Stil (Style)

Abstract

The lexeme Stil (style) derives from Latin stilus, which originally designated a writing utensil used in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In modernity, it is used in a broader sense to refer to characteristic and recurrent forms of artistic production or of human behavior. In Goethe’s philosophical and aesthetic lexicon, style denotes a specific mode of aesthetic representation in which the relation between the artist and the object represented is one of “Gegenständlichkeit” (object-orientedness). This is how Goethe defines the term in his short theoretical essay “Einfache Nachahmung der Natur, Manier, Styl” (1789; Simple Imitation of Nature, Manner, Style), whose reflections grow out of a period of stylistic experimentation best exemplified by the Italienische Reise (1816/1817/1829; Italian Journey). A key component of his classicist aesthetic theory, Goethe’s concept of style is at odds with the better part of the modern discourse on style that emerged in the late eighteenth century.