Introduction: the literary topos from Winckelmann and Goethe to Mann
摘要
In 1795, Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s poem Mignon offered a celebratory trib-ute to Italy, positioning Italy as an idyll in the German imagination. The blü-hende Zitronen and glühende Goldorangen came to represent the German Sehnsucht for a warmer, freer, more fertile place full of promise and hope. Goethe’s poem has become so representative that to reference his imagery of the blooming, blossoming citrus is to engage with the German imagination of Italy more broadly.