Hersilie and Her Sisters: Subversive Feminine Figures in Goethe’s Work
Abstract
Goethe’s works are replete with female characters. In this article I concentrate on some of the women who appear in Wilhelm Meister throughout his travels in order to situate the subversion that women embody in Goethe’s narrative. I will argue that these female characters act as a counterpoint to what is expressed in the narrative framework. Goethe’s text is made up of subtexts and diverse units, and is filled with a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. By paying attention precisely to the relationships that are established between the texts and the voices I will show that the female characters are essential to the complex configuration of the system of oppositions and the multiplicity of levels in the novel. I conclude with a few reflections on the utopian projection of women.
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