Goethe’s Chinesisch-deutsche Jahres- und Tageszeiten: Vernacular Universal, Erotica Sinica, and the Temporality of Nachträglichkeit

Abstract

This chapter analyzes Goethe’s famous poem cycle Chinesisch-deutsche Jahres– und Tageszeiten (1829). Poems I–VIII are connected to clichéd sensual and extravagant garden scenes in the fashion of European chinoiserie, as described in Jean-Denis Attiret’s letter and William Chambers’ Dissertation on Oriental Gardening. Poems IX–XIV, which this chapter reads through the lens of the Freudian term Nachträglichkeit, encompass reflections on lost love that confirm the notion of sensual and spiritual love beyond time and space, beyond cultural and linguistic boundaries. Inspired by the English translations of a Chinese popular love story and women’s poems in the early nineteenth century, Goethe’s poem cycle connects Chinese and German sentimentality to demonstrate and eulogize a vernacular universal of our shared humanity.

This chapter has benefited from discussions with Daniel Purdy, Ann Marie Rasmussen, and John Zilcosky. I dedicate this piece to the memorable conversations with Ann Marie, Lucia, Gabi, Max, Sven, Stephan, and Karin in Berlin’s summer of 2015.