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Interesting fact about Goethe: as The Sorrows of Young Werther became widely popular it inspired surge in suicides among young men. Suicide became a fashion in
by michalu 7y ago
Interesting fact about Goethe: as The Sorrows of Young Werther became widely popular it inspired surge in suicides among young men. Suicide became a fashion in those days.
This is called The Werther Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide
If you read 17th - 19th you may sometime come across suicide being referred to as in/out of fashion. Apparently it had cycles.
- jackfoxy 7y agoI was introduced to Werther too early in my German literature studies, which turned me off to Goethe. Big mistake. Foreign students of German literature should read all the Goethe they can get their hands on.
- aleksaxyz 7y agoI read a lot of Nietzsche, who raves about Goethe as a representative of the latter half of N's Dionysian/Apollonian dichotomy—and in later works becomes the symbol of synthesis between the two. Similar to you, I kind of ignored N's great characterization of Goethe due to Werther, but only because I thought Goethe was a one-hit wonder pop-philosopher novelist when I first started hearing the name. I was honestly confused about how Werther could represent so much of N's philosophy! And then I read about its author and found one of the most accomplished individuals in the 18th/19th centuries.
- cafard 7y agoIt did not impressive everyone. See https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/sorrows-werther https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/sorrows-werther .