Emerson, Modern Literature, and the Question of Goethe

Abstract

Emerson’s publication of “Thoughts on Modern Literature” in the newly established Dial is of particular importance because of his treatment of Goethe, whose life and work were at the center of a critical dispute that was crucial to the emergence of Transcendentalism. The importance of the essay is magnified when we remember Margaret Fuller’s advocacy of Goethe as a modern master, a project that she undertook in the face of heavy moralistic criticism from the New England intellectual establishment. In an interpretation that seconded the New England resistance to Goethe in an unexpected and singular way, Emerson argued that Goethe had failed, despite his vast accomplishment, to uphold what Emerson regarded as the crucial element of “hope” in the human character. Emerson’s indictment of Goethe’s “Olympian self-complacency” suggested the direction of his evolving thinking on ethics and political engagement over the next two decades.