This thesis examines the development of an anorexic discourse in Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften. Chapter 1 investigates anorexia as a cultural signifier and its relationship to non-clinical and non-medical disciplines. I then submit that female self-starvation serves a structural and a thematic function in WV. In Chapter 2, I argue that Ottilie's arrested female development illustrates the central, concept (elective affinities) of the novel. Chapter 3 examines food as a non-verbal system of communication in the narrative. Here, I demonstrate that Ottilie's eating disorder denies her subjectivity while it signifies and affirms the dominant social institutions depicted in the novel. Chapter 4 examines Ottilie's oscillation between corporeality and bodilessness. Her physicality is always associated with instability. The disappearance of her flesh allows for the passive reflection of masculine identity. In Chapter 5, I analyze the representation of Otttilie's death and demonstrate that her corpse allegorizes the construction of subjectivity in the narrative. In closing, I argue that Ottilie is an empty signifier in the novel, onto which the plot is imposed. Her anorexia functions as a sign for the process of narration and is a condition of the novel itself.

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Tableau d'honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2011-2012 / L'objectif de ce mémoire est de montrer comment, dans La métamorphose des plantes et autres écrits botaniques de Goethe, la connaissance du règne végétal mûrit en intuition intellectuelle. En abordant par cet angle la botanique de Goethe, nous avons voulu la situer dans le cadre de la philosophie qui lui était contemporaine, celle de Kant et de l'idéalisme allemand. La spécificité de la conception goethéenne d'une participation spirituelle de l'homme aux formations de la nature consiste en ceci que, refusant la voie spéculative, elle prend racine dans un empirisme délicat baptisé morphologie. Cette science veut élever la raison humaine à l'intellect archétypique par l'exercice d'une imagination sensible exacte, seule capable d'épouser la légalité mobile des phénomènes organiques. Dans cet esprit, Goethe prétend que l'art est le meilleur interprète de la nature. Réciproquement, la morphologie constitue pour lui la propédeutique idéale à la pratique comme à la théorisation de l'art.

This thesis examines the morphology of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) through several lenses. The first explores Goethe's morphology as he applied it in his botanical work and supplies an explanation of what Goethe referred to as archetypal phenomena and the archetypal plant. The scope of exploration then broadens to include how Goethe's morphology related to contemporary intellectual trends, in particular Linnaean taxonomy and Kantian Idealism. These contexts serve to situate the development of Goethe's own thinking from his initial formulations of morphology to later variations. The second half of the thesis focuses on contemporary applications of Goethe's ideas in morphology. Natural aesthetics serves as a natural extension. Modern theories of natural aesthetics seek out different justifications for aesthetic experiences arising from engagement with the natural world and this thesis offers Goethe's morphology as an additional possibility. The final chapter looks at The Nature Institute and how it has adopted Goethe's methods and applied them to modern genetics while expanding its scope to include cultural and ethical contexts. Through its presentation, this thesis intends that Goethe's morphology can be applied beyond it usual biological subject matter, including itself. / Graduation date: 2012

From Introduction: In his influential treatise, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky refers to Goethe's "prophetic remark" made in connection with the relationship between the arts in which Goethe had asserted that "painting must count this relationship her main foundation". Kandinsky went on to say that Painting in his day stood "at the first stage of a road by which she abstraction of composition". I will, according to her thought and arrive own possibilities, make art an finally at purely artistic What he seems to have been suggesting is that form, colour and sound are differentiated expressions of a unifying spiritual content, that this spiritual content lives also somehow in the human soul and that it is the new task of the artist to awaken original creativity from out of this spirit by working consciously in creative empathy with the laws implicit in form, colour and sound. The extent to which this view of creativity is indebted to Goethe is only fully realised when it is discovered how closely Kandinsky's writings on colour recapitulate his. In an unpublished essay: Goethe's Theory of Colours : Its relation to some aspects in . the history of Art, Michael Grimly argues that not only Kandinsky in Germany but also Chevreul, the colour-theoretician who was, in France, the leading light, in a technical sense, both of Delacroix and of the Impressionists simply repeats in his writings on Colour many of the ideas that Goethe had already formulated.

