FROM THE YEARBOOK EDITORS

In the midst of another challenging year, we are grateful to our authors, manuscript evaluators, and book reviewers—the latter so ably corralled by Sean Franzel—and, last but not least, our indefatigable copy editor, Monica Birth, who have all enabled us to put together another fascinating volume. Like the predecessors it has been our honor to edit, volume 29 of the Goethe Yearbook represents continuity and innovation; what sets it apart is the fact that several essays seem to continue the conversation begun in last year's issue.

Edward Potter's essay on Anton Reiser speaks to both the unabating pursuit of scholarship on Karl Philipp Moritz (which we have featured frequently over the past two years) as well as the renewed interest in questions of sentimentalism as a literary period and eighteenth-century style. But Potter also turns to questions of sexuality and gender. These questions, focused in concepts of patriarchy and its disruption, are at the core of Birgit Jensen's essay, which branches out into broader concerns about cultural legacies and myth and invites their ongoing consideration. Befittingly, two more essays revolve around such questions, albeit in vastly different ways. History of philosophy and science scholar Oriane Petteni introduces a novel model of reading Goethe's morphology, reminding us that questions of algorithms and pattern recognition are no longer confined to digital humanities and computational studies of literature but have arrived as part and parcel of our methodological toolkit. And Robert Kelz takes us again to Argentina. In a fascinating prequel to last year's essay on Goethe commemorations, he invites us back into the complex politics of Buenos Aires in the twentieth century and the role of a German cultural icon. Equally compelling, Kelz invokes a transnational fascination with archival material and the cultural policies both hidden and exposed in them—particularly welcome at a time when onsite research ceased being an option for so many of us, unable to physically access the treasure troves of our work. The penultimate freestanding essay in this volume, Barry Murnane's reconsideration of Goethe's Weltliteratur in the context of Handelsverkehr (trade) with China continues a conversation about the worldliness of eighteenth-century German literature and culture that has been vigorous for some time now and gestures well beyond the uptake of individual concepts or motifs. Coincidentally, it also invites further dialogue with forthcoming or fresh-off-the-press books (at the time of this writing). We hope these, too, will be well received once this volume arrives in your mailboxes. And any essay on conceptual and material trade reaches beyond this volume and anticipates the next. Beyond words, texts, and eighteenth-century worlds, we are looking forward to animated conversations about "Goethe's Things"—his "Gespräch mit den Dingen," or dialogue with objects. We hope to feature many facets of the latter in volume 30, devoted to work first presented at the Atkins Goethe Conference 2020, planned for November 2021 at the University of Chicago.

In another novelty, we feature not one but two special sections. One, quite naturally, commemorates an anniversary, Hölderlin's 250th birthday. It contains work devoted to "reading and exhibiting," first presented in collaboration with the DLA Marbach and its American Friends and here compiled by Meike Werner. The other special section, on movement, edited by Heidi Schlipphacke, picks up on research first featured at MLA 2021 and revisits many questions of sentimentalism, visuality, and narration that are at the core of canon formation and eighteenth-century thresholds of modernity. We take it as a good sign that the last essay in this section, by Eleanor ter Horst, challenges us to think about and rethink collaboration and dialogue as constitutive of authorship, just like our robust review section invites our collective engagement with terrific scholarship in eighteenth-century studies. We close these prefatory remarks with the reiteration of gratitude to all those who made yet another pandemic Yearbook possible. The work represented in this volume continues to energize the discipline in challenging ways during challenging times. 

Patricia Anne Simpson

Birgit Tautz

From the Yearbook Editors

Volume 27 of the Goethe Yearbook introduces an array of formats to pursue research on Goethe, his age, and his contemporaries; and to encourage new modes of collaboration. A range of articles by established and emerging authors contributes to the rich and growing archive of scholarship on German eighteenth-century studies, with focal points on Goethe, Karl Philipp Moritz, and Rahel Levin Varnhagen.

In addition, several articles reconsider topics such as Goethe’s personal library and cultural heritage, Goethean anthropology, and the intellectual hub of Weimar. This volume launches the first Forum, a section comprised of invited contributions on an important topic of debate in the profession. For the debut, we asked colleagues engaged in Digital Humanities research to consider the canon in comparison to “the great unread” (Margaret Cohen): a vast expanse of non-canonical texts.

We are also pleased to publish a newly discovered text by August von Kotzebue, with an introduction and annotated transcription by a widely respected historian. Finally, we draw attention to robust, ongoing scholarship that will be one of the projects championed by the Goethe Society for years to come. We are delighted to include two sample entries from the prodigious work in progress, the Goethe-Lexicon of Philosophical Concepts, edited by Clark Muenzer and John H. Smith. Bryan Klausmeyer serves as digital editor. The customary book review section rounds out the volume. We have begun receiving submissions for volume 28 and invite colleagues to share ideas about potential Forum topics and special sections.

