Lives and Deaths of Werther
Werther is different Werthers but not everywhere at the same time. This study investigates how the novel’s interpretations, translations and literary adaptations have left their marks on the original text, but this time without judging them against the canonical ideas of academic criticism. It turns...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Liverpool University Press
2024
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| Online Access: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/90784 |
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| _version_ | 1869531462812827648 |
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| author | Kaminski, Johannes |
| author_browse | Kaminski, Johannes |
| author_facet | Kaminski, Johannes |
| author_sort | Kaminski, Johannes |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Werther is different Werthers but not everywhere at the same time. This study investigates how the novel’s interpretations, translations and literary adaptations have left their marks on the original text, but this time without judging them against the canonical ideas of academic criticism. It turns out that Werther’s narrative malleability facilitates its use as a “graft.” By isolating some elements of the narrative and eliminating others, readers can draw on Werther to make a case for various ideological projects. He is a sick man, but also a revolutionary hero. His suicide is self-determined, even heroic. In contrast to the epistolary novel’s precarious status in Germany, where it was—and continues to be—downplayed as an immature work of the great Goethe, French Romantic poets such as Chateaubriand and Senancour embraced the novel as a valid template of modern subjectivity. In pre-Risorgimento Italy, Foscolo drew on the book to tell a story of patriotic martyrdom. And in East Asia, the same malleability contributed to Werther’s iconic status among Japanese and Chinese modern writers of the early twentieth century. While translators struggled to capture its explosive literary style in their native languages, literary successors did not detect much foreignness in the text’s ethos; instead, it formed part of the discovery of their own literary heritage. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-138694 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Liverpool University Press |
| publisherStr | Liverpool University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1386942025-06-26T05:11:18Z Lives and Deaths of Werther Kaminski, Johannes Goethe; Romanticism; Revolution; Patriotism; Suicide; Pessimism; Translation;Punctuation; Crosscultural; Hybridity thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFP Translation and interpretation thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items Werther is different Werthers but not everywhere at the same time. This study investigates how the novel’s interpretations, translations and literary adaptations have left their marks on the original text, but this time without judging them against the canonical ideas of academic criticism. It turns out that Werther’s narrative malleability facilitates its use as a “graft.” By isolating some elements of the narrative and eliminating others, readers can draw on Werther to make a case for various ideological projects. He is a sick man, but also a revolutionary hero. His suicide is self-determined, even heroic. In contrast to the epistolary novel’s precarious status in Germany, where it was—and continues to be—downplayed as an immature work of the great Goethe, French Romantic poets such as Chateaubriand and Senancour embraced the novel as a valid template of modern subjectivity. In pre-Risorgimento Italy, Foscolo drew on the book to tell a story of patriotic martyrdom. And in East Asia, the same malleability contributed to Werther’s iconic status among Japanese and Chinese modern writers of the early twentieth century. While translators struggled to capture its explosive literary style in their native languages, literary successors did not detect much foreignness in the text’s ethos; instead, it formed part of the discovery of their own literary heritage. 2024-06-06T04:27:18Z 2024-06-06T04:27:18Z 2024-06-05T09:23:04Z 2023 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/90784 9780197267554 9780198906766 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/138694 eng British Academy Monographs open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/90784/1/9780198906759.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/90784/1/9780198906759.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/90784/1/9780198906759.pdf Liverpool University Press The British Academy aa5f0a3b-b4a0-4754-9840-b645b364c5ef 1b2afe11-1c61-4b23-bd3f-f3958094621f British Academy 9780197267554 9780198906766 262 Oxford open access |
| spellingShingle | Goethe; Romanticism; Revolution; Patriotism; Suicide; Pessimism; Translation;Punctuation; Crosscultural; Hybridity thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFP Translation and interpretation thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items Kaminski, Johannes Lives and Deaths of Werther |
| title | Lives and Deaths of Werther |
| title_full | Lives and Deaths of Werther |
| title_fullStr | Lives and Deaths of Werther |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lives and Deaths of Werther |
| title_short | Lives and Deaths of Werther |
| title_sort | lives and deaths of werther |
| topic | Goethe; Romanticism; Revolution; Patriotism; Suicide; Pessimism; Translation;Punctuation; Crosscultural; Hybridity thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFP Translation and interpretation thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items |
| topic_facet | Goethe; Romanticism; Revolution; Patriotism; Suicide; Pessimism; Translation;Punctuation; Crosscultural; Hybridity thema EDItEUR::C Language and Linguistics::CF Linguistics::CFP Translation and interpretation thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies thema EDItEUR::F Fiction and Related items |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/90784 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kaminskijohannes livesanddeathsofwerther |