Figures of Identity : : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / / Clark S. Muenzer.
The question of coherence in Goethe's novels, which, like Faust, compelled his attention throughout his creative life, has only recently occupied a few critics. Professor Muenzer's study offers the most comprehensive effort of this kind by examining the problematic nature of self-definitio...
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Place / Publishing House: | University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021] ©1984 |
Year of Publication: | 2021 |
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Muenzer, Clark S., author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / Clark S. Muenzer. University Park, PA : Penn State University Press, [2021] ©1984 1 online resource (176 p.) text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Turning Toward the Sublime -- 2 The Speculative Way -- 3 Possessive Presumptions -- 4 Deference and the Deferral of Aspiration -- 5 Hope's Elusive Chest -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec online access with authorization star The question of coherence in Goethe's novels, which, like Faust, compelled his attention throughout his creative life, has only recently occupied a few critics. Professor Muenzer's study offers the most comprehensive effort of this kind by examining the problematic nature of self-definition through the four novels and its emergence as a discursive process of the imagination.The self of these texts, Muenzer suggests, evolves as a symbolic construct that records a patter of pursuit for each of their protagonists and orients the reader toward three basic goals of human aspiration. Thus, Werther aspires to purposefulness as a center of teleological fulfillment, while the hero of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship refers to an ideological center of participation in his social desire. Eduard, in The Elective Affinities, presumes to occupy a center of archaeological power through his typically self-assertive strategies.In the last of his novels, Wilhelm Meister's Journeymanship, Goethe articulates the need to balance all such self-involved behavior with an attitude of self-denial. Apparently, the mind can orient itself through centers of purpose, order, and power, but it must also recognize the illusion of their attainment. Identity does not involve a substantive presence, and the result of self-definition for Goethe is interpretive work.Each of Professor Muenzer's interpretations has been guided by this premise. The interests of all of Goethe's novelistic protagonists, he concludes, ";serve as orienting postures toward goals that cannot be literally achieved."; Consequently, symbolic resolutions are proposed. These then introduce new problems as points of departure in subsequent works. The hidden agenda of Goethe's work as a novelist is a self that exists as a textual problem, a series of interpretive moves that endlessly defer the attainment of self presence by supplementing each other in narrative fictions. Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. In English. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Jun 2021) Self-realization in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German. bisacsh Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014 9783110745269 https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271072869?locatt=mode:legacy https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780271072869 Cover https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780271072869.jpg |
language |
English |
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eBook |
author |
Muenzer, Clark S., Muenzer, Clark S., |
spellingShingle |
Muenzer, Clark S., Muenzer, Clark S., Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Turning Toward the Sublime -- 2 The Speculative Way -- 3 Possessive Presumptions -- 4 Deference and the Deferral of Aspiration -- 5 Hope's Elusive Chest -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index |
author_facet |
Muenzer, Clark S., Muenzer, Clark S., |
author_variant |
c s m cs csm c s m cs csm |
author_role |
VerfasserIn VerfasserIn |
author_sort |
Muenzer, Clark S., |
title |
Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / |
title_sub |
Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / |
title_full |
Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / Clark S. Muenzer. |
title_fullStr |
Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / Clark S. Muenzer. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / Clark S. Muenzer. |
title_auth |
Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / |
title_alt |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Turning Toward the Sublime -- 2 The Speculative Way -- 3 Possessive Presumptions -- 4 Deference and the Deferral of Aspiration -- 5 Hope's Elusive Chest -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index |
title_new |
Figures of Identity : |
title_sort |
figures of identity : goethe's novels and the enigmatic self / |
publisher |
Penn State University Press, |
publishDate |
2021 |
physical |
1 online resource (176 p.) |
contents |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Turning Toward the Sublime -- 2 The Speculative Way -- 3 Possessive Presumptions -- 4 Deference and the Deferral of Aspiration -- 5 Hope's Elusive Chest -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index |
isbn |
9780271072869 9783110745269 |
callnumber-first |
P - Language and Literature |
callnumber-subject |
PT - European, Asian and African Literature |
callnumber-label |
PT1986 |
callnumber-sort |
PT 41986 M8 41984 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271072869?locatt=mode:legacy https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780271072869 https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780271072869.jpg |
illustrated |
Not Illustrated |
dewey-hundreds |
800 - Literature |
dewey-tens |
830 - German & related literatures |
dewey-ones |
833 - German fiction |
dewey-full |
833/.6 |
dewey-sort |
3833 16 |
dewey-raw |
833/.6 |
dewey-search |
833/.6 |
doi_str_mv |
10.1515/9780271072869?locatt=mode:legacy |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT muenzerclarks figuresofidentitygoethesnovelsandtheenigmaticself |
status_str |
n |
ids_txt_mv |
(DE-B1597)583647 |
carrierType_str_mv |
cr |
hierarchy_parent_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014 |
is_hierarchy_title |
Figures of Identity : Goethe's Novels and the Enigmatic Self / |
container_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014 |
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1770176126270832640 |
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