Note that the Goethe Yearbook is a double-blind, peer-reviewed publication, widely indexed, and published with DOIs. All manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word, and in accordance with the Yearbook’s style sheet and anonymized for review. Manuscript submissions should be no longer than 8,500 words.

Patricia Anne Simpson, University of Nebraska

Birgit Tautz, Bowdoin College

From the Yearbook Editors

Volume 26 of the Goethe Yearbook, featuring a special section on Goethe’s narrative events and also showcasing work presented at the 2017 Atkins Goethe Conference, will reach the readership soon. Volume 27 is well underway.

For the first time, the Goethe Yearbook is implementing a new format for scholarship and discussion, beginning with a Forum. The working title is “The Canon versus the ‘Great Unread’ (M. Cohen).” With this topic, we hope to prompt a vibrant discussion about the impact of Digital Humanities (DH) and “computational criticism” on Goethe scholarship and 18th-century German Studies. The editors have secured the cooperation of prominent and emerging scholars in the field to contemplate questions such as: What is the relationship between “mining” thousands of texts through algorithms and scholarship “merely” based on interpretation of select literary works? What are the consequences of digitizing primary materials? How do DH methodologies and analytical practices enhance and/or endanger the study of the canon? How does “close reading” versus “distant reading” affect the legacy of canonical authors and their impact on the construction of national literary historiography in the 19th century? What is at stake for the discipline of literary study—for the act of (close) reading—when we ask the question about the canon versus the “great unread”?

The contributions uncover many approaches to the topic that go beyond established scholarly methods v. data sciences, including but not limited to questions of “digital canons” and “forgotten canons,” the significance of paratexts and metadata, alternative reading histories, and DH as a way of navigating the gendered fault-lines of canon formation. Others tackle um 1800 as a primary archaeological site for the digital or reveal the massive amounts of Goethe corpus that are never cited.

The Forum will appear along with a series of articles on Rahel Levin Varnhagen, Friedrich Hölderlin, Goethe’s self-marketing, Goethe and visual culture, eighteenth-century refugee discourse, and others.

Patricia Anne Simpson, University of Nebraska

Birgit Tautz, Bowdoin College

Invitation to Submit your Work to the GYB

Dear colleagues,With vol. 26 in production, we want to reach out again and invite you to submit your work for consideration in the next Goethe Yearbook (to appear in 2020). Please send us manuscripts by February 15, 2019.As always, we welcome manuscripts on any and all aspects of Goethe, his contemporaries, and the 18th century broadly conceived, including the century’s legacy. We also are interested in broadening the discussion, in organizing special sections, and experimenting with new forms and genres of scholarly writing. Please contact us with any and all suggestions at editors@goethesociety.org!Note that the Goethe Yearbook is a double-blind, peer-reviewed publication, widely indexed, and published with DOIs. All manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word, and in accordance with the Yearbook’s style sheet and anonymized for review. Manuscript submissions should be no longer than 8,500 words.

Patricia Anne SimpsonUniversity of Nebraska

Birgit TautzBowdoin College

With very best wishes for the holiday season and 2019,Birgit and Patty

From the Yearbook Editors

Volume 26 of the Goethe Yearbook features a special section on Goethe’s narrative events, edited by Fritz Breithaupt, with contributions from Christopher Chiasson, “Much Ado about Nothing? The Absence of Events in Die Wahlverwandtschaften”; Christian P. Weber, “Narrating (Against) the Uncanny in Goethe’s ‘Ballade’”; and Lisa Anderson, “Countering Catastrophe: Goethe’s Novelle in the Aftershock of Heinrich von Kleist.” This issue also showcases work presented at the 2017 Atkins Goethe Conference (Re-Orientations around Goethe), hosted at Penn State, including presentations by Eva Geulen on morphology and W. Daniel Wilson on the Goethe Society of Weimar in the Third Reich. The volume has a range of articles by emerging and established scholars on Klopstock, Schiller, Goethe and objects, dark green ecology, and texts of the Goethezeit and beyond through the lens of world literature.As always, we welcome manuscripts on any and all aspects of Goethe, his contemporaries, and the 18th century broadly conceived, including the century’s legacy. We also are interested in broadening the discussion, in organizing special sections, and experimenting with new forms and genres of scholarly writing. Please contact us with any and all suggestions at editors@goethesociety.org!Note that the Goethe Yearbook is a double-blind, peer-reviewed publication, widely indexed, and published with DOIs. All manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word, and in accordance with the Yearbook’s style sheet – published on our web site – and anonymized for review. Manuscript submissions should be no longer than 8,500 words.

Patricia Anne SimpsonUniversity of Nebraska

Birgit TautzBowdoin College