Este trabalho trata da ficção histórica de Goethe em duas fases de sua obra. Em primeiro lugar se ocupa do drama pioneiro do Sturm und Drang, Götz von Berlichingen (1773), para então se voltar às Revolutionsdichtungen conjunto de obras produzidas entre 1791 e 1803, período auge do Classicismo de Weimar, em que o autor emitiu juízos sobre diferentes fases da Revolução Francesa. Ao optar por tal tema, visou-se resgatar Goethe como um importante participante do debate histórico-filosófico que começa com os iluministas e culmina no pensamento político da Restauração. Por esse motivo a pesquisa se iniciou com uma busca dos antecedentes do drama histórico do Sturm und Drang, voltando a Gottsched e Lessing. Geralmente o desenvolvimento da ficção histórica do século XVIII é tomado como passivo em relação aos avanços da filosofia ilustrada, como se uma consciência histórica propriamente moderna houvesse aflorado em certos escritores a partir das leituras que fizeram de novas teorias da época. Contra tal suposição, defendeu-se que há na beletrística alemã da virada do século algumas formulações acerca da relação entre indivíduo e processo histórico que, antes de tudo, desafiaram o progressismo dos iluministas tardios, para os quais o advento da Revolução Francesa marcava o próximo passo no aperfeiçoamento da humanidade. Acompanhar o modo como a história foi tratada nas obras do Sturm und Drang até as do Classicismo de Weimar permite-nos, ademais, constatar a radical atualização da missão da cultura literária, que deveria então lidar com as emergências do presente. A literatura almejada naquele contexto deveria funcionar como uma contracorrente do senso comum e um veículo intelectual autônomo, capaz de erguer-se além das paixões partidárias e posicionar corretivos para as contradições contemporâneas. Tais corretivos traziam o diferencial de serem desvinculados das ciências, religião, cultura política ou sabedoria popular a nova arte deveria, assim, ser tomada como autônoma na medida em que podia cindir radicalmente com a cultura do presente em crise, tornando possível o surgimento de um ideal renovado de humanidade e de vida conjunta que a própria Revolução Francesa não foi capaz de concretizar. Aqui reside o que há de mais polêmico e moderno nas chamadas Revolutionsdichtungen e no Classicismo de Weimar como um todo. / The following research deals with Goethe\'s historical fiction in two distinct phases of his career. First off, it handles with the pioneering Sturm und Drang drama, Götz von Berlichingen (1773), and then with the so-called Revolutionsdichtungen a group of works produced between 1791 and 1803, the heyday of the Weimar Classicism, in which the author made judgments about different aspects of the French Revolution. In choosing such a theme, I expect to highlight the importance of Goethe in the historical-philosophical debate which ranges from the works of Enlightenment intellectuals to the political thinking of the Restauration. Thus, the research sets out with a quest for the predecessors of the historical drama of the Sturm Drang, coming across to figures like Gottsched and Lessing. The development of the historical fiction from the 18th century is commonly taken for granted as somewhat passive towards the advances of the Enlightenment philosophy, as if a properly modern historical consciousness had flourished in certain writers after the readings they made from contemporary theories. Against such a presupposition, I claim that in the German belletristic from the turning of the century one can find interesting formulations about the relation between individual and historical process which, above all, cast doubt on the progressism of late Enlightenment philosophers, to whom the advent of the French Revolution marked the next step toward an evolving mankind. Moreover, following the tracks of how history was portrayed from the Sturm und Drang to the Weimar Classicism allows us to verify a radical reformulation of the mission of literary culture, which thenceforth should respond to the emergencies of the present. The literature of that context should work against the common sense, being thus an autonomous cultural medium able to reach beyond the partisan leanings and offer correctives to contemporary contradictions. Such correctives would have the advantage of being independent of the sciences, religion, political culture or popular wisdom a new art therefore should be called autonomous inasmuch as it could split with the culture of a problematic present, allowing for the emergence of a renewed ideal of humanity and communitary life that the French Revolution itself was incapable of materializing. Therein lies what is most polemical and modern in the so-called Revolutionsdichtungen and in the Weimar Classicism as a whole.

