Goethe im Exil: Deutsch-Amerikanische Perspektiven (review)

Goethe Yearbook 205 project for Herder, who wanted to show his understanding of the translation process and his knowledge of epic poetry. According to Rodiek, behind the foreign El Cid Herder seeks another, better text, a "Romanzen-Epos," that can be restored through a more or less literal translation. Marie-Christin WiIm argues that the intense interest in Calderón in the early nineteenth century is "das Produkt gegensätzlicher tragödientheoretischer Auffassungen" (310). Reviewing the positions of Tieck, A. W Schlegel, and Schelling (Calderón embodies the cathartic sense of the existence of an objective freedom or the reconciling, healing sense of tragedy and hence of human freedom), her essay culminates in a discussion of Goethe's reworking of Schlegel's translation, Ui which he removes some of the religious references and presents Calderón as a theatrical poet, not a religious philosopher. Under the subtitle "Goethe und Spanien," Hans-Joachim Lope (Marburg) wants to claim that the locale of Madrid, in particular the internal tension in the city, was of central (not marginal) importance to Goethe's Clavigo. According to Lope, Goethe took the atmosphere from Beaumarchais'Fragment de mon voyage d'Espagne (111A) and also includes aUusions to images contained Ui the article on Spain in Zedler's Universallexicon or the travel descriptions of Madam d'Aulnoy. Ultimately, Lope asserts that Goethe's Clavigo is an early (1780s) example of the "Spanienbegeisterung" (343) and initiated a new chapter in German-Spanish cultural dialogue. Gisela Noehles examines WUhelm von Humboldt's trip to Spain in September 1799, which Goethe foUowed via a map on his wall. Not possessing the art books on Spain that were available, Goethe used Humboldt's trip to develop a sense of the "spanischer Kunstkörper." Noehles concludes that Goethe ultimately faUed to appreciate Spanish art and "die ReaUtätsnähe ohne Überhöhung ins 'IdeaUstische', die aUe spanische Kunst auch bei 'hohen' Gegenständen, also etwa antiken Themen oder HistorienbUdern, kennzeichnet" (349). Even though he may be considered one of the first Germans to have attempted to see Spanish art in its historical context, Goethe would have been more successful had he taken advantage of Caroline von Humboldt's reports from Spain or the letters of Anton Mengs to his colleague Antonio Ponz. These well-argued essays enrich our understanding of the Goethezeit and provide several points for further study, but the book could have been better edited. On page 322 there is the same sentence in the text as in the footnote, and a bibliography entry on page 341 lists Rudolf Gundolf as the author of Goethe. University of New Hampshire Edward T.Larkin Gert Sautermeister and Frank Baron, eds., Goethe im Exil: DeutschAmerikanische Perspektiven. Bielefeld:Aisthesis, 2002.297 pp. In the first and longest of the thirteen papers in this volume (of which four are in English), Gert Sautermeister deals not with Goethe in exUe but with exile in Goethe, that is, his feeling of homelessness and displacement upon his return to Weimar from Italy, his own "innere Emigration" (25) that is shown in stimulating interpretations to be fundamental to Iphigenie, Hermann und Dorothea, and Die natürliche Tochter. Goethe's exile sensibUity from time to time arouses affinities Ui the real exUes from Nazism, who, however, for the most part mold him as an eminently maUeable substance into 206 Book Reviews forms that comfort them in their season of dejection and reassure them of the survival of the despoUed true Germany. Not all of the exUes, however, exhibit intense commitments to Goethe. Leonie Marx shows that Ernst Toller paid little attention to him, but was ready to regard him as an icon of the true German spirit, while Hartmut Steinecke reminds us that Hermann Broch,as an Austrian, was less immersed in Goethe; before exile he was interested in featuring Joyce's Ulysses as a realization of totality in the novel modeled by WUhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, during exUe in claiming Goethe euphemisticaUy as a friend of the Jews.The material being a little thin, Steinecke turns to Broch's feUow exiles Erich von Kahler, who advised Thomas Mann on Lotte in Weimar but also remained somewhat distanced from Goethe, and...