason, Goethe's Faust: It's Genesis and Purport.
Jane K. Brown, Goethe's Faust: The German Tragedy.
Eric A. Blackall, Goethe's Novels.
Consult also (not on reserve):
Jeffrey Burton Russell, Mephistopheles.
Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan.
Jaroslav Pelikan, Faust the Theologian (see my review).
Roger Shattuck, Forbidden Knowledge.
Herbert Deinert, "Die Entfaltung des Boesen in Boehmes MYSTERIUM
MAGNUM." PMLA, September '64. Please read part II, "Luzifer", in
particular.
Guenther Boehme, Bildungsgeschichte des europaeischen Humanismus
(1986).
Jochen Schmidt, Die Geschichte des Genie-Gedankens 1750-1945. 2 vols.
(1985).