Goethe and translation: the construction of identity in the dynamics of difference

Abstract

Between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century were developed in Germany the bases of many central ideas concerning theoretical aspects of translations still in discussion nowadays. In this context, the contribuition of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) about translation preserves its relevancy and actuality, since it lays its foundations, one the one side, on the experience of mediations, which are vital to the individual's formation (a notion associated to the concept of Bildung), and - on the other side - on the active coexistence of literatures, as expressed by the concept of Weltliteratur.