Part 11: Sections 61-63 Summary and Analysis

In Section 61: The Heroic Self, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) found his place among the great creators of Western literature for giving enduring form to the spirit of the Medieval legend of Dr. Faustus in "Faust" which he wrote off and on from 1770 until his death in 1832. He transformed Dr. Faust into a hero on a quest for fulfillment as a metaphor for the "infinitely aspiring always dissatisfied modern self" (p. 605).

Section 62: Songs of the Self investigates how "Lyrical Ballads" (1801) by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) announced a revolution in poetry by declaring independence from the stilted conventions of poetic language by focusing on making a new expressive view of poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) also contributed to the collection; though the men were different in mind and temperament, they were such intimate collaborators that there is no way...