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 Editor of the Book Series

We are thrilled to announce that our first edited volume of essays is scheduled to appear in July of 2020.

Play in the Age of Goethe: Theories, Narratives, and Practices of Play around 1800, edited by Edgar Landgraf and Elliott Schreiber

“We are inundated with game play today. Digital devices offer opportunities to play almost anywhere and anytime. No matter what age, gender, social, cultural, or educational background—we play. Play in the Age of Goethe: Theories, Narratives, and Practices of Play around 1800 is the first book-length work to explore how the modern discourse of play was first shaped in this pivotal period (approximately 1770-1830). The eleven chapters in this book illuminate critical developments in the philosophy, pedagogy, psychology, politics, and poetics of play as evident in the work of major authors of the period including Lessing, Goethe, Kant, Schiller, Pestalozzi, Jacobi, Tieck, Jean Paul, Schleiermacher, and Fröbel. While drawing on more recent theories of play by thinkers such as Jean Piaget, Donald Winnicott, Jost Trier, Gregory Bateson, Jacques Derrida, Thomas Henricks, and Patrick Jagoda, the volume shows the debates around play in the decades in German letters around 1800 to be far richer and more complex than previously thought, as well as more relevant for our current engagement with play. For it is here that the parameters are set that continue to guide our debates about what are good rather than bad games, or what constitutes good rather than bad practices of play.”

Also, don’t forget that GSNA members receive a 40% discount plus free shipping on our two most recent titles (or in fact any book distributed by Rutgers UP):

• Ellwood Wiggins, Odysseys of Recognition: Performing Intersubjectivity in Homer, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Goethe and Kleist

• Seán Williams, Pretexts for Writing: German Romantic Prefaces, Literature, and Philosophy

At rutgersuniversitypress.org, look for the tiny red shopping-cart icon next to the title, and enter the code “BUPSociety” at check-out!Are you working on a monograph or an edited volume? As always, we’d love to hear from you. Direct inquiries to the series editor, Karin Schutjer, at kschutjer@ou.edu.

Karin Schutjer, University of Oklahoma

From the Secretary-Treasurer

We recently updated our PayPal account, so now when you pay your 2019 membership dues online there are no extra fees. Simply go to goethesociety.org/membership and use the drop-down menu to select a membership category. Then click the Buy Now button. You do not need a PayPal account. You may use the secure PayPal Guest Checkout and enter your credit card information there.

If you would like your Goethe Yearbook shipped to an address other than the one used for PayPal, simply send me an email: wcarter@iastate.edu Also, should you have a change of address in the future, please do let me know.Of course, we still accept checks, payable to “Goethe Society of North America.” They can be mailed to William Carter, Department of World Languages and Cultures, Iowa State University, 3102 Pearson Hall, Ames, IA 50011.

Finally, please consider donating to the Goethe Society of North America through the Donate button on the membership page, by check, or with your favorite cryptocurrency.

William Carter, Iowa State University

From the President

As spring arrives, albeit with a little delay here in Philadelphia, it is time to write my first column for the Newsletter in my new role as President of the Society—though I’ve been involved in the association over the past decades in other capacities, as Director-at-Large and Book Review Editor, and have participated, like many of us, in each and every Atkins conference. I am truly honored to have been elected by the membership first as Vice President and now as President, and am dedicated to serving and fostering what I (and I am definitely not alone in this) believe is the best and most vital scholarly association. Your activities related to Goethe and his age prove that our field is flourishing, diverse, and fruitful. I am very excited to work alongside the other members of the Executive Board, including the most recently elected officers: Heather Sullivan (Vice President), Bill Carter (Treasurer), and Vance Byrd and Eleanor ter Horst (Directors-at-Large). I am also exceedingly grateful to past President Daniel Purdy for his quantities of support, good cheer, and advice.

A big part of what makes the GSNA exceptional is that it is so open and welcoming to scholars at all stages of their careers, from graduate students who present at the Atkins conference or participate in the dissertation workshops, to emeritus colleagues who hail from all kinds of institutions, including independent scholars. At a moment when the humanities, and especially language and literature programs, are under ever greater pressure at many of our institutions, it is all the more important to join together in celebrating the innovative collaborations, conversations, and publications that have been made possible by the GSNA and that cross so many disciplinary and geographical borders. Indeed, one of the ideas that emerged from the last Atkins conference was to find a productive way of opening the conference to participation by undergraduate students as well as graduate students. I am fairly certain that I would never have made my own way into Goethe Studies if I had not been the beneficiary of Roger Stephenson’s charismatic teaching and encouragement when I was an undergraduate at the University of Glasgow. Do remember to spread the word about the GSNA: for graduate students it is the best deal in town at $10.60 for annual membership.

Please let us know about your activities and accomplishments. I would like to mention two richly-deserved awards in closing this column.

Director-at-Large Vance Byrd has recently been awarded an Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellowship. These fellowships allow scholars in humanistic fields to obtain additional formal training to conduct high-quality interdisciplinary projects. Vance's project, “Handmade History: Panoramas and Nineteenth-Century Global Cultures of Commemoration,” will examine the untold history of the transatlantic business of memorials of the American Civil War and Franco-Prussian war, which contributed to American national identity, the formation of the German empire, and the complicated legacies of race, slavery, and colonialism in both countries. The award will allow Vance to study art history and Civil War history during a year-long leave spent at Northwestern University.

In recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to Goethe scholarship, David Wellbery will receive the Golden Goethe Medal from the Goethe Society on June 13, 2019, at the Nationaltheater in Weimar.Congratulations, on behalf of the Society!

Catriona MacLeod, University of Pennsylvania

GSNA Essay Prize: Call for Nominations

The executive committee seeks nominations or self-nominations for its annual GSNA Essay Prize that honors the best essays on Goethe, his times, and/or contemporary figures, published in the year 2018. Each prize carries an award of $500.Please submit a copy of the essay (electronic version preferred) by April 30, 2019 to the Society’s Vice-President, Professor Heather Sullivan, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212, hsulliva@trinity.edu.The following articles are eligible:

1. articles written by a North American scholar (defined by institutional affiliation at the time of publication); or

2. articles written by a current member of the GSNA; or

3. articles published in the Goethe Yearbook.

NB: Articles by current GSNA board members are not eligible. GSNA members are encouraged to submit their own articles for consideration.