Goethe nach 1999: Positionen und Perspektiven ed. by Matthias Luserke, and: Goethe 2000: Intercultural Readings of his Work ed. by Paul Bishop, R. H. Stephenson, and: Goethe Yearbook ed. by Thomas P. Saine, Simon Richter, and: Goethe as Woman: The Undoing of Literature by Benjamin Bennett, and: Reading Goethe: A Critical Introduction to the Literary Work by Martin Swales, Erika

Abstract

1038 Reviews Goethe nach iggg: Positionen und Perspektiven. Ed. by Matthias Luserke. Gottin? gen: Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht. 2001. 175pp. ?39. ISBN 3-525-20815~4(pbk). Goethe 2000: Intercultural Readings of his Work. Ed. by Paul Bishop and R. H. Stephenson. Leeds: Northern Universities Press. 2000. xiv + i86pp. ?18. ISBN 1-9026-5325-4 (pbk). Goethe Yearbook, Volume x. Ed. by Thomas P. SAiNEand Simon Richter. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2001. 334 pp. ?45; $70. ISBN 1-57113-230-9 (hbk). Goethe as Woman: The Undoing ofLiterature. By Benjamin Bennett. (Kritik: Ger? man Literary Theory and Cultural Studies) Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2001. 274 pp. $34.95. ISBN 0-8143-2948-9 (hbk). Reading Goethe: A Critical Introduction to the Literary Work. By Martin Swales and Erika Swales. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2002. ix+i86pp. ?40; $59. ISBN 1-57113-095^0 (hbk). The Cambridge Companion toGoethe. Ed. by Lesley Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2002. xvi + 277pp. ?14.95. ISBN 0-521-66560-4 (pbk). A Companion to Goethe's 'Faust': Parts I andII. Ed. by Paul Bishop. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2001. xliv + 3i9pp. ?50; $80. ISBN 1-57113-162-0(hbk). Of this batch ofpublications some were intended to celebrate Goethe's 250thbirthday, while the rest have perforce been pulled into the anniversary's wake. Two tendencies seem to emerge. One is a taking stock ofthe current state of knowledge, a signposting of where Goethe studies have come from and where they might be heading. The other is pedagogical: it aims to welcome new readers to Goethe, whether by sharing the passion of long-time Goethe-lovers or by smoothing over the bumpy ride that reading Goethe can be. That is to say, there is little in these volumes that asks to be judged as empirically new research. Goethe nach iggg comprises papers given at the symposium 'Goethe 99?zwischen Edition und Deutung' in Darmstadt in 1999. It takes as its starting point the tra? ditional techniques of textual criticism, genetic criticism, and Rezeptionsforschung, and attempts to move these in new directions, although the coherence that such a project implies is missing from the volume and the results are not as innovative as one might expect. Thomas Zabka criticizes interpretations of Goethe's writing based on punctuation (or the lack of it). This is well timed given the recent spate of new editions, although Zabka's position implies a less favourable view of Albrecht Schone's Faust edition than he actually takes. Herbert Wender's review of recent computerized editions of Goethe raises interesting questions about current trends in textual criticism and in particular Schone's opposition to editorial intervention and conjectural emendations. In an exemplary genetic analysis ofthe 'Klassische Walpur? gisnacht', Friedmann Harzer shows how in the course of composition Homunculus replaces Faust as the protagonist of Act II and relegates the latter to the status of a failed Prometheus. In an early plan Wagner's attempt at creating life succeeds, whereupon Wagner and Homunculus accompany Faust to the classical witches' sabbath . In 1830 Goethe conceived of the idea of ending Act II with Proteus, the spirit of metamorphosis, leading Homunculus to the source of life in the sea, so that 'aus literarischen Verwandlungsscherzenwird [. . .] wieder evolutionstheoretischer Ernst' (p. 40). Widening the perspective, Harzer argues that with this gradual metamorpho? sis Goethe stands apart from the Ovidian tradition of disjunctive poetic metamorphoses . A clear and purposeful essay by Gerhard Sauder contributes to the view of Goethe as a poet of gradualism and mediation by reading the Strasbourg Cathedral essay and the Sulzer review in terms of the 'helldunkel' states of fog and twilight. There are also essays on the structure of the Frankfurter Ausgabe of Goethe's letters, Gbtter,Helden und Wieland, Goethe's geological studies, the figures of Mignon and MLR, 98.4, 2003 1039 Helen, identity formation in Clavigo, the nineteenth-century reception of Werther and Lenz, and Friedrich Gundolf. The volume is rounded offby the editor's breezy and idiosyncratic look at publications on Goethe in 1999. Goethe 2000: Intercultural Readings ofhis Work brings together papers delivered at a colloquiumat the University of Glasgow in March 1999. Andrew Fineron gives a lucid account ofthe genesis...