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The question of coherence in Goethe's novels, which, like Faust, compelled his attention throughout his creative life, has only recently occupied a few critics. Professor Muenzer's study offers the most comprehensive effort of this kind by examining the problematic nature of self-definition through the four novels and its emergence as a discursive process of the imagination.The self of these texts, Muenzer suggests, evolves as a symbolic construct that records a patter of pursuit for each of their protagonists and orients the reader toward three basic goals of human aspiration. Thus, Werther aspires to purposefulness as a center of teleological fulfillment, while the hero of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship refers to an ideological center of participation in his social desire. Eduard, in The Elective Affinities, presumes to occupy a center of archaeological power through his typically self-assertive strategies.In the last of his novels, Wilhelm Meister's Journeymanship, Goethe articulates the need to balance all such self-involved behavior with an attitude of self-denial. Apparently, the mind can orient itself through centers of purpose, order, and power, but it must also recognize the illusion of their attainment. Identity does not involve a substantive presence, and the result of self-definition for Goethe is interpretive work.Each of Professor Muenzer's interpretations has been guided by this premise. The interests of all of Goethe's novelistic protagonists, he concludes, ";serve as orienting postures toward goals that cannot be literally achieved."; Consequently, symbolic resolutions are proposed. These then introduce new problems as points of departure in subsequent works. The hidden agenda of Goethe's work as a novelist is a self that exists as a textual problem, a series of interpretive moves that endlessly defer the attainment of self presence by supplementing each other in narrative fictions.

Self-realization in literature. --- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, --- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang --- Goethe --- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von --- Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang --- von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang --- Hete, Johann Vol'fhanh --- Gete, Iogann Vol'fgang --- ゲーテ --- Gete, Volʹfgang --- Ko-tê --- Gede --- Gete, Jogann --- Gette --- Gʹote, Ĭokhan Volʹfgang --- Jūtah, Yūhān Fūlfjānj --- Goethe, J. W. --- Jītī --- Gete, V. --- Koetʻe --- Goetʻe --- Getė, --- Gkaite --- Gitah, Y. Ṿ. --- Goethe, Jan Wolfgan, --- Gëte, Iogann Volʹfgang --- Göte --- Gyoete --- Goethe, W. v. --- Fon-Geteh, Ṿ. --- Geteh, Yohan Ṿolfgang Fon --- -Giteh, Yohan Ṿolfgang Fon --- -Gete, Johan Volfgang --- Hete, Ĭ. V. --- Kēōtʻē, Volfkank --- Katē --- Katē, Yōkān̲ Vulpkēṅk Vān̲ --- Гете, Иоганн Вольфганг --- Qöte, Y. V. --- Qöte, Yohan Volfqanq --- גטה --- גטה, יוהאן וולפגנג פון, --- גטה, י.ו --- גיתה --- גיתה, יוהאן וולפאנג פון --- גיתה, יוהאן וולפגנג פון, --- גיתה, יוהן וולפגאנג וון, --- גיתה, יוהן וולפגנג פון, --- גיתה, יוהן וולפגנג, --- געטהע --- געטהע, יאהאן וואלפגאנג --- געטהע, יאהאן וואלפגאנג פון, --- געטהע, יאהאן װאלפגאנג, --- געטהע, י. וו --- געטהע, י. וו. פאן --- געטהע, י. װ., --- געטהע, י.װ --- געטע, װ.פ --- גתה, וו --- גתה, יוהן וולפגאנג ון, --- גתה, יוהן וולפגנג --- י. וו. געטהע --- جوته --- گوته، يوهان ولفگانگ ون --- 歌德, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- ゲエテ