Guardians of a Monument: Gundolf, Petersen, Spranger, and a Modern Theoretical Frame

"Chapter One presents the histories of this project. Chapter Two illustrates the role of biographical, professional, and socio-political contexts in works of interpretation with examples from the lives, work, and times of Gundolf, Petersen, and Spranger. Chapter Three argues that rhetoric constitutes theory by illustrating how the theoretical resistance to other interpretations of Goethe's work by these three scholars is complemented by the use of similar rhetorical constructs. Chapter Four presents the structure of their epistemic models in a larger genealogy of thinkers (Plato, Dilthey, Hegel) who oppose opinion with truth. Chapter Five discusses the theoretical and socio-political implications of Gundolf's, Petersen's, and Spranger's epistemic models in relation to two modern strategies of reading which place agency respectively in the text and in the interpretive community: H. G. Haile's unpublished talk, ""Beans With Bacon"" (1992) and Northrop Frye's The Critical Path (1971); Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1969; 1972) and Stanley Fish's Is There a Text in this Class? (1980). As it contrasts and de/values two epistemic models, this chapter makes transparent the theoretical framework of this dissertation by advocating an approach to the text that focuses on how and why individuals and groups historically and presently situate themselves to texts."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Germanic Languages and Literatures

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Gregory-Moores, Colin

Contributors dc:contributor

• McGlathery, James M.

• Biography

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9717278

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86347