ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with Goethe's well-known claim for Die naturliche Tochter, in which he relates the play both to the Aiemoires historiques de Stephanie-Louise de Bourbon-Conti, ecrits par elle-meme and to the French Revolution. Die naturliche Tochter is intercultural on both fronts: its genesis and its import. In a conversation with Eckermann on 4 January 1824, Goethe outlined his attitude towards the Revolution then and now, and widened it to include his view of revolution in general. The salient features of Goethe's antipathy towards the French Revolution are clear enough here: he mentions the horrors perpetrated in the name of the Revolution, and his fear that it might spill over into Germany. Goethe's reticence to express his views on the French Revolution in his conversations, letters and diaries is in striking contrast to his extensive, and extended, attempts to come to terms with it in his literary works.
