Fragwürdige Benennung. Der Anfangssatz von Goethes Roman 'Die Wahlverwandtschaften'

Für Davide de Camilli zum 70. Geburtstag

Résumé

The first sentence of Goethe's 'Elective Affinities' poses many questions: Who is meant by the personal pronoun 'we' that calls a young baron Eduard? And are we to rely on that unusual literary naming procedure that intentionally destroys all fictional illusions? Further on in the novel we are informed that it is actually not a mysterious 'we', but rather that the wealthy baron himself, whose 'real' name was Otto, had chosen this name. This essay tries to elucidate the motives and intentions underlying Goethe's ambiguous and capricious game which he plays with the reader's expectations.