1st Student's Major
World Languages and Cultures
1st Student's College
Arts and Humanities
Students' Professional Biography
Anthony Magestro (MNSU '15) is a freelance writer and project manager. Having graduated with a Bachelor's degree in German, he intends to pursue future professional and educational goals in the studies of linguistics and social philosophy. He also owns his own web domain "Start 2 Continue," which focuses on the video game industry, namely independent developers, consumer and business ethics, and games as art and other cultural works.
Mentor's Name
Dr. Nadja Krämer
Mentor's Email Address
nadja.kramer@mnsu.edu
Mentor's Department
World Languages and Cultures
Mentor's College
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
This project examines Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774) and his early poetry and their influence on the German literary movement of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress, 1770-1785). As a reaction to the rise of rationalism, Goethe’s texts embody the value of raw, subjective emotion versus logical, objective understanding of the preceding Enlightenment period. Through his literature, Goethe challenges the status quo of absolute rule of church and state as well as humanity’s relationship with God: are we bound to the laws of the Almighty’s design or are we, in turn, creators of our own reality?
Recommended Citation
Magestro, Anthony D.
(2015)
"Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus! Goethe and the Quest for Individual Sovereignty,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 15, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2378-6949.1194
Available at:
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol15/iss1/7
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.