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Keeping the methodological challenges of comparative literature in mind, the present analysis of Cao Xueqin’s Hong Lou Meng and Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre explores the structural parallels of the texts. The interplay between the realist outline of the main stories and the metanarratives is evaluated in the light of the theory of myth. Instead of attempting to answer the dilemmas of human existence by naïvely deferring them to a mythological sphere, both texts remain remarkably ironic about the myths they employ. However, while in the Lehrjahre this literary self-consciousness helps to underline the value of the everyday world, Hong Lou Meng remains in wonder of an incomprehensible world.

Myths We Cannot Believe In: The Function of Mythological Metanarratives in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Hong Lou Meng