500彩票网

This book contains the translations of two early works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the most important German poets from the late 18th to the early 19th century.
 
The epistolary novel “Die Leiden des jungen Werther” (¹1774 / ²1787) is a major work of the Sturm und Drang movement. The protagonist Werther expresses in passionate words his longing for liberation from conventional social orders and for freedom. Consequently, he comes into repeated conflict with the people around him and commits suicide in the end. This translation results from my attempt to capture the fairly rough diction of the original text. Werther’s affair with Charlotte, as the pivot of the narrative, begins with exaltation and ends in catastrophe. This love is imbued with historical meaning that can only evolve over time, weaving happiness and misery indistinguishably together. Such development, typical of modern love as it is, is depicted in detail and described dramatically, while questioning the ideal of freedom, which has inarguably influenced world literature ever since.
 
It has widely been accepted that Goethe himself had refrained from the rude vigor and rather shifted toward more form-oriented writing since he began to serve at the court of the Dukedom of Saxe-Weimar. Above all, the drama “Iphigenie auf Tauris” (1787), an adaptation of Euripides’ tragedy, has been regarded as a work in a classicistic style characterized by harmony, restraint and tranquility. However, against this common view, this book stresses the continuity of the Sturm und Drang by juxtaposing “Iphigenie” with “Werther”. Goethe did not simply abandon Sturm und Drang in “Iphigenie” as his ‘youthful indiscretion’ although the drama seems to conclude harmoniously. On the contrary, it takes on a significanttask: to condemn the fetters of the mythical orders in the name of humanity. This is particularly visible in the characterization of Orest, who appears to bear the curse of matricide. Orest’s depiction does not merely serve to contrast with the plot’s deceptive simplicity, which suggests that the hostility and misunderstandings among the characters will be resolved by Iphigenie’s honesty, ultimately turning into friendship. At the crucial moment, however, his fierce words reveal instead that he inherits Werther’s rebellious soul. Far from being insane, his speech is, in fact, involuntarily rational. The heroine, Iphigenie, also cherishes the same Sturm und Drang as her brother, Orest. In her endeavor to foster conciliation and friendship between the ‘civilized’ Greece and the ‘savage’ Tauris, she is indeed less conscious of her inner drive than her brother.
 
While the Sturm und Drang was looking for a new and different form, behind the formal restraint of Classicism remains a nearly overflowing, restless vigor. Thus, the attempt of this book is to arrange the inner proximity of both movements.
 
A literary masterpiece reveals new characteristics each time we read it. The multilayered constitution of the text demands the appropriate multiple points of view.
 

(Written by OMIYA Kanichiro, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2024)