Goethe Revisited. A Collection of Essays (review)

344 GOETHE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA Goethe Revisited. A Collection of Essays, edited by Elizabeth M. Wilkinson. New York: Riverrun Press, 1983; London: John Calder, 1984. The format is modest. The half title page announces "Lectures delivered Ui sundry places and on various dates to mark the 150th anniversary of Goethe's death," and the preface's first sentence disclaims any "pretence to a well-conducted tour around Goethe's manifold achievements." Only reluctandy did the editor succumb to the blandishments of the Goethe Institute to emerge briefly from retirement and put together this volume. She did it on her terms, and what marvelous terms they are! In soliciting contributions, she decided to "approach scholars who had said or written somediing which stuck in my mind not only for its intrinsic interest but as indicative of unfinished business, and see what happened" (p. 8)—in otiier words, she sought contributors with something to say. Next, she required that more tiian one work be treated, widi the effect tiiat these studies aU treat Goethe's writings as fragments of a grand confession. FinaUy, Wilkinson sought to avoid essays "of die 'Goedie and variety"; in two cases, however, she felicitously let this last principle go by the board. The results, aU appearing in print for the first time, should recommend her method to others. The first two essays concern twentieth-century reception. Michael Hamburger presents fruitful musings on Goethe's cumbrousness for non-Germans, including T.S. Eliot, whUe PhiUp Brady shows first Brecht, then Peter Hacks and Volker Braun working to keep Goethe "truly alive in the face of those who had solemnly nominated diemselves the sole guardians of [his] inheritance" (p. 50). From this point, die essays diverge. RH. Stephenson characterizes Goedie's approach to science in the context of his "amateurism." Karl Heinz Bohrer's complementary study, perhaps the most interesting in die coUection, explores the differences between Goethe's and SchiUer's approaches to die "subject-object relationship ," and convincingly portrays Goedie as a forerunner of modernism. T.J. Reed's oddly-titled "Goethe and Happiness" re-establishes Goethe's claim to status as a representative figure who, when stripped of simplistic nineteenth-century interpretations, serves as a worthy antidote to modern negativism. Walter Hinck documents Goedie's relationship to practical theater and traces its influence on Faust II. Hans Keller discusses die conflicts inherent m musical settings of poetry and characterizes Goethe's approach to the Lied. And Victor Lange foUows "The Metaphor of SUence" through Goethe's works. FinaUy, Wilkinson adds her own contribution. She had, in die 1960's, delivered her lecture on "Sexual Attitudes in Goethe's Life and Works" to enthusiastic audiences m Britain, West Germany, and die United States, but had always declined to put it into published form. We can be grateful diat two of her would-be contributors were unable to provide her with texts, so that she could finaUy be prevaUed upon to fill the gap with this sensitive interpretation of Goethe's approach to sexual relationships. Each of diese essays provides a fresh appreciation of Goethe as a phenomenon diat speaks to the modern condition. Together, they constitute a sophisticated Rettung that helps to restore the canon that Goethe embodies. Dartmouth College Bruce Duncan ...