Thesis (MMus (Music))-- Stellenbosch University, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the Faust legend and its musical manifestations since the 19th century. The objective is to provide a thorough background to the legend, before drawing up an account of compositions inspired by the Faust legend. Firstly, the origin of the legend is investigated, followed by a brief summary of the most important literary works on the subject of Faust. This is followed by a comprehensive outline of the story as told by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and then the most significant compositions inspired by the legend are discussed. A short section containing comparisons of the compositions and the conclusions of the study appears at the end. The legend tells the story of Faust, a scholar, philosopher and alchemist in search of divine knowledge, power and pleasure. Faust encounters the devil and makes a pact with him in which he agrees to surrender his immortal soul, if the devil can satisfy Faust’s thirst for knowledge and grant him the experience of true happiness. The Faust legend is a very popular theme among composers and artists. One of the reasons for the success of the Faust legend is its universal appeal. This has led to various composers using the material as the basis for their works. Goethe’s version of the legend has proven to be the most popular source for composers. To produce a composition that attempts to capture the drama in its entirety, including its psychological and spiritual elements, is not feasible. Works centred on a smaller section, scene or character from Goethe’s Faust were often more successful than the larger operatic compositions. Like all great universal ideas, the Faust legend lends itself to an abundance of interpretations. Similarities between works are rare. Each composer who made use of the Faust legend interpreted it subjectively, which has produced many unique and varied compositions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie word die Faust legende, soos wat dit in verskeie musikale komposisies van die 19de eeu uitgebeeld is, ondersoek. Die doel van die studie is om ‘n lys van werke wat deur die Faustlegende geïnspireer is, saam te stel. Die tesis ondersoek die oorsprong van die legende en gee ‘n kort opsomming van die mees prominente litirêre werke met die Faustlegende as onderwerp. Daarna volg ‘n uiteensetting van die storielyn soos vertel deur Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ‘n Lys, bestaande uit gesaghebbende Faust komposisies, word ingesluit en laastens volg vergelykings en gevolgtrekkings uit die studie. Die legende vertel die verhaal van Faust, die professor, filosoof en alchemis op soek na kennis, mag en plesier. Faust tree in gesprek met die duiwel en gaan met hom ‘n ooreenkoms aan om sy siel prys te gee in ruil vir kennis en ware geluk. Die Faust legende is sekerlik een van die mees gewilde literêre onderwerpe vir gebruik deur komponiste en kunstenaars. Die universaliteit van die legende dra by tot die gewildheid daarvan en om gebruik te word as onderwerp in toonsettings. Goethe se weergawe word meestal ingespan as bron van inspirasie. Om die volle omvang van die drama, met al sy sielkundige en geestelike elemente in ‘n komposisie vas te vang, is feitlik onmoontlik. Soos die meeste groot universele werke, word Faust op verskillende maniere geïnterpreteer. Gevolglik is daar min ooreenkomste tussen die verskillende toonsettings. Elke komponis se interpretasie van die legende is uniek.

My dissertation, titled Hanging-Together: Kant, Goethe, and the Theory of Aesthetic Modernism, observes that many of the composers, artists, and writers working in the early twentieth century developed theories of aesthetic coherence (Zusammenhang) that contradict the canonical interpretation of the period in terms of discontinuity and fragmentation. I show that the modernists drew on Goethe’s morphology in order to conceive of the inner coherence of the work of art as neither an aggregate (in which the parts precede the whole), nor as a system (in which an idea of the whole precedes its parts), but as a morphological nexus of formal variations. My thesis is that aesthetic modernism negates the ‘outer coherence’ of the work of art in order to reveal its ‘inner coherence,’ and that this morphological concept of inner coherence does not entail the totalizing ideal maintained by the poetic and aesthetic tradition from Aristotle to Kant. I develop this argument over the course of five chapters: the first examines Kant’s concept of systematic unity; the second focuses on Goethe’s critical response to Kant’s philosophy of nature; while the last three trace Goethe’s morphology through the theoretical reflections of a modernist composer, painter, and writer—Arnold Schönberg, Wassily Kandinsky, and Alfred Döblin. What emerges is a theory of aesthetic modernism that takes into account the historical specificity of the period without reducing its significance to the ‘break’ it supposedly effects with tradition.

by Liu Hoi-ying April. / Thesis submitted in: December 2003. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-113). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Preface --- p.i-v / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1. --- Chapter one: The History of the Romantic Lied --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- Chapter two: Literature Review --- p.24 / Chapter 3. --- Chapter three: Lieder Analyses --- p.46 / Chapter 4. --- Chapter four: Summary and Conclusion --- p.100 / Chapter 5. --- Selected Bibliography --- p.110 / Chapter 6. --- Appendix A: Statistics / Chapter - --- Table w: Lieder set by Schubert from 1811-1828; statistical information on setting method (strophic vs through-composed) --- p.113 / Chapter - --- Table x: Schubert's Lieder settings from 1811-1828 of Goethe's poems; statistical information on setting method (strophic vs through-composed) --- p.114 / Chapter - --- Table y: Chronological statistical analysis for setting method (strophic vs through-composed) and related poet for all Schubert's Lieder from 1811-1828. --- p.115 / Chapter - --- Table z: Loewe's strophic Lieder settings collected in Max Runze's edition4 --- p.124 / Chapter 7. --- Appendix B: English Translation of Goethe's poems --- p.127

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