Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Continuing Vitality (review)

Robert Spaethling 345 Johann Wolfgang von Goedie: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Continuing Vitality, edited by Ulrich Goebel and Wolodymyr T. ZyIa. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech Press, 1984. The ten essays gathered in diis volume, representing the proceedings of the Fifteenth Comparative Literature Symposium at Texas Tech University, are rich and varied testimony to the continuing vitality of both Goethe and American Goethe scholarship. The topics cover influences, translations, narrative techniques, Goethe's relationship to music and to literary theory. Stuart Atidns leads off by sharing his thoughts "On Translating Faust," a subject that has occupied this distinguished Goethean for fifty fruitful years. He begins with a brief history of Faust translations, quoting from Morgan, Fairley, Taylor, Hayward, MacNeice, Jarrell, Passage, Arndt, and others. The survey is thoughtful, often humorous, and concentrated on two issues: the perennial problems of translating Faust into English and Atidns' own most recent efforts in this direction: his new translation of both parts oÃ- Faust for die Suhrkamp/Insel Goethe edition in English. Atkins emphasizes metered verse over rhyme, linguistic accuracy over euphonious effects, preserving thereby the drama's important metrical variety while rendering it into idiomatic English. Wolodymyr T. ZyIa presents a related topic. By delineating Goethe's impact on Ivan Franko (1856-1916), "Goethe's Translator and Interpreter" in the Ukraine, he addresses problems concerning the art of translating as well as die Goethean presence in die creative world of one Ukrainian writer and in Ukrainian culture. The translation of foreign poetry, wrote Ivan Franko, is like building a "golden bridge" of understanding between distant cultures. In this presentation ZyIa himseff contributes greatly to such an understanding. David Delaura discusses the reception of Goethe's concept of "self-development "—Bildung—in nineteendi-century England. The term became a criterion for judging Goethe as an artist and tiiinker in the British Isles as well as in New England, and it served as a catalyst for such timely topics as individuaUty and ethics, "heroic egotism" and social responsibUity. Major contributors to the debate were Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart MiU, G.H. Lewes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Margret Fuller. By examining previously unexplored materials (e.g. monthlies) DeLaura is able to demonstrate that Goethe's influence on English intellectual life was much more pervasive than is generaUy assumed. Two essays in the volume are on narrative structures in the Meister novels. Hans-Jürgen Schings gives a fascinating account of Goethe's use of archetypal tales ("Urgeschichten") as leitmotivic devices in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. Thematically and structurally the tales (e.g. the story of the aUing prince and his cure) support the central symbolism of the novel, a "Symbolik des Glücks," by conveying images of growtii, pain, and happy resolution. In contrast to the Lehrjahre, says Alexander GeUey, Goethe's late novel, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, has no diematic or formal cohesiveness, no teleological purpose or progression. It is a loose assemblage of narratives whose meaning derives from intertextual dynamics. GeUey points to Mikhail Baldwin's definition of die 346 GOETHE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA "dialogue novel" as a poetological reference point for the Wanderjahre, dius offering us a structuralist's refinement of the traditional view diat Goethe's late prose is based on a dialectical interplay of content and form. Two articles on the subject of Goedie and music widen our horizon in this often misjudged area of Goethean interest. John Neubauer deserves the gratitude of aU who seek objective and useful information about Goethe's theoretical knowledge of music. By pointing to die poet's annotations to his translation of Diderot's Le neveu de Rameau and to his fragmentary Tonlehre (intended as a pendant to his Farbenlehre), he draws our attention to significant sources for understanding Goedie's perception of "absolute" (instrumental) and "affective" (representational) music. Goethe's adopted creed that major and minor scales in music develop from one single "Tonmonade" is completely in accord widi his general view of totaUty based on archetypal polarities. Meredith McClain iUuminates Goedie's musical vitality in a more practical way. She examines one of die Mignon poems, "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt," and traces it through seven different musical settings (notes included in the...