Time and the modern self
a change in dramatic form
pp. 470-478
in: Fraser, Francis C. Haber, Gert H. Müller (eds), The study of time, Berlin, Springer, 1972Abstract
In a well-known paragraph of his Wilhelm Meister, Goethe uses a metaphor characterizing the achievement of Shakespeare. A crystal world-clock, demonstrating the passage of time — that is the simile; a comparison, the origin of which can be traced back and forth in German as well as in some other European literature. A crystal world-clock: This reminds us what great impact classical science has had on distinguished minds of literature in earlier ages, and further, how such an ingenious remark can get worn down to a commonplace and truism through constant use. But even in its frozen and almost empty form it has a deep message. For it is quite conspicuous in the history of letters that time comes into every relevant definition of dramatic form. Aristotle and, even more, his followers formulated their definitions of tragedy in a framework of time and space. The question is not whether any unity of space and time was postulated, as in French classicism. The distinguishing quality of all definitions of tragedy is the reference to time. We may therefore rightly state that it is possible to enumerate some valid definitions of lyric and epic poetry that simply leave out the time aspect, whereas there is no definition of dramatic art which refrains from making a reference to time. The study of the famous Goethe-Schiller correspondence clearly shows us that the time aspect of epic poetry emerges only in an opposite position to that of tragedy.
