Goethe und die Weltkultur by Klaus Manger (review)

Abstract

MLR, 100.4,2005 1143 text is of interest as a sign of revolutionary views expressed allegorically in contrast to those by Schiller, another Carlsschule student. It also gives a fine description of the effectof a visit to the Rheinfall on Koch's emotions, and the drawings can be studied as an early stage in his development as a landscape artist. Hofmann's examination of the travelogue in general shows just how much Koch followed a tradition and places his text within its political, social, and cultural context. Vivid caricatures in draw? ings and text of the clergy reveal a talent reacting vigorously to oppression, but also trying to come to terms with awesome sights of nature and the attractions of local customs and costumes. His critical talent was not as powerful as that of Hogarth or Chodowiecki, but an acute sense of dramatic landscape is already apparent. This is a study forspecialists who will delight in the detailed discussion of differences between the drawings now held in Stuttgart and Innsbruck, or in the bibliophile assembly of the finalmanuscript. There are few new insights into eighteenth-century travelogues, but Hofmann's critical analysis of Koch's text breaks new ground and is necessary reading forhistorians of art and literature of the period. Mellen University, Iowa Brian Keith-Smith Goethe und die Weltkultur. Ed. by Klaus Manger. (Ereignis Weimar-Jena: Kultur um 1800. Asthetische Forschungen, 1) Heidelberg: Winter. 2003. viii+ 498 pp. ?58. ISBN 3-8253-1499-5. Goethe und die Weltkultur,the result of an eponymous colloquium in September 2000, is a collection of twenty-two essays on various aspects of Goethe's work and reception. The anthology is divided into three parts, 'Goethes Experimentalkultur' (containing three articles on Goethe's scientific ideas), 'Kulturtraditionen bei Goethe' (contain? ing fifteencontributions on Goethe as an epistolary author, dramatic practitioner, and cultural thinker, among others), and 'Goethe und die politische Kultur' (containing four essays on Goethe's administrative and political ideas and pursuits). The volume is interdisciplinary in outlook, with literary approaches clearly predominating. Con? tributions vary in length from about eight to over fiftypages. A Siglenverzeichnis and index of personal names conclude the volume; there is no index of topics, which would surely have been useful in an anthology of this length and topical range. Since the number and variety of essays forbid any attempt at comprehensiveness, a brief mention of a random selection may provide a general impression. Matthias John offers an overview of the contemporary state of anthropology and psychology and concludes, after a brief description of Goethe's (rather low) interest in these fields, that Goethe's approach to them lay somewhere 'between' empiricism and metaphysics (p. 16). John Neubauer's article is based on the discovery thatthe unknown reviewer of Goethe's Farbenlehre was Thomas Young, one of the founders of physiological optics, who, in Neubauer's analysis, succeeded where Goethe failed, in his quest to correct aspects of Newton's optics. Michael Maurer analyses Goethe's early letters with re? ference to their communicative meaning and everyday function, addresses their prob? lematic status as neither public nor private documents, and concludes that Goethe's letters (those he wrote as well as those he destroyed) indicate a conscious act of Selbst? inszenierung on the part of the author. In the longest essay of the volume, GonthierLouisFink investigates the concept ofcosmopolitanism in Goethe's work, particularly in reviews, conversations, letters, Dichtung und Wahrheit, both Meister novels, Her? mann undDorothea, and the West-ostlicherDivan. Reinhard Wegner offersa brief ac? count of Goethe as a collector; Bernd Auerochs an interesting investigation of Islam in the Divan. The contributions by Andrea Heinz, Detlev Altenburg, and Klaus Manger focus on Goethe as a playwright and theatre practitioner. Finally, Andreas Klinger and ii 44 Reviews Gerhard Muller offercautious renditions of some aspects of Goethe's political and administrative activities and ideas, from his general conceptualization of Weltbiirgertum (Klinger) to his concrete decisions affectinguniversity politics at Jena (Muller). The very aspect that will surely make this volume interesting to many readers, the diversity of its themes and approaches, can also be considered one of its greatest weaknesses. There is no afterword, no introduction, and only...