Hope in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre
Affect Theory, Potentiality, Mistake and Change
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9856740 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chunjie Zhang (0000-0003-2549-1865, Department of German and Russian, University of California, Davis, California, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 278-294 |
| Publication date | 2020-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Germanic Review Literature Culture Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-8890 • E-ISSN: 1930-6962 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00168890.2020.1819191 |
| OpenAlex | W3096169186 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
This article reads Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre from the perspective of affect theory and focuses on the two elements of potentiality and mistake in the novel. In addition to its lexical meaning, the concept of affect emphasizes the transmissions of energy and force from body to body and between body and the world in time and space. Affect is intense and full of potential. Wilhelm’s theater project and love affairs are equally filled with intensity and potentiality for the future, which differs from Franco Moretti’s interpretation of Goethe’s novel as a backward-looking conservative work that disavows the French Revolution. Mignon’s death because to heart failure demonstrates the affective end of Wilhelm’s dream to become an artist and a bodily reaction to his turn toward pragmatism. Even though Wilhelm makes grave mistakes during the novel and his theater project in the end fails, which according to Jürgen Habermas reflects the transformation of the public sphere around 1800, Wilhelm is able to change and amend his mistakes and remain flexible and hopeful. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre thus contains a forward-looking vision and reveals hope as a public feeling of the bourgeoisie after the French Revolution
Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Art · Art history · Bourgeoisie · Dream · Epistemology · Feeling · Interpretation (philosophy · Literature · Meaning (existential · Mistake · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Law · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Theatre and Performance Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |