Goethe, Le 'Globe' and European romanticism

This essay discusses the influence of the French literary periodical Le Globe on Goethe. Heinz Hamm proved in his seminal study Goethe und die franzosische Zeitschrift "Le Globe" (1998) convincingly that the author's knowledge of contemporary European literature was much more indebted to Le Globe than hitherto estimated: between 1826 and 183 1, Goethe read almost 300 articles and reviews, many of which he copied and commented upon. The Weimar poet may be said to have developed his concept of "Weltliteratur" based on Le Globe's critical survey of contemporary European literature. Following Hamm's line of argument, I will attempt to show in how far Goethe gradually replaced his static typology "Classicism vs. Romanticism" with a more dynamic one, historicizing and de-nationalizing his view of Romanticism. In this perspective, the Globe-reading Goethe emerges simultaneously as a German Classicist and a European Romanticist.