The Hamlet Project in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Years of Apprenticeship

Authors

  • Thomas Kullmann University of Osnabrück

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/mstap-2017-0011

Keywords:

German theatre, French theatre, eighteenth century, Goethe, Hamlet, adaptation, society, aristocracy, middle class, bourgeois habitus, cultural capital, education, Globe-to-Globe Hamlet

Abstract

Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, published in 1795, provides a fictional account of a theatrical production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Its initiator is young Wilhelm, whose experiences with this project, in the context of the novel, mark a decisive stage in his education and personal development; as well as, on another level, in the formation of a German national theatre, the mapping out of a theatrical space peculiar to the German national character. To realize his project Wilhelm has to negotiate with his manager and his fellow-actors; these negotiations can be considered reflections of the cultural aspirations and constraints prevalent late 18th-century Germany:
– The project itself, as represented by Wilhelm, appears to be informed by a cultural movement towards emancipation from French culture: The character of Hamlet was interpreted as representing a role model for young Germans.
– Informed by a theatrical practice based on French conventions, the manager objects to the lack of dramaturgical coherence of the Shakespeare play. As a compromise, Wilhelm composes an adapted version in which references to Wittenberg, Poland, France and England as well as several minor characters are cut, but the Hamlet scenes and speeches are retained.
– Wilhelm and his friends also take account of German audiences’ preferences and capacities.
The Hamlet project in Wilhelm Meister can be considered a case study of cultural appropriation. Shakespeare becomes a cultural import, used to define and map a cultural space for the German middle class, which in the nineteenth century set store by the quality of its educational make-up.

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Author Biography

Thomas Kullmann, University of Osnabrück

Thomas Kullmann is Professor of English Literature at the University of Osnabrück. Currently, his main research interests are Shakespeare and Renaissance Culture; English Children’s Fiction and Images of India in 19th-century Britain. His publications include two books on Shakespeare, “Abschied, Reise und Wiedersehen bei Shakespeare” (Parting, Travelling and Reunion in Shakespeare), and “William Shakespeare: Eine Einführung” (An Introduction to Shakespeare). He also published a monograph on landscape and weather in the nineteenth-century English novel and an introduction to English children’s and young adults’ fiction as well as numerous articles on English Renaissance Literature, Victorian and twentieth-century literaturę and culture, and children’s literature.

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Published

2017-06-30

How to Cite

Kullmann, T. (2017). The Hamlet Project in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Years of Apprenticeship. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 15(30), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.1515/mstap-2017-0011

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