Goethe's 'Reineke Fuchs' is commonly regarded as a work of classical serenity, and although this view accords with Goethe's later reflections on 'Reineke Fuchs', it fails to recognize the concrete textual differences that set Goethe's epic apart from his models and which were conceived as a provocation. This essay outlines how Goethe's numerous changes transform Gottsched's 'Reineke der Fuchs' into a subversive response not only to the tradition of Reynard the Fox, but also to debates about the significance of rhetoric and the function of figurative language in eighteenth-century German literature. - [Abstract]

Language: ENglish

Locators: DOI: 10.1179/174962807X165662