Wechselseitigkeit (Reciprocity)

Abstract

Wechselseitigkeit (reciprocality, mutuality) refers to Goethe’s interactive understanding of human and non-human relations. In its attributive inflection wechselseitig, which can be variously rendered as reciprocal, mutual, alternate, interchangeable, or two-way, the concept mediates the inexorable polarities of life. As a vital “force of attraction” (Anziehungskraft) between contrasting phenomena, these Goethean oppositions operate within both nature and the human world, as when the narrator claims in Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809; Elective Affinities), “[j]ede Anziehung ist wechselseitig” (WA 1.20:282; Every attraction is reciprocal). As in this novel, wechselseitig in Goethe’s theoretical writings configures assemblages of shared feelings, actions, or close relationships between two or more entities. And whether they are inter-subjective or intercultural, these reciprocal interactions typically involve an order of exchange between opposing sides (Seiten) that give of themselves in mutual enhancement or decline. Grounded in change (Wechsel) and linked to such cognate compounds as Wechselspiel (alternate play, fluctuation), Wechselwirkung (reciprocal effect, mutual influence), and Wechselblick (reciprocal gaze), the ascription also at times highlights an ethics of interaction within heterological relations of parity for the purpose of producing intensified or enhanced (gesteigerte) outcomes. Ultimately, the lexeme configures mediations of overlapping and interdependent systems that operate within science, society, and aesthetics, while also illuminating post-Kantian subject-object relations.