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Goethe's Symbol Re‐Considered: Anglo‐American and French Refractions
Author(s) -
Noll Birgit
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1999.tb00290.x
Subject(s) - symbol (formal) , allegory , literature , romanticism , criticism , philosophy , relevance (law) , art , art history , linguistics , political science , law
This study sketches the continued relevance for 19th and 20th century writers of Goethe's symbol/allegory distinction. Beginning with Maximen und Reflexionen, where Goethe expresses his preference for the symbol because in it “Idee” and “Bild” are intrinsically linked with each other, the essay traces Goethe's Symbol through its manifestations in Anglo‐American Romanticism, French Surrealism, and 20th century literary criticism. It describes how writers as diverse as Ralph Waldo Emerson, André Breton, and Stanley Fish have drawn on Goethe's suggestive theory to define their own disparate epistemologies.