From Gottsched to Goethe: Changes in the Social Function of the Poet and Poetry

A study beginning with the formative influence of Lutheranism, as interpreted by Thomasius and Wolff, upon German society. The ethical and aesthetic motivation of the poet, accordingly, was to instruct the average reader in a moral structuring of his life. Literature, quite willingly, held to these constraints. However, a growing awareness of the aesthetic dimensions of literature began almost immediately in the objections of Bodmer & Breitinger to Gottsched’s first formulations. Klopstock and Lessing marked the final overcoming of the tenets of the Enlightenment. Hamann and Herder provided the theoretical basis of a new aesthetic revolution, but the culminating accomplishment was provided by the literary example of Goethe. With Goethe, Germany had captured the impetus of world literature.