Sprachskepsis Und Poetologie

In his late novels, Goethe formulates a profound critique of language and thus challenges his own capacity to represent. Goethea (TM)s fundamental scepticism about language derives from an irresolvable ambiguity of words coupled with limitations on their expressiveness; in the case of Elective Affinities and Journeyman Years this leads to the conception of an open work of art. Using detailed textual analysis, Christian MittermA1/4ller reconstructs a hitherto scarcely recognised connection between scepticism about language and poetic theory, and in so doing opens up a new avenue for approaching Goethea (TM)s late works.