Goethe; The Poet and the Age

Part 1 Germany in the 18th century: the age of Goethe? princes, pietists and professors the literary context to 1770. Part 2 Origins of a poet: Frankfurt and the Goethes more chatterbox than substance - 1749-1765 a burnt-out case? - 1765-1770 first writings. Part 3 Prometheus unbound (1770-1775): the awakening - 1770-1771 life and literature - works, 1770-1771 between Sentimentalism and Storm and Stress - 1772-1774 detonating the bomb - works, 1772-1774 the Messiah and his nation - 1774-1775 innocent guilt - works, 1774-1775. Part 4 Displacement: Weimar in 1775 why Goethe stayed the minister Frau von Stein literary difficulties of a statesman. Part 5 Court favourite (1775-1780): confidence and indeterminacy - 1775-1777 works, 1775-1777 tragedy and symbolism - 1777-1780 works, 1777-1780. Part 6 The Baron (1780-1786): between society and nature - 1780-1784 works, 1780-1784 thought I was dead - 1785-1786 works, 1785-1786. Part 7 To Italy at last (1786-1788): the road to Rome quite as much toil as enjoyment - October 1786-February 1787 a glimpse of fulfilment - Iphigenia and Forest Cavern uneasy paradise the gardens of Alcinous in the high school of art - 1787-1788 the great soul - works, 1787-1788. Part 8 The watershed: Old and new faces - June-December 1788 Rome in Weimar - December 1788-May 1789 am a different man - June-December 1789 Summa Summarum - the edition completed farewell to Italy - January-June 1790.