Classicism and its Discontents: Goethe and Kleist

Catalog description

This course explores German Classicism through the productive conflict between Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich von Kleist. Reading major works by these authors, students examine ideals of harmony, form, and moral education, and the ways Kleist exposes their fractures through violence, contingency, and excess. We situate both authors within debates on Enlightenment reason, aesthetics, politics, and subjectivity, tracing how classical norms are asserted, strained, and undone. Close reading, historical context, and comparative analysis guide discussions of drama, prose, and poetry, revealing Classicism not as consensus, but as a contested field whose tensions shaped modern literature and cultural thought broadly. (in German)