Images of Identity: Goethe and the Problem of Self-Conception in the Nineteenth Century (American University Studies) - Hardcover

Sax, Benjamin Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820404349 ISBN 13: 9780820404349

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 1987

Synopsis

The word «Bildung» - variously defined as «education» or «self-formation» - came into popular usage in western Europe through the terminological revolution of the late eighteenth century. No single individual was more influential in giving his own definition to this key word than was Goethe. Through an analysis of Goethe's use of the term in the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Goethe's autobiography, Dichtung und Wahrheit, and the much neglected text Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, Sax shows how «Bildung» was more than a process of self-formation, for it included an understanding of the relation of the individual to society, to history, and through the interpretation of symbols, to a transcendent level of meaning as well. It is Sax's purpose to place Goethe's notion of «Bildung» within the context of the history of Western self-conceptions since the Renaissance.

About this title

Review

«It is one of the best books on Goethe written in recent years in any language.» (Donald F. Lach, University of Chicago)
«I have been greatly impressed by the breadth and depth of the author's learning and the keenness and subtlety of his philosophical insight. In my opinion he has made a valuable contribution to intellectual history...» (William Gilbert, University of Kansas)

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820404349
• ISBN 13: 9780820404349
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 265