Congratulations to our Essay Prize Winners!

Presented by H. Sullivan, Vice President of the Goethe Society of North America, with special thanks to our wonderful Directors-at-Large, Vance Byrd and Eleanor Ter Horst.We are delighted to bestow two of the annual GSNA essay prizes this year for work published in 2018, one honorable mention, and one prize for the Richard Sussman Award for an essay on Goethe’s science.

2018 GSNA Essay Prizes

Bettina Brandt, “Taming Foreign Speech: Language Politics in Shadow Plays around 1800,” German Studies Review 41.2 (2018): 355-372.

Brandt’s essay focuses on the intersection of popular visual and performance culture and German literature in the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period. She explores questions of cross-cultural transmission, changing circumstances of performance, and politics surrounding the shift from early modern multilingualism to Romantic monolingualism, reinforced by a growing emphasis on nationalism. Brandt examines the international circulation of shadow plays while questioning the standard ethnonational paradigms of writing media history with her transnational perspective on trends in the performance of Turkish and European plays. The German writers and philologists featured in this article—she analyzes primarily three shadow plays by Achim von Arnim, Christian Brentano, and Ludwig Tieck—were engaging with a rapidly evolving global media culture in which the movement of multilingual people and mixed-media performances could be harnessed for political ends. Her valuable contribution to media history and theory before the advent of photography and cinema inspire us to conduct research that takes seriously how literature around 1800 operated in broader global media ecologies.

Heidi Schlipphacke, “Kinship and Aesthetic Depth: The Tableau Vivant in Goethe’s Wahlverwandtschaften,” Publications of the English Goethe Society 87.3 (2018): 147-165.

Schlipphacke beautifully elucidates the feature of Goethe’s Die Wahlverwandtschaften that has inspired so many debates among Goethe’s readers and critics: the extensive descriptions of performances of tableaux vivants. Schlipphacke convincingly links the hybrid aesthetics of the tableau vivant with the simultaneous presence of premodern and modern genres in Goethe’s novel, and with the coexistence of two models of kinship: the premodern extended family and the modern bourgeois nuclear family. Building on the work of Hegel, she describes these performances as a “coming together or collision of heterogeneous elements” which bring our attention to provocative questions of “natural” and material. Her essay is a truly excellent intervention in literary and philosophical reflections as well as visual and performance culture debates on the novel, particularly with its clarity regarding the importance of evolving and competing notions of kinship and subjectivity in this period.

Honorable Mention: Jessica C. Resvick, “Repetition and Textual Transmission: The Gothic Motif in Goethe’s Faust and “Von deutscher Baukunst,” Goethe Yearbook XXV (2018): 133-160.

Resvick’s essay provides yet another example of how scholarship on the Goethezeit benefits from interdisciplinary approaches and sustained attention to literary form. Her essay examines the role of the Gothic, both as an architectural feature and as a more general aesthetic motif, in Goethe’s writings. Linking two of Goethe’s essays on Gothic architcture with the repetition or reappearance of Gothic motifs in Faust, Resvick skillfully draws out the implications of the Gothic for Goethe’s ideas about cultural transmission. She successfully brings together the intersections of architectural theory, print and visual culture, as well as close readings of Goethe to provide exciting new ways to think about aesthetic production and cultural transmission

2018 Richard Sussman Award for an Essay on Goethe’s science

Claudia Kreklau, “Travel, Technology, and Theory: The Aesthetics of Ichthyology during the Second Scientific Revolution,” German Studies Review 41.3 (2018): 589-610.

