INTERTEXTUALITY IN GOETHE'S “WERTHER” BY MARY A. DEGUIRE DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in German in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Carl H. Niekerk, Chair Associate Professor Stephanie M. Hilger Associate Professor Laurie R. Johnson Associate Professor Anke Pinkert Professor Mara R. Wade ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the intertextual references in eighteenth-century German author Johann W. Goethe’s epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther. The project consists of five chapters with a theory of intertextuality based on M.M. Bakhtin's ideas, which are presented primarily in the introduction. Chapter One addresses references to Klopstock, Chapter Two Lessing’s Emilia Galotti, Chapter Three Homer, Chapter Four Ossian, and Chapter Five eighteenth-century knowledge. This study examines intertextual references to authors, scholars, literature, and literary characters from other novels clearly identifiable in Werther. Werther’s explicit references to other literary texts elicit various intertextual dialogues. Werther creates a dialogic network of literary relations through its references to these texts, and they, in turn, elevate Goethe's novel to a similar canonic status. My findings contribute to a different interpretation of Werther, one that comprehensively explains how both the well-known and lesser-discussed intertextual references in the novel function. I argue that the young Goethe operated within the cultural understanding that the inclusion of other prominent European texts could help to situate Werther in developing the national German literary canon. Though Holquist states that a canonic state does not allow dissenting voices and that the novel as a “...heteroglot genre – has no canon...,” the tension caused by the intertextual references in Werther cannot be ignored (Imagination 25). Goethe's avoidance of Werther in his later years speaks to his contradictory ambitions. While he wanted to be the measure of success, he could not quiet the cultural context of originality in which he lived. Werther marks this general period of literary history when young writers expressed their expansive visions of greatness. Werther builds on the literary texts produced by German Enlightenment writers such as Gotthold ii Ephraim Lessing and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, and was influenced by authors beyond the borders of German-speaking lands, from the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Ossian to the Greek Antiquity of Homer, making Werther the first of many contributions to a Weltliteratur that Goethe discussed later in his career. Goethe’s intertextual references to authors and texts in Werther required a different understanding from audiences in the late eighteenth century than they do for readers over 200 years later. His references clarify general eighteenth-century interpretations of such writers as Ossian and Homer. Informed by Bakhtinian theoretical concepts, this study explains the significance the references had then and what they mean for readers today. For the study of intertextuality my dissertation provides an example of how Bakhtin's ideas alone can be used to guide an intertextual study of literature. It furthermore means that an intertextual framework can lead to conclusions concerning canon development. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: INTERTEXTUALITY IN WERTHER......................................................1 CHAPTER 1: KLOPSTOCK'S DECANONIZATION...........................................................42 CHAPTER 2: WERTHER, EMILIA GALOTTI, AND DEATH...............................................89 CHAPTER 3: THE IDYLLIC HOMERIC EPICS................................................................134 CHAPTER 4: REWRITING OSSIAN..................................................................................174 CHAPTER 5: GENDERED EXPECTATIONS....................................................................221 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................281 WORKS CITED.....................................................................................................................287 iv INTRODUCTION: INTERTEXTUALITY IN WERTHER. I. OBJECTIVES. This dissertation project shows what the intertextual references in Johann W. Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werther (Werther) mean and how they function in the novel.1 My method of research allowed me to examine comprehensively what Goethe had said about the references both in Werther and in his other texts, and what was generally understood by the references leading up to the initial version of Werther in 1774 and again in his 1787 revision. My research process involves close reading of the primary Werther texts, paying close attention to the differences between the 1774 and 1787 versions of Werther. Examining both versions allows me to see if and what changes were made to the explicit textual reference. In analyzing these intertextual references, I examine whether they function differently or alter the interpretation. Their forms include allusions to other works, naming of other authors, quoting from other texts, and re-articulating the names of characters from other texts. Comprehensively examining what Goethe said in reference to the explicit intertextual reference outside of Werther in his other texts followed the close readings of the two texts. A newly informed understanding of the reference then helped explain Goethe's inclusion of it in Werther. Contextualizing the references also helped to expand and deepen my interpretation of the references in Werther. Reviewing 1. All subsequent references to Die Leiden des jungen Werther, referred to by the abbreviation Werther, will be from the Deutscher Klassiker edition. See Johann Wolfgang Goethe's “Die Leiden des jungen Werthers.” Romane I: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Paralleldruck der Fassungen von 1774 und 1787, Die Wahlverwandtschaften, Epen/Novelle/Kleine Prosa. Ed. Waltraud Wiethölter. Frankfurt a. M: Deutscher Klassiker, 1994. 9-267. The primary translation of Goethe's novel used throughout the project is Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan's English translation of The Sorrows of the Young Werther and Novella. New York: Random, 1971. 3-168. The other German texts quoted in this dissertation have been translated into English. The name of the translator is stated after the English translation. Where no name is indicated the translation is my own. 1 secondary scholarship concerning Werther often opened up additional questions on why certain interpretations of these intertextual references have become canonical. Eighteenth-century research allows a more informed understanding than Goethe's contemporaries had through new methodological tools that have been developed and used in the studies of literature. Bakhtin's concept of “superaddressee” explains that we as temporally distant readers should have a better, more informed reading than was initially possibly in the same time space: “To understand a given text as the author himself understood it. But our understanding can and should be better” (1970 Notes 141). This chronological distance helps me in this project to refer to overviews of the period on writing letters, on the political system, on the role of antiquity as a literary influence, and on studies of what modernity encompasses. These studies enrich and inform my project. After analyzing the material, including Goethe's own statements, the general understanding of the references, and background information on the reference, my findings related to secondary literature inform my ultimate conclusions. In scholarship, often only one of the two versions of Werther is studied, leading to an incomplete understanding of the intertextual references. Few researchers study both the original 1774 version of Werther and the rewrite of the novel from 1787. Melitta Gerhard's “Die Bauerburschenepisode im 'Werther'” (1916) is one study that also considers both Goethe's 1774 and his 1787 versions in explaining the addition of the Bauerburschenepisode in the 1787 version. Gerhard refers to the 1774 version as the Ur- Werther in explaining the addition of the 4 September 1772 entry and the next undated scene included by the narrator (Gerhard 23; Goethe, Werther 161, 203). Klaus Müller-Salget’s 1981 study considers both versions in its discussion of the inclusion of the word ode after the “Klopstock!” reference (336). Deirdre Vincent’s 1992 book focuses on general changes Goethe 2 made between the first and second Werther version (259). As with these studies, the examination of both texts is also very central to my research. The earlier text is a point of reference that helps clarify the later version and the overall impression Goethe wanted to leave. In my dissertation these explicit literary references include Homer, Ossian, the Bible, Lessing’s Emilia Galotti and Klopstock’s ode, fairy tales, and the literary knowledge of educated men and women in Werther, as demonstrated through references to scholarship as well as texts. In Werther, references are more than just the use of the one name – it is everything we think about and conjure up with that reference. Goethe achieves a sense of movement that transcends itself to pages of texts other than his own. Goethe’s utterances of these materials create a chain of intertextual references that denote specific literary