Narrative Direction

Abstract

Abstract This essay approaches Goethe’s novel from the perspective of historical shifts and new poetic models in the late eighteenth century, which took the form of a feeling of increased contingency or randomness in an individual’s life. It argues that Goethe uses narrative techniques to create a balance between the episodic and the developmental, the parts of the novel and its trajectory as a whole. Wilhelm’s character development and these formal characteristics combine to solicit imaginative engagement on the part of readers of the novel, who, in thinking about these things, may come to a better understanding of the contingency in their own lives. The essay argues that Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship offers not only a detailed depiction of contingency in human life but also a suggestion that aesthetic experience might hold out the possibility of acknowledging and managing that contingency to create a sense of purpose and meaning.