Kreklau’s fascinating article asks us to consider how natural scientists collected, drew, and disseminated knowledge about foreign fish species transformed in the long nineteenth century. Highly innovative and beautifully illustrated, her interdisciplinary essay paints a picture of global scientific trade in fish specimens that expands our understanding of observation and collection, philosophical thought on beauty, epistemological challenges of studying the seemingly threatening life in the deep sea, as well as the print culture and illustration processes. Ichthyology, in her persuasive account, provides new ways of thinking about nature and truth in the period. Moving from Kant’s declaration of the “horrible” ocean to the slow development of ichthyology, Kreklau’s links the fields of scientific inquiry, aesthetics and the development of aquariums throughout Europe, demonstrating closely artistic representation and the invention of new technologies for reproducing art were tied to the development of scientific ideas. 

From the President

Earlier this month, a cross section of German Studies colleagues met in the Victorian Gothic A. D. White House at Cornell, home of the Cornell Society for the Humanities, for the timely and important conference Re-Imagining the Discipline: German Studies, the Humanities, and the University. Happy to have discovered the names Goethe and Schiller prominently inscribed on an ornate Victorian book tree in a classroom next to our venue, I shared with the audience the vital work that scholarly societies such as our own do, both in fostering strong interdisciplinary collaborations, and in affording perspectives on our field that counter today’s more presentist tendencies.

In that vein, I am looking forward to meeting many of you soon at the GSA conference in Portland, where in addition to a raft of exciting Goethe-related seminars, panels, and even business meetings, you can find members of the board at a GSNA table (in the book exhibit area) and happy to chat about our activities, from the Bucknell book series New Studies in the Age of Goethe to the Goethe Yearbook. It’s the first time we’re doing this - please do stop by, say hello, and pick up some information. We are especially eager to get to know younger scholars in the field, so if you have graduate students attending GSA, or are a graduate student or recent Ph.D. yourself, do keep this in mind.

One of our largest undertakings as a society is of course the triennial Atkins Conference. As some of you already know, I recently moved to the University of Chicago, where I am joining an amazing group of Goethe scholars. This has implications for your travel plans in 2020. In case you were expecting a third Pennsylvanian conference in a row, the big news is that we will in fact be returning to Chicago in 2020. Please mark your calendars for November 5-7, 2020. The title of the conference will be Goethe’s Things. I will have more to share about the conference theme at GSA, and you can expect to receive a call for papers very soon.

As always, please let us know about your activities and accomplishments. I am delighted to congratulate Goethe Yearbook editor Birgit Tautz on receiving the 2019 SAMLA book prize for her Translating the World: Toward a New History of German Literature Around 1800 (Penn State UP, 2018).

Catriona MacLeod, University of Chicago

2019 GSA Panels

Sessions 019, 151, 295. Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker (Closed Seminar)Fri, Sat, Sun 8:00–10:00 AM Northwest

Conveners

1. Clark Muenzer, University of Pittsburgh

2. Karin Schutjer, University of Oklahoma

3. John Smith, University of California, Irvine

ATTENDEES

• Claire BaldwinColgate University

• Jane BrownUniversity of Washington

• Daniel CarranzaUniversity of Chicago

• Jonathan FineBrown University

• Sally GrayMississippi State University

• Heidi GrekWashington University in St. Louis

• Joseph HaydtUniversity of Chicago

• Horst LangeUniversity of Central Arkansas

• Steven LydonHarvard University

• John McCarthyVanderbilt University

• Sebastian MeixnerUniversität Zürich

• Heidi SchlipphackeUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

• Ross ShieldsLeibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung

• Xuxu SongUniversity of California Irvine

• Jason YonoverJohns Hopkins University

Session 104: Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy (I): Genres of RealismFriday 2:00-4:00 p.m. Skyline 3

Moderator: Jennifer Jenkins, Pacific Lutheran University

Commentator: Karin Schutjer, University of Oklahoma

1. Lyric Realism? Poetic Phenomenology between Klopstock and ColeridgeJan Oliver Jost-Fritz, Eastern Tennessee State University

2. (Mis-)Interpreting Goethe’s Lilie in “Das Märchen”Prisilla Sanchez, University of Oregon

3. Erzähltes Leben und gestimmte Erinnerung Zum Realismus in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre und seiner Bedeutung für die Tradition des BildungsromansStefan Hajduk, University of Adelaide

