Goethe and the roots of German socialism - on the socialist reception of the novel Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder Die Entsagenden (1829)

Abstract

The main postdoctoral project aims to analyze the novel Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder Die Entsagenden (Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, or the Renunciants), 1829, in order to examine the social thought expressed in this novel by Goethe, in particular on its connections with the first socialist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, relations also evidenced by the reception that the novel had among contemporary of the author. Anticipated from the beginning, the research internship abroad therefore aims to raise the bibliographic materials essential to the achievement of the initial project, nonexistent in Brazil, since even this novel Goethe was published here. For this, we require a research internship abroad to be held at Freie Universität Berlin, of international excellence center where it is located one of the largest German Studies libraries of Germany, the Philologische Bibliothek, specialized in literature, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolf, an expert in humanistic thought and social philosophy. In this research plan will address some of the reasons that led to the socialists interpretations of the novel, and at the same time, some controversies that challenge such readings, demonstrating the need for a thorough examination of the bibliography, this step, next to the scrutiny of the work which is the object of these disputes, is insurmountable if we want to finally determine if, where and which socialist elements we can view the latest novel by Goethe.