Goethe’s Ghosts: Reading and the Persistence of Literature ed. by Simon Richter and Richard Block (review)

Abstract

Simon Richter and Richard Block, eds., Goethe's Ghosts: Reading and Persistence of Literature. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2013- 315 pp.,7 ills.The objective of this essay collection is to examine how institutional role of may or may not be affected by various By editors mean both ghosts depicted in Goethe's works and the ability of literary ghosts through their haunting ways to convey meanings and forms of meanings long past (3). Coeditors Simon Richter and Richard Block set scene in their introduction by referencing Mikhael Bulgakov's novel Master and Margarita, in which an apartment houses multitudes of demons and ghosts. For Block and Richter this haunted apartment stands in for a of literature in which we can find entire and largely forgotten regions of non-normative representations and subject positions (2). contributors to this volume explore, each in his or her own way, these haunted aspects of literature, in particular Goethe's literature. But scene from Bulgakov's novel also conjures up an eagerness to examine responses to in spirit of Jane Brown's research. According to Brown, Goethe recognized cultural wealth about to be lost and strived to recover and preserve old traditions. Most of essays in this collection engage with Brown's discourse, each taking on issue of persistence of and exploring dark corners of house of literature. Coeditors Block and Richter dedicate volume to Jane Brown, whom they deem to be one of America's most accomplished Goethe scholars.The volume consists of fifteen essays by prominent scholars and is divided into three parts. first part, The Ghosts of Goethe's Past, deals with effects of scientific advances on Goethe's work (Andrew Piper); influence of Gothic on his perceptual experience of architecture (Clark Muenzer); case of doubles in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Faust (Helmut Ammerlahn); and what Goethe accomplished while experiencing sacred vocal music in intimacy of his home (Meredith Lee). second part, The Ghost That Keeps on Giving, draws attention to fictional ghosts found in Goethe's works, with a heavy focus on Faust I and Faust II {Dieter Borchmeyer, Richard T. Gray, Robert Deam Tobin, and Peter J. Schwartz). Patricia Anne Simpson engages more closely with Brown's theory of allegory by looking at figure of Gretchen in Adorno's readings and citations of Goethe's female figures. In third section, Spirited Encounters, focal point shifts to other authors who wrote in wake of Goethe. Two contributions engage with Hegel: Franz-Josef Deiters reads Hegel's effacement of origin of history (240), while David E. Wellbery shows how Hegel and his notion of freedom achieve a cognate poetic articulation in Goethe's fragmentary Festspiel (217). Further essays, however, discuss writers at a greater temporal distance from Goethe: Martha B. …