Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto, 50 St. Joseph Street, 3rd Floor, Odette Hall, Toronto, ON, M5S 3L5, Canada.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2021 Jan 19;43(1):9. doi: 10.1007/s40656-020-00358-3.
Goethe's studies of natural form have occupied generations of scholars and the discussion on the relationship between Goethe's thought and evolutionary theory has never ceased since Haeckel's claims in the late nineteenth century. In scholarship which has aimed to address the question of change in Goethe's concept of nature, the focus has been primarily on his scientific writings. Aiming for a comprehensive understanding of Goethe's thought on reproduction, this article sets out to contribute to the ongoing debate by focusing on his literary text The New Melusine, a story centred on a dwarf figure. Examining texts by naturalists such as Buffon, Humboldt, and Darwin, the article demonstrates how Goethe, in the speculative framework of a literary text, explores patterns of transformation by means of sexual reproduction which did not make it into his better known scientific writings on plant morphology and comparative anatomy. I argue that the Melusine story becomes for Goethe a space to consider a new understanding of reproduction, its transformative power, and biopolitical possibilities, while at the same time providing an opportunity to reflect critically on its consequences for the individual.
歌德对自然形态的研究吸引了几代学者的关注，自 19 世纪后期海克尔提出以来，关于歌德思想与进化理论之间关系的讨论从未停止过。在旨在探讨歌德自然观变化问题的学术研究中，重点主要放在他的科学著作上。本文旨在通过关注他的文学作品《新美洛西亚》来为正在进行的争论做出贡献，这是一个以小矮人形象为中心的故事。本文通过考察布丰、洪堡和达尔文等自然主义者的文本，展示了歌德如何在文学文本的推测框架内，通过有性繁殖来探索转化模式，这些模式没有出现在他更著名的关于植物形态学和比较解剖学的科学著作中。我认为，对于歌德来说，美洛西亚的故事成为了一个思考新的生殖观念、其变革力量和生物政治可能性的空间，同时也为批判性地反思其对个人的影响提供了机会。