4. “Zuckungen” and “Gefühlsader”: The Desire and Impossibility of Literary Realism in Georg Büchner’s Lenz – Matthew Childs, University of Washington 

Session 131: Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy (2): The Realism of Classicism, Romanticism, and ModernismFri 4:15-6:00 p.m. Skyline 3

Moderator: Elliott Schreiber, Vassar College

Commentator: John Lyon, University of Pittsburgh

1. Out of Ruin: Ideal Realism in Winckelmann, Goethe, and Modernism– Christian Weber, Florida State University

2. Goethe’s Dramatic Theory of Revelation (die Schöne Seele) – Benjamin Swakopf, Indiana University

3. Between Sais and Sense: Novalis’ Response to Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre (1794)– David Takamura, University of North Carolina and Duke University

4. Stifter and the Avant-Garde: Affect and Materiality in KalksteinRobert Mottram, Oakland University

Session 238: Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy (3): Realism Challenged by War and RevolutionSat 2:00-4:00 p.m. Skyline 3

Moderator: Alina Dana Weber, Florida State University

Commentator: Joseph O’Neil, University of Kentucky

1. The Reality of Battle: Realism in the Context of Goethe’s War Experience– Christine Lehleiter, University of Toronto

2. “Gänzlich alle Unterhaltung über das Interesse des Tages verbannen”: Goethe’s “Unterhaltungen” and the Realist Novella – Marie-Luise Goldmann, New York University

3. The Censored Present: Young Germany’s Realism – Michael Swellander, University of Iowa

Session 062: Karl Philipp Moritz’s Interdisciplinary StanceFri 10:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Executive

Moderator: Sarah Eldridge, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Commentator: Elliott Schreiber, Vassar College

1. Principles and Practice of Harmony and Balance: Objectivity/Subjectivity, Creation/Destruction, Health/Illness, and Beauty/Desolation in K.P. Moritz’s Aesthetic, Literary, Educative, and Therapeutic Worlds– Sheila Dickson, University of Glasgow

2. Karl Philip Moritz als Datenwissenschaftler und Wissenschaftstheoretiker – Robert Roessler, Harvard University

3. The Ethics of Imperfection and the Limits of Autonomy in Karl Philipp Moritz’s Writings on Aesthetics – Mattias Pirholt, Södertörn University

4. Novalis und Karl Philipp Moritz: Eine erfahrungsseelenkundliche und mythologische Spurensuche – Franziska Schlieker, Technische Universität Braunschweig

From the Executive Secretary

The 2019 German Studies Association conference in Portland, Oregon, will have a particularly sizable GSNA presence. The Society is sponsoring a seminar on “Goethe as a Heterodox Thinker,” a three-part panel on “Realism in the Age of Goethe and Its Legacy,” as well as a panel on “Karl Philipp Moritz’s Interdisciplinary Stance.” My thanks once again to the organizers of these fabulous sessions: Clark Muenzer, Karin Schutjer, John Smith, Jan O. Jost-Fritz, Christian Weber, and Mattias Pirholt.

In addition, thanks to Karin Schutjer’s leadership, the Goethe Society will also have a robust presence in the exhibition hall with a table featuring information on the Yearbook, the book series, the lexicon project, and more. Please be sure to stop by!Finally, please join us for the Goethe Society’s cash bar on Saturday, October 5, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in Galleria I, followed by the business meeting 7:30-8:30 p.m. in Galleria II.

I welcome all proposals for GSNA-sponsored panels and seminars for the 2020 German Studies Association Conference. Please send me an abstract by November 15, 2019 (my e-mail address is elschreiber@vassar.edu). The deadline for proposals for the 2021 Modern Language Association Convention is December 1, 2019, and March 15, 2020, for the 2021 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Convention. I look forward to your proposals, and to seeing you in Portland!

Elliott Schreiber, Vassar College

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