Karl Siegfried Guthke

Als deutscher Vermittler englischer Kultur berichtete Johann Christian Hüttner in den Jahren 1815 bis 1829 über englische Neuerscheinungen auf dem Gebiet der Reisebeschreibungen über Weimar. Die Arbeit zeigt, was Herzog Carl August zum Kauf angeboten wurde, was unter Goethes maßgeblichem Einfluss davon für Weimar bestellt wurde, was Goethe davon gelesen und kommentiert hat, was von Goethe weitervermittelt wurde an den Weimarer Verleger Bertuch zum Zweck der Übersetzung ins Deutsche für die Reihe Neue Bibliothek der wichtigsten Reisebeschreibungen sowie an den Verleger Bran für dessen Zeitschriften Ethnographisches Archiv, Miscellen aus der neuesten ausländischen Literatur und Minerva. Sichtbar wird eine weitreichende und vielgestaltige Vernetzung des Zustroms von Büchern aus England, aber auch englischer Reisender, und damit ein unbekanntes Kapitel jenes geistigen Handelsverkehrs, den Goethe Weltliteratur nannte.

vi, 450 p. : 23 cm

The Essays on German and European literature assembled in this volume, erudite and yet written with the ease of the professional lecturer, view literary works in their broader cultural contexts - as, for example, from the vantage point of the history of science, of political life, of patterns of taste in the arts, or as viewed in the framework of broad philosophical and anthropological issues. Or sometimes the most interesting viewpoint has to do with the conventions of everyday life. Invariably in these essays a literary text poses a puzzling question inviting inquiry; pursuing it, Professor Guthke takes his readers on an expedition into regions of the terres inconnues of human life and thought and sensibilities. Surprising vistas open up even on territories thought to be well travelled. Guthke has written the definitive book on the mysterious author of Treasure of the Sierra Madre known only as B. Traven, and readers of the present collection will find it equally fascinating.

"In this fascinating collection of essays Harvard Emeritus Professor Karl S. Guthke examines the ways in which, for European scholars and writers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, world-wide geographical exploration led to an exploration of the self. Guthke explains how in the age of Enlightenment and beyond intellectual developments were fuelled by excitement about what Ulrich Im Hof called ""the grand opening-up of the wide world?, especially of the interior of the non-European continents. This outward turn was complemented by a fascination with ""the world within? as anthropology and ethnology focused on the humanity of the indigenous populations of far-away lands ? an interest in human nature that suggested a way for Europeans to understand themselves, encapsulated in Gauguin?s Tahitian rumination ""What are we?? The essays in the first half of the book discuss first- or second-hand, physical or mental encounters with the exotic lands and populations beyond the supposed cradle of civilisation. The works of literature and documents of cultural life featured in these essays bear testimony to the crossing not only of geographical, ethnological, and cultural borders but also of borders of a variety of intellectual activities and interests. The second section examines the growing interest in astronomy and the engagement with imagined worlds in the universe, again with a view to understanding homo sapiens, as compared now to the extra-terrestrials that were confidently assumed to exist. The final group of essays focuses on the exploration of the landscape of what was called ""the universe within?; featuring, among a variety of other texts, Schiller?s plays The Maid of Orleans and William Tell, these essays observe and analyse what Erich Heller termed ""The Artist?s Journey into the Interior.? This collection, which travels from the interior of continents to the interior of the mind, is itself a set of explorations that revel in the discovery of what was half-hidden in language. Written by a scholar of international repute, it is eye-opening reading for all those with an interest in the literary and cultural history of (and since) the Enlightenment."