Das Elend der Entsagung: Goethes "Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre" (review)

Jane K. Brown 239 espied in the novel are depicted there as well: "Man darf annehmen, daß sich die das Romangeschehen auf seinen symbolischen Höhepunkten akzentuierenden Bildvorlagen —Herkules und Nessus, Diana und Aktaion—an gehöriger Stelle in diesem Ensemble finden. Dann wäre die Bundessymbolik nur ein letztes, äußefstes Rekapitulieren" (p. 163). What Schödlbauer fails to take into consideration, however, is that this edifice is explicitly described as a place "in welchem Kunst und Leben jede Erinnerung an Tod und Grab aufhoben" (HA VII, 540). When establishing the principles for his model of interpretation, Schödlbauer had stated: "Ästhetische Analyse expliziert die Form der Kunstwerke, sie entwirft sie nicht" (p. 75). With all due respect for his learnedness and intimate knowledge of Goethe's writings, in the end his model proves to be one of his own creation, superimposed more or less successfully on the text of the Lehrjahre. And yet, while Schödlbauer's particular application of his form paradigms may not find wide acceptance in Goethe scholarship—the discussion of "Systole-Diastole" and "Das Absolute" in one short chapter (pp. 155-64) suggests that he himself had difficulty making more than the most general remarks about them—his basic point, as argued in part I of his study, makes excellent sense. In addition, his perceptive critique of earlier directions of Wilhelm Meister research—both in the text and in his extensive notes (pp. 169-223)—as well as his discussion of sociopolitical aspects of the Lehrjahre (pp. 135-49) should prove interesting and rewarding reading for the Wilhelm Meister specialist. The University of Vermont Dennis F. Mahoney Degering, Thomas, Das Elend der Entsagung: Goethes "Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre." Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1982 (Abhandlungen zur Kunst-, Musik- und Literaturwissenschaft, Band 327). This Marxist reading, whose heroes are Heinz Schlaffer, Karl Schlechta and Gert Mattenklott, argues that the Wanderjahre can be considered "die antizipierende Poetisierung" (p. 3) of Marx's doctrine of capital as the product of renunciation: Die Nationalökonomie, diese Wissenschaft des Reichtums, ist . . . zugleich die Wissenschaft des Entsagens, des Darbens, der Ersparung.... Die Selbstentsagung, die Entsagung des Lebens und aller menschlichen Bedürfnisse, ist ihf Hauptlehrsatz. Je weniger du ißt, trinkst, Bücher kaufst, in das Theater, auf den Ball, zum Wirtshaus gehst, denkst, liebst, theoretisierst, singst, malst..., um so [mehr] sparst du, um so größer wird dein Schatz, den weder Motten noch Raub fressen, dein Kapital. Je weniger du bist, je weniger du dein Leben äußerst, um so mehr hast du, um so größer ist dein entäußertes Leben. . . . (cited by Degering, p. 3) The result is a kind of "greening" of the Wanderjahre, in which interpersonal relations, life rather than work, "boycotts" (p. 538) of renunciation, Brechtian calls to revolution are the true messages of the text: "damit die ersehnte Freiheit und Wärme... Moderkälte und Enge besiegen, müssen sie aufhören, 'das Geisterzeugte' zu sein" (p. 514—this about the 240 GOETHE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA poem "Im ernsten Beinhaus"!). Only the staggering "stupidity" of the scholarship (those of us who write in English are excused from this judgment by virtue of non-existence) and Goethe's secrecy have prevented this obvious message from being properly understood. Degering zealously undertakes to prove these assertions with an impressive array of material from Marx and Hegel, and an extraordinarily sharp ear for verbal parallels between disparate and very difficult texts. The argument is presented in leisurely fashion, but clearly. As the following summary will show, it is perverse and unreasonable enough that it is often interesting and always provocative. The argument is organized into four parts. The first, entitled "Entsagung wofür: Ökonomie, Gesellschaft und Staat der 'Entsagenden'," makes the fundamental argument of the book. Massive documentation of striking verbal parallels to Marx and Hegel demonstrates that the society of the Wanderjahre is early capitalist, clearly no longer feudal. In an odd but typical mode of allegorization Wandern comes to signify for Degering the state of capitalist society. Both Lenardo and Odoardo are shown to be imperialists and colonialists in their foreign and domestic settlement schemes, while society is shown to rest on the...