Komplexe Überlieferungssituationen und Probleme des Autorisationsbegriffs, am Beispiel Goethes

Abstract

Abstract The paper discusses the problems of complex textual transmission, as is typical for the works of Goethe. The method of eclectic editing as practiced by earlier editors was ruled out by the modern concept of ‘authorization’ introduced by Siegfried Scheibe in 1971. The history of the concept of ‘authorization’ shows that Scheibe’s definition of ‘authorization’ is misconstrued on conceptual reasons alone. Besides, it is closely tied to bygone polemical purposes and does not allow complex textual transmission (as in the case of Faust II) to be adequately dealt with. Hans Zeller, by contrast, proposed to reconsider complex textual transmissions and their consequences for editorial theory in 1989. This reconsideration, however, has failed to take place so far. The new Faust edition (2018) proposes an editorial solution to the problem with a non-documentary yet historically specific (i. e. non-eclectic) way of constituting the text. Scheibe’s primary editorial objectives may be better achieved without the concept of authorization which it is proposed should be dropped altogether.