Goethe Yearbook 33

Features essays on works by Goethe and his contemporaries, a presentation of two unknown fragments by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a Forum section on men's and women's friendships, a roundtable of editors of journals on the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and book reviews.


The Goethe Yearbook is a publication of the Goethe Society of North America, showcasing North American and international scholarship on Goethe and other authors and aspects of German literature and culture around 1800. In this volume, Donald Wehrs looks at Goethe's Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten, asking whether the arts can serve as an antidote to political extremism and the social divisions that it engenders. Xuxu Song considers Sympoesie and Symphilosophie in the Athenaeum (1798-1800), exploring how the journal, through its aesthetic practices, created community across languages, art forms, and eras. Luke Rylander explores the intersection of gendered discourses with economic structures in the crucial "witches' kitchen" scene of Goethe's Faust. Jeffrey Jarzomb examines Engel Christine Westphalen's drama Charlotte Corday's depiction of the Volk as an easily misled entity with a potential for violence.

Following the essays, Dennis Schäfer presents us with facsimile, transcription, and translation of two hitherto unknown manuscript fragments by E.T.A Hoffmann, along with an introduction explaining their provenance and relevance. A Forum section on men's and women's friendships, titled "Inclinations," follows. A roundtable of editors of current journals on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries then sheds light on recent scholarly trends and on the challenges and opportunities of editing a journal focusing on an earlier period. Finally, a collection of book reviews offers a comprehensive view of new work in the field.