The Goethe Project 2021

https://thegoetheproject2021.com/




Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 –1832) is one of the most important and influential German writers and thinkers. Most famous for his tragedy Faust, he produced a vast and varied body of fiction, autobiography, poetry, and scientific literature. Goethe heavily influenced Romanticism both in Germany and in the Anglophone world. His work synthesizes a vast array of different forms of knowledge (poetics, philosophy, history, natural science, etc.), and stands as a model for what we would now call interdisciplinarity. The Goethe Project 2021 seeks to increase the exposure of Anglophone audiences to the full scope of the author’s writing. We have broken down the vast majority of his translated works into a year-long schedule, and throughout the year we will produce videos and blog posts and host regular public discussions with relevant experts on German literature and culture.



The edition we will be using is the Collected Works, published by Princeton University Press between 1983 and 1995. However, we will also provide some information about other available translations when they exist.









We are Del A. Maticic and Ben Nikota, doctoral candidates in Classics at New York University. Though most of our work focuses on Greco-Roman antiquity, we are both interested in the arc of European literature from antiquity to modernity, and in German literature especially. We are both proficient in German and intend to use The Goethe Project 2021 as an opportunity to learn more about Goethe and his times in a community of fellow readers.