The period between 1750 and 1850 was a time when knowledge and its modes of transmission were reconsidered and reworked in fundamental ways. Social and political transformations, such as the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, went hand in hand with in new ways of viewing, sensing, and experiencing what was perceived to be a rapidly changing world. This volume brings together a range of essays that explore the performance of knowledge in the period from 1750 to 1850, in the broadest possible sense. The essays explore a wide variety of literary, theatrical, and scientific events staged during this period, including scientific demonstrations, philosophical lectures, theatrical performances, stage design, botany primers, musical publications, staged Schiller memorials, acoustic performances, and literary declamations. These events served as vital conduits for the larger process of generating, differentiating, and circulating knowledge. By unpacking the significance of performance and performativity for the creation and circulation of knowledge in Germany during this period, the volume makes an important contribution to interdisciplinary German cultural studies, performance studies, and the history of knowledge.

Groundbreaking essays highlighting Goethe's relevance to contemporary theoretical debates and Goethe criticism of recent decades. The Goethe Yearbook, first published in 1982, is a publication of the Goethe Society of North America and is dedicated to North American Goethe Scholarship. It aims above all to encourage and publish original English-language contributions to the understanding of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit, while also welcoming contributions from scholars around the world. Goethe Yearbook 16 presents innovative interpretations by young scholars of Goethe's most prominent works. A special section on 20th-century theory, co-edited by Angus Nicholls, demonstrates the poet's importance within areas of contemporary debate such as postcolonial criticism and Heideggerian phenomenology. The volume includes Judith Ryan's 2007 Presidential Address to the Goethe Society on the aphorisms in Die Wahlverwandtschaften and the Wanderjahre, as well as essays on aspects of Hermann und Dorothea, Iphigenie, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, and Prometheus. Readers will also find a surprising interpretation of Schiller on subjectivity and military strategy, and a feminist archival history of the Hamburg actress Charlotte Ackermann. Contributors: Volker C. Doerr, Mary Helen Dupree, Ellis Dye, Bernd Hamacher, Katrin Kohl, Michael Mandelartz, Jan Mieszkowski, Angus Nicholls, Charlton Payne, Mattias Pirholt, Myriam Richter, Judith Ryan, and Christian Weber. Daniel Purdy is Associate Professor of German at Pennsylvania State University. Book review editor Catriona MacLeod is Associate Professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania.