delit1-5, Exercise 1: Weimar Classicism

Model answer (check the details):

Ideals: harmony of form and content, clarity and balance, models from ancient Greece, and the idea of Bildung, the shaping of the whole person. Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris and Schiller's later plays are typical examples.

Reaction to Sturm und Drang: the young Goethe and Schiller had written in a rebellious, passionate style (Werther, Die Raeuber). Around the time of Goethe's Italian journey (1786 to 1788) they turned to restraint and order, without giving up the idea of freedom. They also kept a distance from pure Enlightenment rationalism.

Caution: Weimar Classicism is a later critics' label for roughly 1786 to 1805, and not all of their work fits it. Goethe's late work, including Faust Part Two, goes well beyond it.