Este trabalho trata da ficção histórica de Goethe em duas fases de sua obra. Em primeiro lugar se ocupa do drama pioneiro do Sturm und Drang, Götz von Berlichingen (1773), para então se voltar às Revolutionsdichtungen conjunto de obras produzidas entre 1791 e 1803, período auge do Classicismo de Weimar, em que o autor emitiu juízos sobre diferentes fases da Revolução Francesa. Ao optar por tal tema, visou-se resgatar Goethe como um importante participante do debate histórico-filosófico que começa com os iluministas e culmina no pensamento político da Restauração. Por esse motivo a pesquisa se iniciou com uma busca dos antecedentes do drama histórico do Sturm und Drang, voltando a Gottsched e Lessing. Geralmente o desenvolvimento da ficção histórica do século XVIII é tomado como passivo em relação aos avanços da filosofia ilustrada, como se uma consciência histórica propriamente moderna houvesse aflorado em certos escritores a partir das leituras que fizeram de novas teorias da época. Contra tal suposição, defendeu-se que há na beletrística alemã da virada do século algumas formulações acerca da relação entre indivíduo e processo histórico que, antes de tudo, desafiaram o progressismo dos iluministas tardios, para os quais o advento da Revolução Francesa marcava o próximo passo no aperfeiçoamento da humanidade. Acompanhar o modo como a história foi tratada nas obras do Sturm und Drang até as do Classicismo de Weimar permite-nos, ademais, constatar a radical atualização da missão da cultura literária, que deveria então lidar com as emergências do presente. A literatura almejada naquele contexto deveria funcionar como uma contracorrente do senso comum e um veículo intelectual autônomo, capaz de erguer-se além das paixões partidárias e posicionar corretivos para as contradições contemporâneas. Tais corretivos traziam o diferencial de serem desvinculados das ciências, religião, cultura política ou sabedoria popular a nova arte deveria, assim, ser tomada como autônoma na medida em que podia cindir radicalmente com a cultura do presente em crise, tornando possível o surgimento de um ideal renovado de humanidade e de vida conjunta que a própria Revolução Francesa não foi capaz de concretizar. Aqui reside o que há de mais polêmico e moderno nas chamadas Revolutionsdichtungen e no Classicismo de Weimar como um todo. / The following research deals with Goethe\'s historical fiction in two distinct phases of his career. First off, it handles with the pioneering Sturm und Drang drama, Götz von Berlichingen (1773), and then with the so-called Revolutionsdichtungen a group of works produced between 1791 and 1803, the heyday of the Weimar Classicism, in which the author made judgments about different aspects of the French Revolution. In choosing such a theme, I expect to highlight the importance of Goethe in the historical-philosophical debate which ranges from the works of Enlightenment intellectuals to the political thinking of the Restauration. Thus, the research sets out with a quest for the predecessors of the historical drama of the Sturm Drang, coming across to figures like Gottsched and Lessing. The development of the historical fiction from the 18th century is commonly taken for granted as somewhat passive towards the advances of the Enlightenment philosophy, as if a properly modern historical consciousness had flourished in certain writers after the readings they made from contemporary theories. Against such a presupposition, I claim that in the German belletristic from the turning of the century one can find interesting formulations about the relation between individual and historical process which, above all, cast doubt on the progressism of late Enlightenment philosophers, to whom the advent of the French Revolution marked the next step toward an evolving mankind. Moreover, following the tracks of how history was portrayed from the Sturm und Drang to the Weimar Classicism allows us to verify a radical reformulation of the mission of literary culture, which thenceforth should respond to the emergencies of the present. The literature of that context should work against the common sense, being thus an autonomous cultural medium able to reach beyond the partisan leanings and offer correctives to contemporary contradictions. Such correctives would have the advantage of being independent of the sciences, religion, political culture or popular wisdom a new art therefore should be called autonomous inasmuch as it could split with the culture of a problematic present, allowing for the emergence of a renewed ideal of humanity and communitary life that the French Revolution itself was incapable of materializing. Therein lies what is most polemical and modern in the so-called Revolutionsdichtungen and in the Weimar Classicism as a whole.

The novel Agnes von Lilien by Caroline von Wolzogen, although celebrated during the period of Weimar Classicism, was not generally well known to English-speaking readers and researchers until recently. This project aims to address this situation by creating an easily accessible English translation of the novel complete with critical annotations for the benefit of researchers and lay readers alike. The annotated translation presented in this work is an excerpt of the full translation of the work drawn in particular from the first third of the novel. This novel, first published in 1798, reflects many ideals of the Enlightenment, as well as opinions on women's roles and women's education. In the introduction, I trace the way that the novel seeks to gently persuade the nobility and educated middle class to change the world around them. This is done through the ever-present contrasts filling its pages alongside the novel's emphasis on ideal possibilities. Rather than serving as a revolutionary critique, I assert that the story conveys a quiet call for a level of social reform that still assures the nobility their power while nevertheless challenging them to use that power for the betterment of society. Women are urged to extend their reach to the outer boundaries of womanhood rather than being content with the confinement imposed by traditional society. I conclude that the strength of Wolzogen's text and the trait that draws readers back even centuries later is the fact that, under the cloak of intrigue, adventure, and romance expected from the novel form, the ideals of the Enlightenment shine clearly. In spite of social and political changes over the past two centuries, the call to virtue, industry, reason, and self-improvement, regardless of gender or social class, still maintains its relevance and power for readers in the modern era.

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