The Eye and the Gaze: Goethe and the Autobiographical Subject (German Studies in America)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a dominant figure in European literature and intellectual life, was the creator of a new and influential visual culture. This volume investigates a new science of perception through an exploration of his autobiographical works, novels and writings on optics. The psychoanalytic approach taken in this study focuses on central acts of perception and the role of vision in Goethe as key to the formation of identity. By addressing the impact of visuality on the act of writing, new interpretations of his most important works emerge through analysis of subject formation in the autobiographies, __The Italian Journey__ and __Poetry and Truth__. Further, the relationship between the self and the gaze plays a central role in the semi-autobiographical works, __The Elective Affinities__, __Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship__, as well as __Color Theory__. In exploring the question of identity and identification within a Lacanian framework, __The Eye and the Gaze__ offers an innovative approach to biography, autobiography, and narrative. Cover 1 Acknowledgements 9 Contents 11 Introduction. The Eye and the Gaze: Goethe and the Autobiographical Subject 13 Chapter 1. The Transformative View: Goethe’s Italian Journey 25 The Anxiety of Flight: The Dream of Pheasants 28 Iphigenia: A Waking Dream 31 Seeing with new Eyes: Visuality and Identity 38 The Dangers of the Gaze 41 Masquerade and the Search for Meaning 46 Chapter 2. Birth in Language: Goethe’s Biographical Masquerade 55 The New Paris: Narcissus and the Mirror 70 The Gaze Revealed: A Moment of Shame 79 Masquerade in Sesenheim 85 Chapter 3. The End of Language: Goethe, Lavater and the Eye/I of Physiognomy 97 Lavater and the Eye/I of Physiognomy: The Science of Sensitive Perception 104 The Problem of Deception 111 Lavater and the Triumphal Pageant: The Absent is made Present 116 Chapter 4 Werther Fever: Cause and Cure 123 Goethe on Plessing: a Protoanalysis 124 Lavater/Werther: Disease of Sentimentality 127 Nature as a Cure 133 Goethe, Lavater and Werther 136 The Present Absence: Lavater and Werther in Switzerland 137 Autobiography and the Function of the Gaze 143 Chapter 5. The Narcissistic I/Eye: Performance, Politics and Specular Lessons 149 Autobiography, Performance and Fiction 151 The Triumph of Excessive Sensitivity 152 How Images make Meaning 155 Wilhelm Meister’s Education in the Meaning of Images 158 The Gallery of the Oheim – a new Specularity 160 Wilhelm Meister and the Meaning of Tableaux 164 Chapter 6. Images of Desire: Tableaux Vivants in Goethe’s Elective Affinities 169 The Illusion of the Objective Narrator 170 Luciane’s Tableaux: the Cause of Desire 175 Ottilie’s Tableaux: The End of Desire 190 Chapter 7. Specular Confessions: Goethe on Newton and Lavater 207 Goethe’s Color Theory: Rhetorical Strategies 212 Wounding Nature: Newton’s Strategy of Limitation 218 The Ideal Investigator 221 Werther-fever: Newton’s Malady 226 Lavater, Newton and the Third Eye of Physiognomy 231 Newton’s Unidirectional Gaze 237 Conclusion. The Specular Divide 243 Borders and Frames 245 References 255 List of Illustrations 265 Index 267 A psychoanalytic approach focuses on central acts of perception and the role of vision as key to the formation of identity in Goethe. The impact of visuality on the act of writing is examined in this study and new interpretations of his most important works emerge through analysis of subject formation within a Lacanian framework.