Goethe's Families of the Heart by Susan E. Gustafson (review)

Susan E. Gustafson's important book Goethe's Families of the Heart offers innovative readings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749–1832) Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809), Stella (1776), Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–96), and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1821), Gustafson argues that Goethe's texts celebrate a multiplicity of different forms of relationships based on love while he is highly critical of unions that are formed "to preserve heritage, to produce progeny, to maintain social class, to strengthen economic success, and/or to maintain or expand family property" (4). In Goethe's works, "All types of love are accepted and love is foregrounded as the essential foundation of all relationships" (43).

Gustafson begins her study with a reading of Wahlverwandtschaften. She argues that this foundational text portrays love and attraction as fluid and ever shifting. When social constellations change, desires and attractions are likely to change as well. Tragedy results when characters do not act on their true desires, but are bound by economic considerations. In her analysis of Stella. A Play for Lovers, Gustafson notes that critics have often focused on the polygamous arrangement of the ending but tend to neglect the affectionate bond between Stella and Cezilie. In contrast, Gustafson posits that the ménage à trois with Fernando, whom Gustafson characterizes as self-obsessed and dishonest, provides a convenient cover for a relationship between two women. Seen in this light, the women manipulate Fernando for their own purpose: "Cezilie has effectively played on Fernando's emotions to bring him into line with her plan" (64). Gustafson further points out that Goethe's works often portray female-female relationships positively and cites Pandora and Mira in the play fragment Prometheus as an example of this trend.

Gustafson's reading of Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre observes that many of the characters are on a trajectory away from their biological families. She suggests further that the novel tends to portray "father/family-controlled, heritage-focused, and economically driven families" (67) in a negative light. Here, Gustafson draws our attention to the story of the Runaway Girl who eloped with an actor and the story of Sperata and the Harper, both of which showcase the destructive impact of the institutions of the family, the court, and the church on love relationships. Mariane's affair with Norberg, which is largely driven by financial motivations, provides another example. Instead of such mercenary romance, the novel favors models of intimacy that go beyond the nuclear family and allow for a multiplicity of gender constellations, such as the family unit consisting of Mignon, Friedrich, Wilhelm and the Harper, but also the partnership of Therese and Natalie who raise children together. Gustafson also parses the text's obsession with the link between body, self, and 'Other,' noting that the story of the Beautiful Soul abounds with ill, wounded, and bleeding bodies and that both the Beautiful Soul and Wilhelm scan their own and other bodies for signs of connection. Gustafson argues that the text leads Wilhelm away from a focus on bodily markers of affinity toward an affinity of the heart. The final chapter offers an interpretation of Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre that reads the story of Joseph and Marie as that of an adoptive family, noting that the novel's interest in wandering facilitates multiple and shifting relations.

Gustafson's book contains a number of important insights. She highlights Goethe's experiments with new forms of families and relationships. She argues convincingly that Goethe celebrates adoptive families and that he portrays the relationship between adoptive children and parents as spontaneous affective bonds. Indeed, Goethe's texts feature numerous adoptive family constellations, including Ottilie in Die Wahlverwandtschaften, who is both Charlotte's adopted daughter and adoptive mother to Otto and Nanny; Elpenor in the eponymous play Elpenor; and Wilhelm and his adoptive daughter Mignon, to name just a few.

Throughout, Gustafson draws on Lisa Diamond's notion of attraction as non-exclusive, fluid and person-based. In doing so, Gustafson does not always differentiate between...