Der deutsche Bildungsroman (review)

Géza von Molnár 361 the fictive enterprise. Readers capable of responding to this chaUenge would also gain an awareness of the degree and manner in which die disparate elements comprising the flow of individual human existence may assume die relative coherence for us that we regard as our world. Bahr argues convincingly, drawing on various and extensive sources from literary scholarship, sociology, and phUosophy in order to underwrite Hermann Broch's contention that Goedie's Wanderjahre furnished die foundation for the modern novel, as exemplified by James Joyce's Ulysses. Goethe's Campagne in Frankreich receives expert attention from Thomas P. Saine, who has already devoted several other studies to this topic. His stated purpose is to make audible the undertone of criticism directed at die enterprise to which Goethe's autobiographical reminiscences refer. Saine's comparative analysis is based on meticulous historical research and on carefuUy balanced readings of texts indicative of Goethe's contemporary and retrospective evaluations regarding the iU-fated Austro-German campaign aimed at restoring Louis XVI to the throne. His conclusions iUustrate that Goethe, the participant in the events, was not so keen in recognizing theft military and political import as the autobiographical author of ttUrty years later would lead us to believe; yet, by mid-October 1792 not only the foUy of die undertaking began to dawn on him but also the more far-reaching and depressing insight that this wrong-headed campaign was to spawn ftirdier, equaUy pointless wars, which, a prophet turned backward, he likened to die Thirty Years War of the previous century. Unhappily, Goethe's gloomy prediction was to prove rather more than less accurate. The collection of essays concludes with Erika Klüsener's contribution on Goethe's Novelle. She traces in detaU the various elements of the work and the opinions regarding it in order to show why it has caused its readers to put forward such contrasting critical evaluations. Once again, reverberations of the French Revolution are recognized, and Goethe's ambivalence with respect to this historical event is said to be reflected in his work and in the contradictory reactions it inspired. From my comments on the individual contributions, it should be evident that diis collective volume on Goethe's narratives maintains an unusually even level of expert scholarship, for which the organizers of the symposium and die editors must be duly credited. As Paul Michael Lützeler states in his introduction, it was the ambition of aU participants to regard Goethe and his work from a new perspective, one beyond bodi the idolatry of old and the iconoclasm of more recent origin. In my opinion, this ambition has been fully realized. Northwestern University Géza von Molnár Selbmann, Rolf, Der deutsche BUdungsroman. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1984. Rolf Selbmann's addition to the venerable series "Realien zur Literatur" is divided into tiiree sections of unequal length. The first attempts a brief account of the history of the concept of "Bildung" from Meister Eckhart to the present. While such an 362 GOETHE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA account is undeniably important and die attempt laudable, in places die pace becomes so breathless and the treatment of important episodes so cursory as to be nearly useless. Take for example the discussion of Goedie's concept of "BUdung": Gerade Goethes Bildungskonzept betont eine solche HarmonievorsteUung. Indem Goethe die eigene BUdung wie auch die eigene Person so unerhört wichtig nimmt, gUt sein Interesse nicht mehr nur dem (erreichten) BUdungsziel, sondern auch den einzelnen schon durchschrittenen und noch zu durchschreitenden Stufen der BUdung. That was quoted in full. Schiller also rates but two sentences in this section. While Selbmann does show awareness of this problem generaUy ("Diesem Bedürfnis nach Übersichtlichkeit hat die Darstellung durch den Mut zur Kürze gerecht zu werden"), he is able to find much more space in which to discuss e.g. the transformation of "BUdung" in die course of die nineteendi century into its "inflationäre Form," namely "humanistisches Schulwissen" as "Luxusprodukt"—choices which, together with the tone of the passage on Goethe above, should make die audior's basic interpretive orientation clear enough. The second section is an excellent brief survey of...