Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Dichtung und Wahrheit: Aus meinem Leben [Poetry and Truth: From My Life]

Ellis Dye (Macalester College)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1811 - 1833

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

Goethe’s Dichtung und Wahrheit: Aus meinem Leben, which covers the first twenty-five years of his life, ranks among the greatest of autobiographies. His purpose in writing it was is to sketch the personal background of his writings and to exhibit a continuity of personal identity that the fragmentary and occasional nature of his published works might otherwise lead the reader to doubt. The title Dichtung und Wahrheit, a coincidentia oppositorum or coincidence of opposites, is only imperfectly translated as “Poetry and Truth”. It confesses that every self-portrait imposes a false coherence on the jumble of history and is inevitably a “Fiktion”, although …

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2542 words

Citation: Dye, Ellis. "Dichtung und Wahrheit: Aus meinem Leben". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 July 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5651, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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