Narrow Search
Last searches

Results for *

Displaying results 1 to 1 of 1.

  1. "Alles was lebendig wirken soll, muß eingehüllt sein" : Formreflexion in Goethes Sonett Mächtiges Überraschen
    Published: 13.10.2011

    The article engages in a close reading of Goethe's sonnet "Mächtiges Überraschen", published in the sonnet cycle of 1807. In it the poetic voice evokes a mountain river whose course is suddenly interrupted by the limiting force of a dam.... more

     

    The article engages in a close reading of Goethe's sonnet "Mächtiges Überraschen", published in the sonnet cycle of 1807. In it the poetic voice evokes a mountain river whose course is suddenly interrupted by the limiting force of a dam. Paradoxically, however, the effect of this is not stagnation, but the emergence and celebration of a "new life". This paradox will be illuminated by a discussion of Goethe's "Morphologie" as a universal scientific method. Morphology studies the infinite variety of (natural) forms while also insisting on their individual limitation. Goethe's understanding of life lingers on the co-presence of "coined form" and "living development" as he formulates it in "Urworte. Orphisch". "Mächtiges Überraschen" is read as a poem that embodies this fundamental polarity. The sonnet refers time and again to the borders and limitations of both the natural image it evokes and its own poetic properties. Simultaneously, it suggests the transgression of these limitations on both a formal (or structural) and a metaphorical level. As a poetological sonnet, "Mächtiges Überraschen" unifies the representation (of a natural event) with a reflection on representation as such. The announcement of a "new life" in the last stanza of the poem is thus read as an announcement of its own coming-into-being.

     

    Export to reference management software
    Content information: free
    Source: CompaRe
    Language: German
    Media type: Conference object; Conference object
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 830
    Subjects: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von; Morphologie <Linguistik>; Poetologische Lyrik
    Rights:

    creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/deed.de

    ;

    info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess