Book contents
- Goethe in Context
- Goethe in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Translations and List of Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Life and Times
- Part II Literature
- Part III Art
- Part IV Philosophy and Science
- Part V World Cultures Inspiration and Reception
- Part VI Goethe’s Lasting Significance
- Chapter 32 Faust and Modernity
- Chapter 33 Goethe’s Portrayal of Love
- Chapter 34 Goethe and the Musical World
- Chapter 35 Goethe and Our Endangered Natural World
- Chapter 36 Goethe Out of Context
- Chapter 37 Postscript
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 33 - Goethe’s Portrayal of Love
Family, Same-Sex and Non-exclusive
from Part VI - Goethe’s Lasting Significance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2024
- Goethe in Context
- Goethe in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Translations and List of Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Life and Times
- Part II Literature
- Part III Art
- Part IV Philosophy and Science
- Part V World Cultures Inspiration and Reception
- Part VI Goethe’s Lasting Significance
- Chapter 32 Faust and Modernity
- Chapter 33 Goethe’s Portrayal of Love
- Chapter 34 Goethe and the Musical World
- Chapter 35 Goethe and Our Endangered Natural World
- Chapter 36 Goethe Out of Context
- Chapter 37 Postscript
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Chapter 33 analyses the challenges to normative definitions of family, gender and love posed by Goethe’s works. In Goethe’s time, such norms were a crucial factor in what Michel Foucault has called the ‘mechanisms of power’. The chapter demonstrates that Goethe defied conventions through his depiction of desire: there are many examples of same-sex attraction in his work, and desire is often also portrayed as fluid, shifting and non-exclusive. Further, the chapter highlights the importance of adoptive relations, which Goethe presents as being of the same order of validity as biological connections.
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- Goethe in Context , pp. 323 - 331Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024